To ignore our shared past is to ignore a significant part of history and one of the key potential demotivators to those considering doing business across the border.
For the past four decades, our own conflict created a blank spot in the minds of businesspeople. The blank in question tended to take the form of whichever piece of the island was across the border from the one they were operating in. It was not quite the “Here Be Dragons” that ancient cartographers used to designate the unexplored areas of the globe, more an ongoing assumption that a piece of the island was off limits to them. A strange and forbidding place that they dare not tread upon. And even when the violence ended there remained an assumption that the other part of the island was just too different, too unknown to be worthwhile.

Similarities

Peter Robinson, the First Minister Designate has little truck with this outlook and has been speaking about focusing on the similarities between the jurisdictions rather than the differences. It is a sensible call based on the fact that it far better to ask somebody to think about something than to ask them to not think about it.
Ask one of your friends to not think about pink elephants will resultin a parade of them crossing his mind. Ask him, or her, to think about baskets of kittens and the off colour pachyderms immediately disappear.
The same principle applies to our recent history. Asking businesspeople to ignore it will be counterproductive. Give them something more interesting to focus on, that acknowledges it but moves them on to a different place, like the IFSC or the Titanic Quarter is much more useful.

Open Market

The reason Peter Robinson has be emphasising this point, and that Brian Cowen the Taoiseach Designate has been working closely with him, is that they recognise that we are entering a new era for business here.
While we have had peace for a decade, we haven’t really benefited from the markets that have opened up for entrepreneurs north and south. What our two new leaders are seeking to achieve is
a change both in attitudes and behaviours among the business communities.

Success Stories

To do this they need to tell us some stories. Stories like that of an old friend who used to produce software for the financial services sector. His story goes like this. In the very early days of the peace process his company was selling its goods across the whole island but ran into a difficulty they couldn’t overcome.
One geographical area and its denizens simply wouldn’t countenance buying software from a Dublin company. At this point in the telling most people would nod sagely and say – “Ah yes, the North.” And he would shake his head and say “No. It was Cork.” His company sold a number of packages to protestant credit unions in Belfast but never managed to sell one to the catholic credit unions in Cork.
In fairness, the attitudes on both sides of the border, among business people at least,havebeenchanging.Thereisawider recognition that there is a marketplace on our doorstep. A marketplace with, depending on where you are standing, three times as many third extra more potential customers. A marketplace that won’t require you to hire a translator. A marketplace you won’t need a ship to get your product to.
What will make this new era a reality is when behaviour changes to match the attitudes. The good news is that that is already happening.

Infrastructure

BT is already rolling out broadband on an all island basis. Bord Gais supply the same grid for north and south. Business advisors like Mason, Hayes+Curran have formed cross border partnerships while KPMG simply operate in both jurisdictions as a matter of course.
What that demonstrates for any company or entrepreneur is that the key supports, whether they are infrastructural, legal or advisory are already in place. And in so doing, it picks off more of the objections or worries that might have existed in the past.
On top of the strictly commercial decisions made by these large organisations there are many supports in place to assist a business person with the right idea – not the least of which is InterTradeIreland. It, in cooperation with Invest NI and Enterprise Ireland, provides an array of supports, from marketing advice to funding sources that help make the decision to export your services or products a simple one. And a hugely less expensive one – InterTradeIreland was heavily involved in ensuring that the roaming charges on mobile phones as people crossed the border were done away with

Partnership

So, for the clever entrepreneur the major obstacles are either a matter of mindset or have been removed or mitigated.Eventhemajorbusinessmodels that might be applicable to a cross border venture have all been tested and found to work just fine. Strategic partnerships, acquisitions and simple expansions can and have been achieved with alacrity.
The last hurdle to overcome, or more accurately, the only hurdle is to decide what you want to do. Some of the answers would normally be obvious but are not simply because of those “blank spots”. If you don’t think of the other jurisdiction in business terms at all then the opportunities that present themselves will fail to register too.
Take, for example, the billions of pounds and euros committed to massive infrastructure upgrades in Northern Ireland. There has been little talk among the construction industry south of the border about these despite the downturn it is experiencing domestically. Most of the discussion has concerned downsizing rather than reconfiguring the firms to pitch for this business.

Logistics

Other answers require little or no imagination, just the gumption to get started. If it is possible to sell broadband services into both marketplaces, or more effectively, to treat the entire island as one larger marketplace, then why not sell everything on the same basis? As has been pointed out the logistical problems are minor if they exist at all.
A former client used to complain that you couldn’t fly from Dublin to Belfast or vice versa. And, while a recent check revealed there are still no direct flights between the two cities, arguably the most pleasant train the in the country travels between the two. Add to that a recently completed motorway link and it is clear that doing business on a north south basis is easier than trying to do it east to west.
Finally, there is an aspect of doing business on an all island basis that has not been emphasised too strongly until now but that the recent announcement on the outsourcing of jobs from the IFSC has thrown into sharp relief.
Companies have been examining how they are structured and have been doing so with an encouraging willingness to abandon previously held certainties. Head Offices have been sold off and leased back as they are needed because IT allows companies to communicate well even when all of their people are not based in the one location. Whole divisions have been outsourced, whether that be HR and payroll, transport or even marketing and sales. Websites have replaced showrooms.
Integral to this process of re-imagining business structures should be active consideration of whether the north or the south can be part of the solution. Should your accounts be done in Derry instead of Dublin? Should your warehouses be in Naas rather than Newry?
With the switch to an all island outlook must also come an understanding that the talent pool that you have to choose from has expanded too, not just your markets. The road safety advertising that has helped push down the death rates in the Republic to historic lows and has won many international awards, is produced by an agency based in Belfast.
In theory, this should not be as unexpected as it is. The basic human motivations upon which all of advertising and marketing are based are pretty much universal and are certainly shared by the people on this island. In fact, when joint campaigns are put together as happens quite regularly, the advertisements are produced by this agency. They are able to use the same basic script while ensuring that the licence plates on the vehicles, the uniforms of the any emergency service personnel shown and the road signs are changed.

Potential

Ultimately, our new friends from the Basra Development Commision will have learned a lot about what is possible from their visit. They will have seen the potential; all that is within touching distance but that has yet to be grabbed with both hands. What we have to hope for is that if they come back in a few years they'll see what has been done,
and see the reality of the All Island Business Era