Mick Kearney: The business world could learn a lot from Joe Schmidt and the Irish team

Former Irish team manager Mick Kearney with a story from one of Joe Schmidt’s earliest team meetings.

Mick Kearney, a successful businessman and the former team manager of Ireland’s rugby team, has revealed the lessons other people in business could take from Joe Schmidt and co. Speaking to host Tadhg Enright on The Architects of Business, in partnership with EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™, the man who brought Snap Printing to Ireland in 1984 spoke about the attention to detail needed to run a company successfully. “I know one of the earlier meetings that Joe had, he got the players together and they came up with a terminology that they felt encompassed what they actually wanted to be, and wanted to become and that was basic excellence, everyone, every time,” he said. “I think that maybe sums it up quite well in that everybody had to be excellent at what they did both in terms of their preparation, in terms of their hydration, in terms of their sleep, in terms of their performance on the pitch. Listen to the full show here… Kearney – an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Finalist in 2009 for his work alongside Ed Murphy at Home Instead Senior Care – stressed the importance of honest feedback when dealing with employees. “I think one of business’s failings is sometimes a lack of that attention to detail and that comes through in terms of maybe managing a multitude of people and giving them honest feedback, and giving them the tools to help make them successful. “People take on employees and they don’t actually give them the time and effort to make them better employees. “And there isn’t that consistent feedback, consistent level of improvement that you actually need.” Subscribe to The Architects of Business for free on iTunes, SoundCloud or watch every episode on YouTube.