Frankly speaking: 2012

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A CONTRIBUTION WILL BE MADE TO DIAGEO ON FRIDAY IN LIEU OF SENDING PERSONAL CHRISTMAS GIFTS …..

From the author (“the wishor”) to you (hereinafter called “the wishee”),
Please accept without obligation, implied or implicit, the wishor’s best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, politically correct, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter holiday; practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all; and a financially successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2013, but with due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures or sects, and having regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform or dietary preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting you are bound by these terms that:
This greeting is subject to further clarification or withdrawal.
This greeting is freely transferable provided that no alteration shall be made to the original greeting and that the proprietary rights of the wishor are acknowledged.
This greeting implies no promise by the wishor to actually implement any of the wishes.
This greeting may not be enforceable in certain jurisdictions and/or the restrictions herein may not be binding upon certain wishees in certain jurisdictions and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wishor.
This greeting is warranted to perform as reasonably as may be expected within the usual application of good tidings, for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first.
The wishor warrants this greeting only for the limited replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wishor.
Any references in this greeting to “the Lord”, “Father Christmas”, “Our Saviour”, or any other festive figures, whether actual or fictitious, dead or alive, shall not imply any endorsement by or from them in respect of this greeting, and all proprietary rights in any referenced third party names and images are hereby acknowledged
Yours sincerely
The wishor
Frank Hannigan
Chairman
Razor Communications Limited
11 Euro Business Park
Little Island
Cork, Ireland
Ph +353 86 8280077
http://www.linkedin.com/in/hanniganfrank
http://www.twitter.com/frankhannigan

Friday, September 21, 2012

Re-imagining The Republic one citizen at a time

This bunch of 9 & 10 year olds represented their village, Carrigtwohill, in the Sean Twomey Tournament last Saturday.

My wife put it perfectly at the end of the tournament – ” this is exactly what I wanted my sons to experience”

What they experienced was:

A sense of place, something different from a sense of nation but just as profound.

A sense of achievement, the years of training turned into fluency and craft.

A sense of team, they played for each other, they supported each other to achieve shared success.

A sense of pride, they never gave up because the journey was just as important as the objective.

The effort to prepare for this tournament and the complete commitment they showed on Saturday will impact on their adult life.

This is the purpose of the GAA.

The GAA’s purpose comes from their ability to change the scale of a kid’s personal ambition.

The capacity to allow that kid to explore their personal skills and power.

The space to allow that kid to imagine how to apply those skills and powers working with others to impact on society.

This is the transformational ability of all sports.

The GAA’s position in every village/parish allows them a unique role in re-imagining the Republic one citizen at a time.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Exceptional Start-ups sought

Razor will be ten years old in October.

We have carved out a profitable business model.

We have become the Digital partner for Irish and UK Agencies – Advertising, PR and Web Development.

The work we do with these Agencies allows us to work with amazing clients and on groundbreaking Digital projects.

We are seeing rapid growth from existing and new Agency clients.

I personally work a lot with Start-ups.

I know the territory well.

Here is what I notice:

When an Internet start-up closes its seed round funding:

They have approximately €500k in the bank
They have Digital milestones that are significant
The range of skills and experience needed are daunting

For some, a CTO is in place, other teams focus on their commercial domain expertise.

In both cases they have less that 100% of the skills needed to execute.

They need:

Graphic design skills
UX architecture skills
CMS and Database experience
SEO and PPC skills
Server implementation, performance and security skills
Agile project execution skills
Deep social media integration skills

In Ireland and in the UK, start-ups compete with Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter and others to attract those skills

Even if they find them, the cost can be crippling.

Razor has these skills in abundance.

We have the scale and resilience that our Agency clients demand.

We have been Beta testing a Start-up partner programme.

It works brilliantly for both sides:

Our Internet start-up clients get the flexibility and scale they need
They access a brilliant confident team that add insight as well as codebase
There is none of the cultural dissonance that non-European engagement often encounter
Skype video makes agile integration of our team simple
Our team has perfect English – the accents are less daunting than those of West Cork or Glasgow!
We get really exciting work that allows our team to share in the buzz and excitement that make start-ups so compelling

The beauty is that great companies do not remain start-ups.

Their web and mobile needs grow with their commercial success.

We have designed Razor to partner effectively as they grow in scale and complexity.

The bottom line is that early stage companies can get 2,000 productive work hours from Razor – for the same cost as hiring one unexceptional developer locally.

Give me a buzz and I will share our portfolio and our vision in greater detail.

Frank Hannigan, Chairman, Razor Communications Limited

frank@razor.ie

+353 86 8280077

Skype – frank.hannigan

Here are a few pictures of the Razor crew……

Vuk Mirkovic, our founder and CEO

Ana Ciric – Account Director and Yoga guru

29 International Rugby caps, Deki, Account Director

Andrej Matic our Art Director

Simon Kuzmanovic, Graphic Designer – quiet authority!

