The consultancy firm that has the ear of Ireland's top politicians and sports stars
As part of our weekly How My Business Works series, we profile the Communications Clinic.
“GO ENJOY YOURSELF. If you work hard and you’re nice to people, things will work out.”
That’s the simple advice Eoghan McDermott gave to his daughter on her first day of school this week. Day to day, it’s his job to give people tips about communicating with other people, although he doesn’t usually find himself doling out similar advice to kids.
McDermott is a director at the Communications Clinic, a training ground for a people looking to fine-tune their presentation skills, with sport stars, politicians and high-level executives all regulars on the company’s books.
As one of the firm’s founders, he has personally looked after some of its more established clients, commonly senior employees at major banks and public sector organisations.
He says sometimes these people, who have squads of advisers in their ears all the time, simply come to his firm for an honest opinion.
“These people find it hard to get anyone to give feedback, because no one will tell their boss what they’re bad at,” he says.
“There can be very subtle things that people do wrong and very obvious things. I was working with someone who was very senior in the airline business and nobody had ever told him that he had three verbal tics that would easily distract people when was speaking.”
“We worked together for four months and that changed for him and made a big difference.”
Communications Clinic director Eoghan McDermott
What do you do and how long have you done it for?
McDermott was one of the founding members of the Communications Clinic, which has been running for eight years, but it was a work-experience gig back in 2002 during his second year at UCD that first gave him a bug for the work.
“I was supposed to be there for two weeks for the summer of second year and I never left,” he says
“I came in every Thursday when I probably should have been in the library studying and I worked there on a weekly basis doing bits and bobs. It helped me to understand the principals of the communications business.”
His early career brought him into contact with veterans of the Irish communications and relations industry like Terry Prone, and Anton and Tom Savage, and it was the close working relationships he developed with them which led to McDermott taking a leap few 25-year-olds take – stepping out of a secure job to set up a business.
It was 2008 when he left as role at Carr Communications to set up the company with the trio, just as the country was about to enter its crippling economic stupor.
Despite the ensuing recession, McDermott says he never looked back and at no stage thought it was a wrong decision to go into business.
“I’m proud that we got through one of the worst recessions ever and have managed to grow our profits year-on-year. It was a bit of a shock because the Lehman Brothers collapse happened around the same time as we launched.
“That meant in terms of public relations, training and consultancy, people stopped buying, but thankfully we had some loyal clients that were still investing in their people.
“So the first number of years were tough work. Then as the economy improved and our reputation improved, things have moved along well, which meant we could leave the dark days of 2008 behind.”
The most recent accounts for the firm show it was in the black to the tune of €100,000 in the year to 31 March, 2015, pushing accumulated profits so far to around €680,000.
Communications Clinic chairman Terry Prone
What are your costs and how do you make money?
As with virtually any professional services firm, the Communications Clinic’s biggest expense is its people.
Company filings show it had an average 13 people on the books during the last accounting period, including its four directors, up from nine the previous year.
But finding employees with the skills needed to make an impression on high-ranking clients isn’t an easy task.
“You want to make sure they are willing to perhaps make sacrifices, because they might need to spend a couple of years learning this trade before they start any client-facing roles,” McDermott says.
“That’s something I experienced myself having gone and done the work experience, because it did take a year or two of actually learning the business before I started to understand what I was meant to be doing.”
Keeping up appearances to make a strong first impression on clients leads to another major cost for the firm: its offices on Adelaide Road in Dublin.
McDermott says the company made a very conscious decision at the onset to find a place to do business that was also impressive to the eye, but that helped it retain customers and keep revenue ticking over.
The Communications Clinic makes its money by charging for consultation and training across a number of fields, from job interviews to media appearances and public speaking.
However McDermott was tight-lipped on how much its sessions actually cost, saying only that prices varied depending on the client and the services they were after.
“We wouldn’t be the cheapest on the market, we would probably be on the upper scale, but we find the clients are willing and happy to pay that because the service goes above and beyond what they expected.”
The Communications Clinic's offices on Adelaide Road
What is your market?
While the company is focused on the Irish market, McDermott says its doors are open to anyone – from a company boss going on RTÉ for a grilling to a person struggling with job interviews and in need of a confidence boost.
There are a number of major organisations on the Communications Clinics’ books, but the company operates on a strict confidentiality basis – unless the client has specifically endorsed their name being made public.
Some notable clients include KPMG, whose staff come to the Communications Clinic to fine-tune presentation and pitch skills.
But its not just the corporate set who help pay the firm’s bills. The company also does a lot of work with international rugby players, giving them media training and public speaking tips, and has handled media relations for Rory McIlroy and The Rory Foundation for the past few years.
What is your competition?
In Ireland, there are a lot of firms out there that do similar work to the Communications Clinic. McDermott’s former haunt Carr Communications offers a lot of the same services, while there is a glut of PR firms in Dublin that also take a slice of the pie.
However McDermott insists the range of services his company provides, combined with the pedigree of other founders like Terry Prone, renowned for her work in crisis situations, helps the firm stand out.
“I don’t think there is another organisation out there with the same mix of services that we have. The careers, the PR, the consultancy – there is no one else that does it like us.”
Golfer Rory McIlroy
What is your vision for the company?
Although the Communications Clinic is based in Dublin and predominantly focused on its work on these shores, it’s not necessarily tied to the Irish capital by a ball and chain.
McDermott says the company has a broad range of clients across Ireland in hubs such as Galway and Cork and is even doing work as far afield as Asia.
The attitude at the company is: “We don’t expect people to come to us, we can go to them.”
But turning the company into a global PR behemoth is not the goal. McDermott says he’s happy to see steady growth – and to continue being able to enjoy what he does.
“I get a buzz from it because you’re helping someone for a job interview and you’re helping them get that job.
“It’s especially rewarding if they have been through a tonne of interviews and you get to see the results when they actually get a job and are over the moon about it.
“Or maybe somebody you’re working with goes on Morning Ireland and does a cracker of an interview, that’s brilliant as well. That for me is the big return and what keeps it fresh.”
This article is part of our weekly series examining the nuts and bolts of businesses. If you would like to see your company featured please email news@fora.ie.
