By Business & Finance 
Tony Cantwell is Managing Director of CMG, a company that provides its customers with professional and practical training programs in sectors such as built industries, environmental, legal and financial sectors.
What are your main priorities and goals in your role?
The main priority in most companies is to grow, and my priority is to help and encourage our management and teams highlight growth opportunities for the CMG Group, be they in creating new training courses for clients, identify new strategic developments in our Awards and Conference divisions and innovate. A perfect example is our new training on demand platform, www.cmgmasterclass.com to ensure we continue to keep in step with our client’s professional education needs.
What have been your highlights in business over the past year?
In CMG, we, as a team tend to get very motivated by the feedback from our clients. We have a very good operational process and when our clients tell us they want more of this, or less of that, we listen and we implement, quickly. So, I see it as a highlight every time I note the speed in which we can assess something, give it careful consideration and implement the required actions. Another highlight is seeing people, often without formal training, develop into management roles. We’ve seen a lot of that this year and I’m very excited to see them develop into their roles.
Where do you want your business/brand to be this time next year?
The CMG brand is well known in Ireland, and we are known for delivering high end professional education, conference and award services to an already extremely well-educated client base. I would like to see CMG take another leap next year, namely continuing to grow our training, conference and awards divisions along with our newest training platform delivering training on demand, www.cmgmasterclass.com We understand our clients are often under severe time pressures in their work environment, and they also need to continue to develop their professional development and learning. I would expect www.cmgmasterclass.com will help our clients find that better balance, by training where they want, when they want, while also being value conscious.
What new trends are emerging in your industry?
Technology is playing a bigger part in training and professional education. Professional training is changing in many other ways. As I mentioned previously, our client base is very well educated. They are often members of organisations and associations that deliver ongoing training and education. We work with over 8000 clients across the CMG Group, and we note that while technology and other developments are inherently part of the landscape of emerging trends, our clients really appreciate they can simply call or email any of the team to discuss a course, enquire about something, or simply ask a question. I have noted this trend increasing over the last year or two, and it’s something we train our team for. Relationship building is vital for businesses to grow.
What are the challenges facing the industry going forward?
In many ways, the same challenges as always persist. Competition, fragmentation of services or a race to the lowest price. In a small country like ours, those challenges will likely remain. That’s business in Ireland. Having said that, CMG Group have built a reputation for delivering excellent and importantly, relevant, training, conferences and recognition awards, all at very competitive price points. Our clients do appreciate the service we provide, and we are fortunate that so many of Irelands blue chip companies, major industry sectors and local government choose to work with us.
As an employer are you finding any skill gaps in the market?
Not so much these days. We did find some tech skills shortages a few years ago, but that seems to have passed, for us anyway. We are quite particular on the type of personality that joins CMG, and thankfully we have a very high retention rate with our teams and management.
What are the biggest challenges as CEO
I’m fortunate, in that the teams and managers I work with can get to the point, quickly. I have been at meetings for some outside organisations or companies, and I have often come away thinking, that was a lot of talk, but I’m still not sure what was agreed. I could see how that would be a challenge. Another challenge is keeping the teams fresh, motivated and driven to succeed. Job satisfaction, new challenges, being well paid and being appreciated and included all work and we keep a watchful eye to make sure we have a happy environment.
How do you keep your team/staff motivated?
Achievements. In my opinion, when the team achieve excellent results, they should be acknowledged, rewarded and often encouraged to show how and what they did to other team members. After 30+ years in operation, CMG Group assets are still its people. I’m pretty sure they know that as well.
What is the best advice you have been given, or would give, in business?
‘Inspect, don’t expect’. Very simply, if you inspect work done, projects completed and the way people operate, you can learn so much, and so can the people you work with. Simple, but effective.
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