The first book my dog Duffy ever ate was How the Irish Saved Civilization. As a teething six-month old puppy, he made short order of the chairs' legs in the dining room and decided to get literary in his tastes. I had bought the book only days before solely because of the title. I loved it!

The thought that my ancestors may have had a hand in saving all of civilization was too good for me to resist. Finally, after years of equating the Irish with leprechauns, pots o' gold and rampant alcoholism, here was something positive and compelling.

I was reminded of this the other day while reading yet another news story of the still blooming Irish economy, the "Celtic Tiger." Ireland's unemployment is still the lowest in Europe, there is a positive net gain in population over the past twenty years, and the Irish people have adapted to technology with light-year speed.

So, what happened in this culture to bring smiles to so many Irish eyes? In a word, they were COMPETITIVE!

I don't mean to simplify what was obviously a confluence of many economic and cultural factors. But, in a nutshell, here are three important elements:

• They were early adopters to the EU (1973) and took advantage of the many programs which brought additional incentives (in the form of Euros) for joining that nascent organization.
• They were aggressive about offering tax breaks to companies willing to expand into Ireland and use it as an entry point into the European market.
• They had an educated workforce which spoke English, further compelling foreign (mostly US) companies to locate facilities there.

You Can Compete the Irish Way Too

Competitiveness is critical if you are trying to attract top talent to your company. Right now, there is not only a shortage of qualified sales and marketing candidates for companies, but the good candidates who are working may be reticent to leave their current employers because of an uncertain economy. What can you do to woo top talent? Use your competitive edge!

For example,

• Is your company competitive in its products and in its industry? Are you a leader or a follower? If your R&D budget is where it should be, sell your candidate on your product innovations. Good sales and marketing people want to sell and market the latest technologies. Are you a leader or a "me too" company?
• Are you competitive internally? Do you offer your employees an opportunity to shine their talents and move up in the organization? Good employees will always be looking for an opportunity to improve their skills. And, if you don't offer further advancement, they'll look for it somewhere else.
• Is your benefits package competitive? You can't talk about innovating out in the market and have a benefits package that looks like 1962. There's just a "disconnect" there. Make your benefits package state of the art.
• And, finally, are you competitive in your own back yard? We still have an economy that has roughly 5% unemployment. In some states, like Massachusetts, it's even less than that. Remember, your competition is anyone who is hiring — the company down the street, in the next town, or down the hall. Everyone is looking for top talent to grow their business; you are competing with all of them.

So, get out there and do what the Irish did. Be an early adopter to change, use your smarts and take advantage of every opportunity!

By the way, Duffy went on to "digest" Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and a two-volume set on the life of John Adams (which he particularly enjoyed because of the tasty binding).