In addition to driving our core enterprise agenda we are keen and open to participating in a Wider Movement for Positive Change and are happy to put energy and input into such an organisation. This may be a ‘virtual’ organisation or movement, may convene a series of discussions or meetings and go on to lobby and instigate wider change. 

Our corporate structure will be neat, focused and crisp to ensure it can move quickly and decisively

Tá orainn TREO CINNTE a fháil go lua ar son na daoine go léir! 

(We need to find a definite/positive direction as a matter of urgency for the wider community!)

2nd August 2009

We look forward to working with the wider Tangible Community to deliver on a range of exciting projects and initiatives.  Our ability to provide leadership and inspiration is directly linked to our ability to take difficult stances and fight difficult fights thus we want to protect our ability to mobilise, adapt, and innovate. We want to remain independent.

We want to recruit support under the various categories listed below. 

• Tangible Ambassadors will promote the wider Tangible vision and identify and cultivate projects in their region and/or area of expertise.
• Tangible Project Initiators have identified and developed projects in a particular region or technology and are seeking the assistance of Tangible to see projects through to success
• Tangible Project Funders are willing to invest in projects identified, vetted and endorsed by Tangible.
• Tangible Resources have skills and expertise available for Tangible-approved projects on a commercial or pro bono basis.
• Tangible Supporters will support the Tangible movement on a financial or on an in-kind basis.

Please let us know your current thinking

2^nd August 2009

After many months of exploratory discussions and ideas generation, we have come to the conclusion that the best way for Tangible to implement positive change is through the encouragement and delivery of projects involving:

• Indigenous Social and Commercial Enterprise
• Foreign Direct Investment
• Foreign Direct Input into our Intellectual Capital and Methods
• Ambitious signature Infrastructure projects

The word Enterprise includes all aspects of resourcefulness: attempting projects and initiatives that are bold and complex – especially entrepreneurial economic activity.

Tangible will proceed as a commercial entity, becoming a Publically Listed Company with global reach by 2014.  It will champion fast and pragmatic implementation of projects that deliver tangible value and benefits to the initiators, end users and to society at large.

We must now prepare for a transformation into a larger more efficient and effective Private Limited Company that is focused on delivering value to our clients and society in general.  This will involve the development of a whole new series of relationships and will require a range of stakeholders – individual and organisational.

This scale-up from a small boutique consultancy to a larger private limited company with a range of different stake-holders will be started in the 3^rd and 4^th Quarters of 2009 and the critical elements will be in place by 2010.

Tangible Ireland is:

• An independent, commercially driven company with a strong sense of corporate social responsibility
• Spearheading the generation of sustainable prosperity for all people with a strong affinity for Ireland wherever they are located in the world.
• Cultivating and Delivering  projects on core principles of integrity, fairness and reward for endeavour.

In 2012 Tangible will go public to increase our ability to raise capital and to deliver even more initiatives for a wider group of people.  Obviously those that join us or support us in these early stages will be rewarded in a variety of ways:

• Fees and profit from the various projects undertaken.
• Return for funds invested in the various projects undertaken.
• Potential for major dividends when Tangible Ireland goes to IPO.

In the coming months the approaches, leadership and share structure of the Private Limited Company will be outlined.  Our main aim is to recruit leaders who are willing to take risks and work with us to maximise the potential for income in the ways listed above.

I will be the major shareholder in this pre-IPO situation and I will provide the leadership and drive to deliver our vision.

1st August 2009

Raymond Sexton, Founder and CEO, Tangible Ireland

Crisis: A Sense of Urgency

As we head into July and August many tend to think that all important activities and decisions need to be left until Autumn 2009.  If you are in Government, government employment or semi-state employment you can put your flak jacket on, keep you head down and hang in there, and maybe even go on holidays. It’s different here in the Private Sector.  Last Tuesday I met a senior public official at a workshop who told me the country was now broke; I explained that he was right but that there is a major difference now between the Public and Private Sectors. The Public Sector can borrow and is being paid; but, in the Private Sector, we are broke, cannot borrow and are not being paid. We are ACTUALLY broke while the Public Sector is VIRTUALLY broke.

