A conversation with Eoin O’Driscoll, chairman of the Tyndall National Institute

On minimising vulnerability, customer engagement, and artificial intelligence

Pro

Eoin O'Driscoll

Eoin O’Driscoll is chairman of the Tyndall National Institute. After more than 25 years working in the ICT Industry where he held senior positions at Nortel, Wang Laboratories, Stratus and Lucent Technologies, O’Driscoll’s focus over the past decade has been on Irish firms, enterprise, and science policy.

O’Driscoll has served on several national bodies including Forfas, Ireland’s national policy and advisory board for enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation; a board member of Science Foundation Ireland; president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland; board member of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience; and chairman of the Governance Committee of Lero, the Irish software research centre.

In addition to being on the board of a number of early-stage start-ups, O’Driscoll has served as chairman of the SWS Group, Enet and Shenick Network Systems.

What do you think the main challenge for growth in the next 12 months will be?

The main challenge in the current environment is getting meaningful customer engagement. Whereas remote or hybrid working due to the pandemic may not impact execution, it may have a negative impact on creativity, innovation, and solution design.

What is your opinion of the support infrastructure available for young businesses?

The support infrastructure for young businesses has improved dramatically over the past decade. At a policy level there is now a welcome recognition that the enterprise base is overly concentrated with an over reliance on a relatively small number of FDI companies to deliver performance on productivity, exports, and tax. To minimise vulnerability, we now recognise that we must increase the contribution from the indigenous sector of the economy. This will lead to ongoing improvements in the infrastructure available for young businesses.

As a highly respected judge of the Tech Excellence Awards, what are three items that you look for from submissions?

• A differentiated product or service offering.
• A strong committed team
• A credible sustainable growth trajectory.

In your view, how would possible changes to corporation tax impact foreign direct investment?

There is likely to be some negative impact from the OECD proposals. However, there may also be opportunities. The Knowledge Development Box (KDB) was introduced by the Finance Act 2015. This scheme is designed to incentivise the carrying out of R&D in Ireland by reducing the tax on profits arising from the scheme to 6.25% (i.e. 50% of the 12.5% corporation tax rate). This should make it highly attractive for FDI firms to carry out R&D in Ireland thereby strengthening their roots here and enhancing the innovation ecosystem in a virtuous circle. 

If we had a Minister for Technology, what do you think their number one priority should be?

Reform of stock options to make it more attractive for individuals to leave large companies and bring their expertise in scaling to smaller companies. Very often, SMEs can’t compete with the salaries that established companies and multinationals are offering. Therefore, being able to offer an attractive share ownership package is really important to level the playing field. Recently the government introduced the Key Employee Engagement Programme (KEEP). Anecdotal evidence suggests that the programme is not having the desired effect.

In the next five years, which technology will have had the greatest impact on the tech industry?

Artificial intelligence will augment the work humans can do and dramatically improve the efficiencies of our workplaces. Big data, AI and quantum computing can combine to create new possibilities.

Eoin O’Driscoll is a member of this year’s Tech Excellence Awards judging panel. For details on how to enter click here.

Read More: Tech Excellence Awards