Oran McGrath, Managing director, Medentech

What is the most unique thing about your business?

The UN and its World Health Organisation use our drinking water disinfection tablets throughout the world. In outbreaks of cholera for example, our tablet is the last line of defence. We shipped a lot of tablets into Haiti and they really do make a difference. It’s great to ship a product that can make a difference to people’s lives.

What was the best piece of business advice you ever received?

It’s a quote from Virgil that my father-in-law used to say – “fortune favours the brave”.

What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in business?

I was 23, had just finished my PhD in physics and put together a business plan to develop a compact disc manufacturing plant. I dropped it at the last hurdle, probably for fear of not having enough business experience. I read the plan again recently and in it I’d said we could see a day where the cost of manufacturing becomes so low that CDs are given away free with newspapers. Back in the mid-1990s, that was unheard of. Had I taken the advice of fortune favouring the brave, maybe the outcome would have been very different.

Any major success to date?

It would be the sale of Medentech five years after I bought it. The selling price was confidential but the offer was very attractive.

Parallel to that, I was chairman of a company called Fondomonte. We had about 100 shareholders that invested in farmland in Argentina. We sold it at Christmas for $83 million (€63.3m).

Whom do you most admire in business?

It would be Jack Welch, former chief executive of GE. He had an excellent track record of delivering results and increased the value of that company by $400 billion. He was brutally honest with people and said that in business, people are afraid to be honest. He was ruthless about holding people accountable.

Are the banks in Ireland open for business?

I’m a bit fortunate because, having sold the company, it gives me a certain independence from the banks. But my sense is the pendulum has swung a bit too far – they went from easy lending too far towards conservative lending and they do need to settle down. In 2008, I did a banking review “beauty parade” among four banks and was struck by how they had lost the skill of assessing business plans and balance sheets. They were so used to easy lending, they lost that skill. They need to get that back.

What one piece of advice would you give to the Government to stimulate the economy?

Allow people to withdraw a defined sum of money, untaxed, from their pension. It’s in the national interest to get people to spend some of that money now. The condition is that it is used for something labour intensive like building or home improvements and is spent within a certain period. It would get spending going and have no impact on current year tax receipts.

What has been the biggest challenge you have had to face?

In Fondomonte, we had a hostile takeover bid. I made the call that it wasn’t good enough. I addressed the shareholders and explained why I thought it was wrong for them, though I was very conscious that some of them needed the liquidity. In the end, I got 100 per cent support and a year later we did exit for a much greater sum.

What is your business worth and would you sell it?

Yes, I sold Medentech in 2009. I was very reluctant at the time. I’d only bought it a few years earlier and we had made great progress at improving the company and the bottom line. I was the largest shareholder and I had a desire to keep going with it, but when you have a very eager buyer and a very reluctant seller it makes for a very good deal.

In conversation with Joanne Hunt