George Mordaunt on RTE Taking Care of Business - tonight - Thursday 29 August

George will be getting advice from the lads on the RTE programme "Taking Care of Business" on 29th August.

Do we get to see his 3 bed semi-d?

No but I am quite sure we will get to see his new car business on at least three occasions throughout the programme.

I wonder will they tell us that he has written books about getting out of debt? It's a weird idea.

Brendan Burgess said:

George will be getting advice from the lads on the RTE programme "Taking Care of Business" on 22nd August.

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I don't get it. What can a man who's being through the wars with the banks, written books, gone on the motivational talk circuit etc etc learn from this?
Will it be more than just an advertisement for his business. Surely a show like this should focus more on start-ups and business owners who are new to the game

Delboy said:

I don't get it. What can a man who's being through the wars with the banks, written books, gone on the motivational talk circuit etc etc learn from this?

Will it be more than just an advertisement for his business. Surely a show like this should focus more on start-ups and business owners who are new to the game

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Hi Delboy

On reflection, I think Mordaunt did refer in TV interviews (and presumably his book) that he got great debt advice along the way from two guys, so it must be these two lads.

But it will still be interesting to see how they make the programme. It will probably be about his new business selling cars online.

A reminder that he will be taking centre stage tonight.

Last week's programme was filmed from Nov 2011 to earlier this year.

So I imagine that they have done the same with George.

If they haven't started filming until more recently, they will probably reconstruct stuff which is fair enough.

The programme was a bit of a damp squib. I feel sorry for George. He doesn't really understand what is happening around him and thinks he can talk his way out. He should have gone bankrupt ages ago, and he would have a fresh start now.

It was made this year but referred back to when problems started in March 2008.

George often refers to the fact that he finished school without doing his Leaving. Today he spoke about various jobs he got kicked out of, including An Post. He struck me again as just not being that smart. He can talk , so that probably disguises it a lot.

"I don't believe in projections. I don't believe in budgets".

To run a business, especially with €18m of borrowings, you need to be a bit more clever than George is.

We don't know what deal he did with his lender, but he says he will be in pain for years to come.

He should have just gone for bankruptcy. If he had gone bankrupt in 2010, he would be out of it now with no debts.

He could make a good living out of his public speaking engagements and possibly out of his car dealing.

I am surprised that the two lads didn't encourage this. But they seemed a bit brow beaten by him as well.

He has an online car business "which is being copied in every county in Ireland" but yet he still has a big forecourt and showroom.

The impression I got from the programme was that he's living in an igloo. Nice guy and all that, but again he became a casualty of the Banks. It appears that he's living a dream but in reality its becoming a nightmare.

There is no easy way to the debt burden. It really is not a crime to go bankrupt. For his own sake and to take himself and family out of their pain is to do it.

One of those two "Advisors" is a typical bean counter and apparently unable to see the woods from the trees. What credibility does he have sitting around the table and zoning in on George's TV channels. George , apparently owes millions and appears to be doing "his best" with the hand he's been dealt . Any senior banker will appreciate the need to keep George on-side and certainly wont begrudge him his TV channels if he's otherwise playing ball. Having TV channels or not is completely immaterial to the scale of the debt under review here.The threat of bankruptcy remains there for the bank and that's a tricky balancing act yet to be played out. A guy like George will break if hes pushed too far and nobody wants that. Almost anybody can crunch numbers but it takes someone with vision and true business experience to give proper advice in these situations. I think these Advisors are very comfortable with the numbers but sadly lacking in areas of business development, strategy, marketing and operations management. I felt it was out of frustration that George was throwing back the subject of forecasting and budgetting across the table.

In the Ballyseedy episode, the bean counters were overjoyed that the owner decided to restrict the purchasing of stock from 40,000 to 20,000.
The level of stock required is partly calculation and partly estimation.Running out of stock is a disaster for a business like that. Having too much stock should not be a problem if it is purchased correctly and some safeguards and cash flow planning are built in. I felt that the owners had a much better idea of how much stock was required than the bean counters yet Mr Beancounter didnt seem to know what he didnt know.

Having said all that I think George and his Advisors made a reasonably good team. He had all the business acumen. They ran the numbers inside out and he quite rightly balked at any nonsense that they threw in his way. His business experience was obvious. Their lack of practical management experience was equally obvious

Hi Importer

I was surprised that so much was made of Sky. He suggested cutting it down to the basic package which would have saved George around €40 a month. With a debt of €18m, that should be of no interest to the bankers

I have heard George on the radio saying that he had to get rid of Sky Sports at the insistence of the banks. I wonder if this was correct and if he was conflating it with the advice from Tommy?

Then I wondered if Tommy was making a point for TV audiences. But to be fair to them, they were very complimentary of the banks saying that the banks are trying to keep SMEs in business.


The Sky Sports discussion was completely out of place so I wonder if it was manufactured for entertainment purposes?

