Most change initiatives have a budget, an enthusiastic project team and a detailed delivery plan. Yet they still fail to deliver meaningful change because at least one question has been left unanswered: what will this enable our organisation to become?
For leaders of multinational operations in Ireland, there is another dimension to that question: what will it enable our Irish site to become within the wider global organisation?
While these questions may seem like ripples in the wider FDI ocean, we should zoom out and consider why such reflection are so important and what they potentially mean both for the competitiveness of Irish sites and Ireland’s FDI competitiveness generally.
Ireland has built an exceptional record of attracting foreign investment but our future competitiveness cannot rest entirely on the strengths that brought companies here in the past. As global investment priorities change, Ireland must continue to develop new sources of value in areas such as digitalisation and AI, research and innovation, sustainability and talent.
IDA Ireland describes a world in which countries are competing “at a higher intensity, for a smaller number of investment projects.” Its current strategy consequently places significant emphasis on retaining and renewing the 1,800 multinational operations already located here—not only attracting new arrivals. It aims to secure €7 billion in new research, development and innovation investment and support the upskilling of 40,000 people. IDA Ireland’s 2025–2029 strategy makes the direction clear: the next chapter of FDI will depend on existing Irish operations continuing to transform.
The same principle applies at site level.
An Irish subsidiary may be performing successfully while its existing mandate is becoming less distinctive. The capabilities that secured investment five or ten years ago may not be those that win the next global project. Sites are increasingly competing not only against external rivals, but against other locations within their own organisations for investment, talent and strategic responsibility.
This changing environment means, while delivering the current mandate remains essential, of course, it may not be enough to secure the next one.
Thus why the conversation around change should not begin with implementation. Before committing to another programme of activity, a leadership team needs to agree on the future value it is trying to create.
Experience from IMI’s Leading with Strategic Intent programme, developed in association with IDA Ireland, offers three lessons for leadership teams facing that challenge.
Agree on the opportunity together
Most leadership teams can describe their site’s current responsibilities. Fewer have a genuinely shared view of the role it should seek to play in two or three years’ time.
If the next change initiative is primarily designed to improve the delivery of today’s mandate, it may make the site more efficient without making it more strategically important.
One participating leader on programme described how, after spending time as a group analysing the possibilities ahead, “we emerged with three really strong opportunities to grow our location and a long-term strategic plan to deliver on all three.”
Another highlighted how the experience brought the team together around where the business should be in two to three years.
So before launching a significant initiative, ask each leader what new opportunity it should make possible for the site. If their answers differ, the team may be aligned around the project without being aligned around its strategic purpose.
Build the capability behind the ambition
Ireland’s response to a changing FDI environment is not simply to market the country more forcefully. It is to deepen the capabilities that make Ireland relevant to the next generation of investment.
Subsidiary leadership teams face the same task.
A site cannot rely solely on becoming better at what it already does. It must consider how it can diversify the value it contributes to the global organisation. Could an operation known primarily for execution develop expertise in innovation, AI deployment, sustainability, product development or more complex regional responsibilities?
This isn’t diversification for its own sake. It means identifying where the priorities of the global organisation are moving and developing capabilities that connect the Irish site to those priorities.
Participating leaders emphasised strengthening workforce skills and preparing capabilities for an evolving future as two of their key takeaways.
The test for any change initiative is therefore not only what people must do differently to deliver it. It is what the organisation will be capable of doing afterwards that it cannot do today.
Treat influence as part of delivery
A strong local strategy doesn’t automatically become a global priority. Investment and mandate decisions are shaped by stakeholders who may have limited visibility of the Irish operation or several competing propositions before them. Site leaders must therefore do more than develop a good idea and present it when approval is required.
As one participating leader explained, “the team had identified the stakeholders they needed to keep bought into their journey.”
The phrase “keep bought in” is important. Influence is not a final communications exercise, instead it involves understanding what matters to decision-makers, engaging them while the proposition is still developing and connecting the site’s ambition to the wider organisation’s strategic priorities.
In a fast-changing and increasingly competitive FDI environment, on so many different levels, that ability to articulate and build support for the site’s future value is an essential leadership capability.
Change should strengthen the case for what comes next
The potential outcomes can be substantial. One contributor who had worked with five participating companies observed that “there have been announcements such as 500 new jobs or $100 million in investment within a year.”
Outcomes of that scale have many contributing factors. But they demonstrate what may become possible when leadership teams look beyond the delivery of their existing mandate and create a credible proposition for what their site could do next.
Ireland cannot assume that its past success will guarantee its future competitiveness. Neither can the multinational operations located here.
Before launching another change initiative, leadership teams should ask:
- What will this make our site capable of?
- How will that strengthen the value we offer the global organisation?
- What future mandate or investment could it help us pursue?
- Whose support will be required to make that possible?
The answers should determine whether the initiative is simply another project—or part of a compelling case for the site’s future.
IMI’s Leading with Strategic Intent programme, developed in association with IDA Ireland, helps senior leadership teams define that future, develop the capabilities behind it and strengthen their influence within the global organisation.
If you’re responsible for turning strategic intent into lasting organisational change, our Change Management programme will help you align stakeholders, overcome resistance and embed new ways of working.