I’m personally broke and am once again faced with the simple choice which I faced in the early eighties: Stand up and Fight or Cut and Run. I do not want to Cut and Run as my children are being educated here and they need stability and a real future in their own country. The Recession hit me hard in May 2008 and has not eased since in spite of Trojan efforts in domestic and international markets.

I believe our Government is handling the current crisis incorrectly as it has placed too much emphasis on the financial crisis rather than our human potential. This is fundamentally at variance with the founding principles of Fianna Fail, one of which is:

To make the resources and wealth of Ireland subservient to the needs and welfare of all the people of Ireland.

I cannot wait for the Autumn; I believe most people in business cannot wait until the Autumn to see significant action. We cannot wait for Fianna Fail to try to use a success in Lisbon II to rebuild their reputation with the electorate to safeguard their own future. We need ACTION today so that we can get through our current paralysis and go on to deliver genuine long-term economic progress for all our people.

We have the human resources, but they are currently under-capitalised and under-valued. These urgently need to be invested/deployed in new initiatives and projects. We need to put the emphasis on our human and intellectual capital ahead of our financial capital. We talk of a knowledge economy and yet only revere financial wealth. We do not fund intellectual endeavour, research, business and entrepreneurship to the same order of magnitude that we fund the banks and property market. A series of token gestures for enterprise wrapped up in red tape are still being discussed and designed. When it comes to enterprise we talk in millions BUT when we talk of banks and property we talk in billions.

I suggest we act now with urgency and reduce our investment of €4,000,000,000 to Anglo Irish Bank to €3,000,000,000 and release in the coming days ONE BILLION EUROS for enterprise and entrepreneurial endeavours.

Solution: BILLION EURO Enterprise Fund

The biggest challenge has been what to do and where to focus, thus I suggest a simple process as follows:

1. Brian Cowen rings Michael Somers of NTMA and says transfer ONE BILLION EUROS to a special Enterprise Account on the 1^st of July 2009.
2. An open competition where every resident in Ireland and every Irish citizen overseas can propose a job creation idea, enterprise or innovative idea and submit it by the 1^st of August 2009.  On completing a simple 2-page Project Outline Form each applicant, up to a maximum of 10,000 applicants, will instantly receive €1000 which can be spent in any manner by the recipient on his/her project as long as it is spent in the Irish Economy.
3. These 10,000 ideas and initiatives will be culled, analysed and supported to identify urgently the best measures that can be taken to get the economy moving. Over the next 24 months we can rapidly invest €1,000,000,000 in the best ideas of the Irish people. See Table Below.

The injection of the funds straight into the economy and bypassing the banks will kick-start economic recovery, generate momentum and hope and have a huge positive multiplier effect. The engagement of the people in tackling our own problems will get us past fear, fatalism and despondency.  The new enterprises will be a vital part of the economic bedrock of the new Irish economy.  These multiple benefits represent a far better return on investment than merely leaving our money languishing with the failed Anglo Irish Bank.

Control of this BILLION EURO Enterprise Fund should be administered by a representative group active in social and commercial enterprise. Direct feedback from the Public could be used to select the best of ideas.  No party political influence should be tolerated.

With the BILLION EURO Enterprise Fund we will kick start our economy before the end of summer.

What to do

If you think this idea has merit please use your favourite Blog, website or social networking site, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Text, eMail or Snail Mail, Telephone or coffee house, Newspaper or Radio Station to build momentum and let Brian Cowen know that we cannot wait until the Autumn. We must act quickly and decisively.

Come the day and come the hour,

Come the power and the glory

We have come to answer our Country’s Call

From the four proud Provinces of Ireland.

If not now then when, if not us, then who?

Once more with integrity – Is feidir linn!

Raymond Sexton

Tangible Ireland

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