’Tis the season for flashing lights, ringing bells and non-stop twinkly music. But if Belfast gave these traditional Christmas characteristics a home 12 months of the year, could it create 200 jobs and land an £18 million (€22.6m) investment project for the city?
According to one former Northern Ireland minister there has never been a better time for Belfast to take a gamble on becoming home to the first casino in the North.
But Richard Needham, who is also a former British minister of trade and who spent seven years as a Northern Ireland minister during one of the worst periods of the Troubles, would be inclined to say that.
Needham is a non-executive director of the Rank Group, one of Europe's biggest gaming businesses, and the organisation behind the proposal to develop a multimillion pound entertainment complex, including a casino, in Belfast.
Casinos are illegal in Northern Ireland but new legislation relating to gambling laws is scheduled to be presented to the local Assembly next year.
Needham says the proposed entertainment complex could deliver up to £3 million in new tax revenue for the city council.
Not a fan
The North’s Social Development Minister, Nelson McCausland, has made no secret of the fact he is not a fan of the casino proposal. But Needham says it is an opportunity that should not be automatically dismissed just because it might not fit “the religious views of some people in Northern Ireland”.
Although he has not been actively involved in local politics for 22 years, Needham has retained close ties with many businesses and organisations in the North. He is widely credited with helping nurture the vision that created the city of Belfast as it is today and was responsible for promoting numerous regeneration projects which attracted vital investment and delivered jobs.
He is openly frustrated with the political deadlock in the North – he’s a man who always wants to get things done, and done quickly. But he believes there has been great progress in the last 22 years and Belfast has never looked better.
“I am over the moon every time I go there, I am thrilled with it,” he says disarmingly.
He actively campaigned for the Rank Group to consider Northern Ireland as a location for its latest casino project, not for his own material benefit he says, but simply because he wants the investment to go to the city. But he has warned the project could just as easily be in Bristol or Dublin if it does not go ahead in the North.
Needham, who is a successful entrepreneur in his own right – he bought a sign business when he was 23 and grew it into a printing, packaging and design company – believes “calculated risks” often deliver the best results. It’s a theory he was happy to share with more than 800 senior Irish executives in Dublin recently.
Success is no accident
Needham, who took part in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest annual business forum in Dublin, said success – whether in life, in business or in politics – is not an accident.
Since leaving politics he has been involved in many businesses, including Dyson where he was a director. He says there are four steps that any business person should take to become a success – be creative, be ruthless, look after your staff and always control your cash.
“It doesn’t matter what you are doing, if it is a service or a product, you have to be able to offer a solution that nobody else has – you have to have something that sets you out as different from everyone else’s offering. The more different you are, the more ‘disruptive’ you are, the more likely you are to be successful,” he says.
In his long experience it is also sometimes “the last man standing” who wins the game in business – or politics for that matter. “If you believe in your business idea and you believe it will work then you have to stick with it. Never give up. If you’re sure about it, then be ruthless, put everything into it.”
It’s a motto he lives by.
