CEO Q&A: Niamh Bushnell, TechIreland

Q. What are your main priorities and goals in your role?

Primarily to fulfil our mission, which is to track data on innovation in Ireland in a meaningful way that helps people and companies to discover and connect with Irish innovation. We track Irish companies who are mostly, but not exclusively, in the technology space. We gather data on employees, funding and product development. That is the day-to-day work we undertake that helps us to deliver on our wider goals.

At a more holistic level, however, our priority it to use this data in a meaningful way – to create insight and produce content about Irish innovation that tells a compelling story.

Q. What are your biggest challenges as CEO?

I think almost all CEOs face the challenge of relinquishing control and realising that it’s not productive or feasible to have a hand in every aspect of the day-to-day running of the organisation. You have to recognise the value of the talent you have on your team, and let people deliver to their capabilities. That frees you up to spend more time on vision and strategy. It’s always tempting to get more heavily involved in the detail but it’s better to trust your team and let them know that you are always there as a fallback if they need you.

Q. How do you keep your team/staff motivated?

In short – communication. We have a number of team members who work remotely so ensuring we have open and regular communication channels is key. Most of our team is based in Dublin but we’ve one person in Galway, and two in India!

Being on the same page as a team really helps with motivation and productivity. It’s about sharing feedback – not just on work related topics, but also socially. Our team works because we are pretty close on both a personal and professional level and we are comfortable with each other.

On a practical level we make sure that everyone based in Ireland attends a team meeting here at Huckletree at least one full day every month. We work hard that day, but afterwards get some dinner and drinks and just have some downtime together.

Q. What are the challenges facing the industry going forward?

Because we’re focused on data, completeness, accuracy and timeliness of data are all at the core of what we do. So, it’s always going to be a challenge to ensure that our data hits all of these markers.

We’re trying to develop processes that work like well-oiled machines. But people are also an important part of the mix so things aren’t always as black and white as you would expect them to be.

In addition, technology and data are fluid and always changing but we’re not so focused on ‘news’. We are much more concerned with gathering data that tells a deeper story over time about a company, an area of Irish technology, a depth of innovation that we may have as a country in things like AI or FinTech or HealthTech or IoT (internet of things).

TechIreland’s raison d’être is to give our audience/users a complete picture – whether they’re investors, or media or talent considering opportunities in the tech industry in Ireland.

Q. What new trends are emerging in your industry?

Big data, as a general trend, is massive. Everyone from government bodies, to private organisations, to event management companies and everything in between, are now applying data to their work to see where value is added and where it is not, and to see where they can address costs, etc.

The challenge for companies is to turn the data into insight and stories that make sense and that engage people, both for themselves and other stakeholders.

Sometimes we might make the mistake of overwhelming our users with too much data and all the permutations it can take.

But what I find is that everyone is really