President’s Blog – London Lookahead
Hello Members,
I trust you enjoyed the good weather over the Easter Break and those of you fortunate to have had time off have returned to work refreshed and eager to plan the next few months ahead. Lookahead planning in business is a critical decision function for all firms. All Sligo Chamber member firms would have an awareness of the need for lookahead planning. When implemented correctly and decisively, lookahead planning improves the success rate of completing the tasks assigned in weekly and daily plans, reduces uncertainty and maximises outputs.
The Sligo Chamber Team is no different from any of its member firms in understanding the need for lookahead planning and in actioning critical decision functions. Every Friday morning, the Chamber Team, CEO Aidan, Events Manager Mary, Skillnet Manager Geraldine and myself as President meet at 8.30 am for 45 minutes. Working out from a base agenda of set items, the Team is always flexible and ready to respond in an agile way to change and items of topical interest as they arise. Activities that cannot be achieved are screened out. Critical decisions are made and a lookahead planning is arrived at for the week ahead.
It is against the background of lookahead planning that I would like to share with you how the week ahead will shape up for the Sligo Chamber Team. For this is no ordinary week. The next five days will be full on for the Chamber Team and for me as President. Let us take a look and see.
Starting at lunchtime on Monday, the Chamber Industrial Group led by David Kiely will hold their monthly meeting. At their February meeting we heard a presentation from David Minton, Director for Northern and Western Regional Assembly. For our April meeting we welcome Ciaran Hayes, CE of Sligo County Council. Two priority focus items for the Industrial Group in their overall objective to support the needs of businesses are infrastructure and residential housing. And it is these two topics that Ciaran Hayes is expected to address in his presentation to the Group. The provision of adequate housing in Sligo is essential to support the 1,700 jobs announced for the region over the past year and also to support additional new jobs forecast for Sligo in the years ahead.
Onto Tuesday morning where we will hold our monthly Council Meeting starting at 8.00am sharp. The agenda will cover tourism, communications and an update from the Industrial Group on their meeting with Ciaran Hayes. Later that day, myself and the Chamber Team will travel to London for two days meetings and engagements with the Sligo/London Business Network. The visit is centred around a Business Network Event, the theme of which is how Sligo Chamber is delivering for business and to expand on our vision where Sligo will be the central hub of a region that is fully sustainable and where our children can live, work and thrive in a safe environment, an environment that is community led and offers real quality of life.
Returning to Sligo on Thursday night, we are not done yet for the week as on Friday, myself and CEO Aidan will attend a morning briefing in the Sligo Park Hotel by David Minton, Director of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. It is expected that David will be outlining the content of the Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy for the Northern and Western Region which their Executive has been working towards finalising in recent weeks.
And of course, somewhere along the way on the Friday, the Chamber Team and myself will find the time to meet to consider the following week and exercise our lookahead planning.
Until next time.
Life is for Living – #Life is Sligo.
Conor McCarthy
President Sligo Chamber