by Niall Lamont

Introduction

As you may already know, 4OC officially expanded into Ireland some months back when we were awarded a place on the OGP’s Consultancy Framework. Starting out with a local team of zero, we won our first tender with the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), and since then have added 5 plus 1 plus 1 across the country. It’s fair to say that the seeds have been planted, the roots have taken hold, the shoots have shot, and the blooms have bloomed.

The Centre of the Universe (Ireland). 

To celebrate this growth, we held our first official Ireland strategy meeting in the picturesque town of Athlone at the very centre of Ireland. We spent an exact equal amount of time in the Westmeath bit and the Roscommon bit. The day kicked off with a review of where we’re at now, including a deep dive into 4OC’s ongoing projects. We moved on to consider two key things now that we’re finally here, firstly what kind of work we’d like to be doing and what kind of impact we’d like to be making, and secondly, where will we find more great people to join us.

Bobbing along…

It wasn’t just a day for thinking though, we did manage to get in some chill time (officially team building). We ventured up the Shannon into Lough Ree at a very sedate pace.

We continued the conversation, some of which included planning but as we bobbed along, we slowly veered off course. (Note: If you want to speak to Niall about internal bleeding, he has a host of stories to share, and Georgina is on close speaking terms with the seventh son of a seventh son). We came full circle by the end of the trip and got to talking about all those current bits of work we’re doing.

LGMA, HSE and DAFM – Acronyms arise. 

To that end, we’d like to give a shout out to all the folks in the organisations that we have partnered with to date, almost none of whom have expressed any significant dislike of anyone in 4OC. Within earshot. Yet.

We’ve met lots of Local Government people through our digital strategy project with the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) and all 31 councils, hundreds of HSE folks through a range of projects – including the hugely successful bed apps work, more about that soon – and more recently, with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. As part of our investigation of the work that they’ve been doing, we ate lots of food while in town and we can confirm that they seem to have excelled in the food part of their brief.

4OC Peeps

Finally, a shout out to the newest, shiniest 4OC Ireland people, Geraldine, Paddy, Roisin, Georgina, Niall and Michael, our first UK-based employee to move back to Ireland. All of them found 4OC online, read some more about the work that we’ve been doing, and how and why we do it and made the decision to join with us rather than taking up offers from some of the more established brands. Very wise.

Anyway, here’s to partnerships, impactful work and a load more fun in Ireland! Cheers!

Find out more about 4OC in Ireland

If you want to find out more about what we do or indeed could do, have a look around the site – this one is pretty neat: Rapid Process Improvement.

Or feel free to email the head of all things Ireland, Fran Hoey: fran@the4oc.com with any comments or questions you have.