Yesterday's launch of the National Productivity Centre (NPC) at the Irish Management Institute (IMI) campus in Dublin marks something of a personal milestone for Microsoft Ireland boss Joe Macri.
Microsoft and the IMI are investing €2 million in the centre, which will advocate how technology, management capability and innovation can be combined to increase the productivity of large Irish firms and Government departments.
For Macri and Microsoft, productivity has become a major priority, not only for the US multinational itself but also for Ireland Inc.
In 2005, Microsoft engaged economist Paul Tansey to write a report which examined how productivity in the Irish economy, measured by real gross domestic product (GDP) per person at work, had risen 87 per cent between 1985 and 2005. The report also examined the challenges to sustaining those levels of growth.
Tom McCarthy, chief executive of the IMI, who along with Macri has personally committed his time to give presentations to participating organisations, says the nature of productivity has changed fundamentally in the last 20 years.
"Productivity has a history in many countries of being associated with having less workers. Now the concern is how to get more output with the same number of workers," he said.
According to Macri, the views of Tansey's study were validated the following year by a National Competitiveness Council report. It moved the debate on by proposing potential solutions to these challenges.
Macri says this report prompted him to consider what practical steps could be taken, which led to the collaboration with the IMI, and then to the establishment of the National Productivity Centre (NPC).
Based in a refurbished building on the IMI campus, the NPC will take in senior management from the public and private sectors for a deep dive into the potential benefits of productivity.
Macri concedes that the opening of the NPC has taken longer than anticipated. He says this was primarily due to the "huge task" involved in assembling a body of audiovisual content focusing on best practice in the field, and also some planning delays with the redevelopment of the building.
The centre's curriculum will initially be for five industry groups: manufacturing; financial services; retail/hospitality; general commercial; and the public sector.
Senior managers and civil servants will be invited to attend 90-minute sessions in a custom-built boardroom.
The centre's facilities will also be made available to the organisations before and after the meeting for management meetings or any other business they may wish to combine with the session.
Macri says the sessions are "not a sales pitch for Microsoft" and not a single Microsoft product is named in any of the briefing materials.
Since the initial announcement, other technology and telecoms providers have signed up to support the NPC, including Dell, Eircom, Fujitsu Siemens and HP.
A key tenet of the centre's philosophy is that productivity can only be enhanced through a co-ordinated approach.
Recent research from management consultants McKinsey and the London School of Economics found that investment in technology can yield a 2 per cent increase in a firm's productivity, while investment in management capabilities can yield up to 8 per cent.
However, the two combined can yield improvements of up to 20 per cent.
"In the last 15 years we have doubled the number of people at work in Ireland, but now the global talent market is very tight," says McCarthy.
"The only way Ireland can get the same output increase in the next 15 years is through a four-fold improvement in management practice."
