BELFAST BRIEFING: FORMER US Open golf champions Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy might like to look up Fergus Wallace next time they are back home for a visit.
Wallace is in the process of teeing off a new business idea that might catch the eye of both, particularly McIlroy after his recent performance at the US Open.
Wallace might have a few ideas that could help the two local golfing heroes get their hands on a couple more trophies.
His Belfast-based start-up, GripZone, is all about “enabling you to play better golf”. It is a golf improvement programme that aims to help enthusiasts – both professional and amateur – become winners on the course thanks to a combination of practice and coach/player interaction.
Wallace, who has a background in performance psychology and sports coaching, had been working on the concept for more than two years before he was joined by David Hamilton and Steven Johnston and set up the business.
Launched last month, GripZone has already caught the attention of the North’s regional business development agency. Invest NI has not only invested in the start-up but it is flagging it as a business to watch. GripZone was recently named one of the winning companies at Invest NI’s Propel programme awards.
Each year the agency chooses a select number of entrepreneurs to take part in what is fast becoming a masterclass for aspiring business start-ups. The programme identifies local start-ups that have the “greatest potential to become a significant exporter and employer”.
GripZone, which is being trialled in 20 countries, was one of the finalists in the 2012 Propel awards. The overall winner was Okotech, a business set up by Co Antrim entrepreneur Janette O’Hagan. She has developed a retrofit product – Heatboss – that allows commercial users to remotely control heating on/off times using any web-enabled device.
O’Hagan, who established Okotech three years ago, already has two customers in the care-home sector and hopes to expand into the hospitality industry and education sector. In the long term she believes Okotech may move into the domestic heating market.
“Winning the Propel company of the year award will help us gain much-needed initial brand awareness and help us to become established quickly and push into new markets,” O’Hagan says.
The success of both Okotech and GripZone demonstrates that aspiring local entrepreneurs can propel their business idea forward even in less than favourable economic times.
But as O’Hagan and Wallace would readily admit, you cannot do it alone – even the most inspired business idea will flounder without support and investment.
So does more need to be done to encourage new business thinkers and established companies in the North to take more risks?
Yes, is the answer according to the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment. It has been looking at why current levels of innovation and research and development (RD) are not as high as would have been expected given what it describes as “the opportunities and programmes that are currently available”.
According to the committee, over the past five years expenditure on RD in Northern Ireland has averaged 0.69 per cent of gross value added compared to 1.23 per cent for the UK as a whole. It also discovered that just 10 companies accounted for about 57 per cent of all business RD investment in 2009. So what is the problem?
According to Alban Maginness, chairman of the committee, it is simple: the way information about what is available is communicated to companies and individuals means they just do not know what is there.
“We are missing opportunities because our support structures are inadequate.
“As far as the current delivery structures for RD are concerned we are living in the golden age of steam, when what we need in reality is a high-speed, high-capacity link straight to the heart of Europe and beyond.”
So if Northern Ireland really wants to score a hole in one for the economy, now could be the time to start shouting about what support is available for those lining up to take a shot at the big time.