Technical mastermind and food expert

Vladamir Pavlovic plays the green card

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Funky Designer GAA T-Shirts & Clothing

http://is.gd/BZsVtG

Great GAA T-Shirt

Funky Designer GAA T-Shirts & Clothing

http://is.gd/BZsVtG

Great GAA T-Shirt

Have to make a Christmas speech? Solve your speech writing problem here in 60 seconds.

http://is.gd/3O9Lf7

For those of you who find writing speeches tricky - check out Fred Crowe's site - brilliant Irish service!

Have to make a Christmas speech? Solve your speech writing problem here in 60 seconds.

http://is.gd/3O9Lf7

For those of you who find writing speeches tricky - check out Fred Crowe's site - brilliant Irish service!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Europe is such a rich tapestry - so many cultures so many tastes,so many places and people to get to know.

For most Western Europeans and North Americans, the Balkans is not likely to be on their shortlist for a family holiday.

That's a real shame.

Over the next 5 months, I will be sharing with you our plans for our holiday which will include Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia.

Five years ago we visited Montenegro and fell in love with its beautiful coast and majestic highlands.

I hope some of the ideas, the places, the food and the people I write about will make you consider the Balkans as a destination.

If you have questions - bang them down in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.

Right - let's get started.

So that's 1,310 km or about 18 hours driving - so breaking that down into manageable chunks will be key.

There will be two cars, four adults and four kids on this trip - Vuk and Ana Mirkovic, Betty H and myself, Niall H (10), Daragh H (8), Mia M (6), Uros M (2) - this has to work for the kids - if they are happy - we will be happy.

So the trip works like this.....

Cork, Ireland to Heathrow, Greater London - 555 km 1 hour 28 minutes

Heathrow to Nikola Tesla Airport, Belgrade 1,701 km - 2hrs 48 minutes

I really wish Ryanair flew direct - it would be as close as Rome and just as fascinating a destination

We will be met by the Mirkovic clan and drive in from the airport to the city a short 12 km motorway journey

Our base in Belgrade will be Hotel Nevski

Next morning we will head south to Latkovac - here is a nice walk through video

Founded by Serbia's Female Entrepreneur of the year Sanja Knezevic - Ana Mirkovic's sister.

Its a lovely story, this was a tiny derelict hamlet that for over 200 years has been home to the Knezevic family.

Sanja has restored almost all the buildings to their original glory and has created an idyll in what is considered the heart of Serbia.

It's peace, organic traditional food and gentle hospitality attracts visitors from around the world.

Its Artists Colony is one of the most valued in South East Europe.

We are going to chill here for four days - more details on what we plan to get up to later.

We might have some of this food and some of this and this to partner with it!

Then an early start and off for breakfast in one of the most intriguing cities in Europe. Novi Pazar is mostly populated by Moslim Slavs, Bosniaks.

The way of life here allows you to sense what life was like in Turkish Europe, minarets outnumber churches vastly and the pace and details of daily life are unlike any other city in Serbia.

From there we take off on a 328 km journey to reach the Montenegrin Adriatic coast. Initially we drive parallel to the Kosovo border and then cross the border driving along its border with Albania. The journey is mountainous and extremely beautiful.

As we emerge on the other side of the highlands we arrive at Podgorica, the capital. Its a sleepy city and although I have very happy memories of working there over the last ten years- I am going to be impatient to get to the coast - which is one of the world's most extraordinary destinations.

We will take the relatively new Tunnel which cuts the time from Podgorica to the coast down to 1hr.

Then we will arrive at our villa/appt/hotel (the two wives will tell us which one and where shortly).

Apart from eating amazing food and drink, and plopping down on sandy beaches - we will spend seven days exploring the coast.

We will visit Kotor Bay Budva, Petrovac, Ulcinj, Cetinje, Przno . It sounds daunting but Montenegro, or Crna Gora in the Serbo-Croat is a relatively small coastline to move up and down.

When our week on the beach is over - we will be on the move again.

This trip brings us to the Drina River - and to a famous bridge in Visegrad.

We will spend a day on the river and then move on to beautiful Zlatibor - we will spend three days in the area.

From Zlatibor we will move on to Sarajevo - really looking forward to that.

Then one last road trip -back to Belgrade

We will be there for five days - Doing Ada, Doing the Fortress, Heading to gorgeous Zemun and Novi Sad among other things like.....eating and hanging out

I am exhausted just writing this!!

In the weeks ahead I will be writing blogs in more detail about the various parts of the trip and linking to them from here.

Feel free to give your feedback - feel free to share your experiences and ask for more information or clarification.

Vidimo se!