(l to r ) above, Eamonn Kelly, CEO, Clare County Enterprise Board, Eoin Tynan O'Mahony, Regional Manager, Plato Midwest & John O'Connell, MD Connor Winfield, Shannon, Plato member. Connor Winfield design & manufacture machine-to-machine communication products and systems amongst other electronic products. They also provide manufacturing services to Irish companies.
I have been a member of Plato Midwest for almost two years now. As a small business owner, I have found the confidential and collaborative nature of Plato to be invaluable as much of my time is spent alone in my office working away as well as planning a way forward for my business, like countless other Owner Managers.
This can be isloating to say the least and while networking etc is brilliant and necessary to do, you dont go along to a networking event to solve your business issues whatever they may be.
What makes Plato unique is the involvement of the multinationals in a mentoring role.
A group of us meets every month for a few hours and we each put our issues on the table for discussion. Our two Group Leaders, both from multinational organisations and excellent in terms of experience and business knowledge, work through these with us with input from the other members. Sometimes a solution is found, sometimes it is not. It's not perfect by any means and the success of the Group is very much down to how people work together, but nine times out of ten, you go away with at least and approach to solving your problem if not a complete solution.
A group of us meets every month for a few hours and we each put our issues on the table for discussion. Our two Group Leaders, both from multinational organisations and excellent in terms of experience and business knowledge, work through these with us with input from the other members. Sometimes a solution is found, sometimes it is not. It's not perfect by any means and the success of the Group is very much down to how people work together, but nine times out of ten, you go away with at least and approach to solving your problem if not a complete solution.
To me this has been very helpful and I dont know of another forum like it.
In a recent survey of member by the Plato organisers, 91% of them reported that participation in Plato had given them more confidence in running their businesses, indeed 41% of them expanded their businesses and took on new employees with 30% reporting an increase in turnover.
Plato runs a Core Programme and an Advanced Programme and has just launched their Advanced Programme for 2012. A free Information Evening to outline details followed by networking and refreshments will be held on Thursday evening, the 9th of February, at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ennis Road, Limerick from 6.00 to 7.30pm. If you would like to go along, contact Eoin Tynan O'Mahony , eoin@platomidwest.ie or mob 086 303 5664, Eoin is the Manager of Plato Midwest.
I just wanted to share this experience with you, should you wish to know more about Plato, you can go to . http://www.plato.ie/ and if you want to ask me more about it, you can post a comment or email me at niamh@quinncommunications.ie.
