Business Plus – Out of office: Gerry Vahey

Can you tell me a little about your background, before you started your career?

I grew up on a farm in Mayo, which instilled a strong work ethic from an early age. After studying business in the College of Commerce, Rathmines, I spent some time in the plumbing trade.

I returned to business to complete my ACA training contract, followed by the tax exams.

What was your earliest ambition?

As a child I wanted to join the army. I was fascinated by World War II history and probably spent far too much time reading war comics.

Were you a good student?

Average, like most people. I was probably better when I was interested in the subject, which remains true enough today.

What’s your motto for life?

Seek first to understand. Once you understand how people, businesses and systems work, most things become a lot easier to navigate.

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

Focus on incentives. People generally do exactly what they are incentivised to do. So if something is not working, look carefully at what the system is rewarding.

What’s the most difficult thing about running a business?

Understanding what motivates people. If you get that right, most other business problems become much easier to solve.

Which business people have inspired you?

Michael O’Leary. Ryanair transformed European aviation by relentlessly challenging accepted wisdom. In the late 1980s, if you wanted to travel from Dublin to London you had to book it four weeks in advance and it cost around £200, which is about €500 today.

Ryanair did not simply make air travel cheaper; it opened air travel to a wider audience and helped unlock economic development in regions of Europe that had previously been off the mainstream tourist map.

What is your favourite piece of clothing?

A Mayo football jersey, although it has probably tested my resilience more than any business challenge.

What are your best and worst business habits?

Best: once I am interested in a project, I tend to go very deep into it.

Worst: sometimes I spend too long thinking about a problem before acting.

Regrets, we’ve all had a few — can you tell me one of yours?

Not taking enough risks earlier in my career. Experience teaches you that most setbacks are survivable.

Humanity’s best invention is?

 Writing. It allows knowledge to accumulate across generations. Everything else builds on that.

What Irish business do you wish you had invested in 10 years ago?

Intercom. It is a global technology business built by Irish entrepreneurs and demonstrates what we can achieve on the world stage.

Your home is burning down — what item would you rescue before fleeing the building?

Assuming all of my family are safely out of harm’s way, my mobile phone. It is the one item that now replaces 10 others.

What do you wish you’d known at an earlier point in your career?

Understanding people is more important than understanding processes. Most business problems ultimately come back to incentives, motivations and relationships.

If you could be Taoiseach for a month, what legislative change would you make happen?

I would introduce a targeted tax incentive for Irish-owned businesses that successfully expand into new international markets.

We spend a lot of time encouraging start-ups; we should spend more time helping successful businesses scale.

View the original article in Business Plus.