I find it difficult to reconcile his perspective that we need people like him and that is the reason to bail him out. There is no doubt that there was wreckless lending and he should be able to have a sustainable future with bankruptcy or other means of debt resolution.

Some people who ran multi-million euro businesses during the boom did not have the skills to run businesses of that scale, and they still don't have those skills. I am not sure that George appreciates his limitations.

Hi ontour

The odd thing is that he seems to have a clear understanding of what he did wrong.

When speaking to a meeting of accountants, he said something like "The professional advice I got from your profession was reasonably dreadful, however the decisions I made were even worse"

He listed out all his businesses and investments and they were all disastrous.

He is able to talk, but he doesn't have the skills to run a business.

ontour said:

I find it difficult to reconcile his perspective that we need people like him and that is the reason to bail him out. There is no doubt that there was wreckless lending and he should be able to have a sustainable future with bankruptcy or other means of debt resolution.

Some people who ran multi-million euro businesses during the boom did not have the skills to run businesses of that scale, and they still don't have those skills. I am not sure that George appreciates his limitations.

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+1....yes we need SME's and entrepreneurs, but not at any cost. And while he was able to see he could'nt hack a 9-5(!) at An Post, or deliver bread...he just cannot see that he is not cut out for this type of business either.

I got the feeling from the way he was arguing with the 2 lads about sky, was that he still does'nt get it. He launched off into the usual tirade about the banks, the economy etc etc....but I believe he still has an enormous sense of entitlement and the past few years have'nt knocked that out of him.
They made sure not to show him at home! Or driving anything fancier than a Ford!

I admired his ability to change his business and keep going with it online.
He has certainly shown business flair now,even if he was just the jobless son who inherited his fathers business, any fool could have run a car dealership in Ireland in the 90's/00's, building it up through the hard times of the 70's/80's was a different matter. Although his past behavior doesn't inspire any confidence, more the poor lad the banks made a fool out of, I think his last five years shows courage, staying-power, grit and determination. I also admired his honesty. I have seen people buried in shame unable to leave the house. All in all my final impression of him was a positive one. I would like him to do good. It also should be noted that if he is renting his new premises he is left with unsecured debt, perfect position for a quick remedy under our new insolvency regime which maybe really will start this year. He has most of the PIP's work done. Sadly we don't know the deal he got so we don't know if its for a longer period than he would suffer under the new process. I wonder if the a bank making him sign a Contract on the deal is an effort to prevent him going into the new process??

During the show he said he lost everything. Not his Sky package and no doubt his other little luxuries.
There is a rented house close to me where one of these NAMA type guys is renting. The big cars are still there, the children still go to the fee paying school, they have just returned after being away for the summer holidays. Carry on regardless.

Cantalia said:

It also should be noted that if he is renting his new premises he is left with unsecured debt, perfect position for a quick remedy under our new insolvency regime which maybe really will start this year.

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He has done a structured asset disposal programme which maximised the return for the banks.

It's hard to know what the final deal was. It is likely that they would veto a PIA.

But he could still go for bankruptcy.

It's a pity that the programme didn't compare the options, but Mordaunt says that he has signed a confidentiality agreement with the banks.

Should he not have written the books "after" he was made bankrupt?

I had never heard of George Mordaunt before this thread started a few weeks ago. I made a point of watching it and my conclusion was that George is a plonker who couldn't hold down a job and was taken into the family business as a last resort by his dad. His only obvious talent seems to be an ability to waffle on in the face of logic. His speech to the other two at the conference table, during which the TV package came up, was galling, sounded more like a political broadcast or, heaven forbid, promo for a book. More to the point though is that the banks will analyse every last bit of discretionary spending, especially at initial level, in discussing the borrower's lifestyle etc. Mordaunt seemed keen to highlight how much pain he had experienced throughout the process, lost investments, properties etc, with very little apparent concern for the emoployees laid off. Overall, a very disappointing programme, and not a convincing argument for allowing this guy to continue trading.

I was very impressed with George and would back him in a heart beat.

A true entrepreneur is one who can find opportunities no matter what. In this case he used his "situation" as a launching pad for writing books, for delivering motivational speeches, for showcasing his new business on prime time TV and for launching a brand new technology based business. In my view he goes to the top of the class and I have no doubt he will rise rapidly again. WE DO NEED PEOPLE LIKE GEORGE

I thought he used his Advisors very well. He listened, he took whatever advice made sense to him and rejected anything that didn't sit right. I got the impression that he had good judgment which is everything in business.

To the people who say that he is a flawed character, having been sacked twice in his early career., I would say that it doesnt surprise me at all.
An Entrepreneur by nature will find it very difficult to work for somebody else. An entrepreneur buzzing with ideas and energy will never do well in a stifling rigid organisation structure.

To the people who say that he doesn't know how to run a business "because he lost millions in Ireland's biggest bust" that is even more tripe.
Thousands of good business people lost money in Ireland's biggest bust (George included) What we need to do is look at how he ran that business before the bust. By all accounts a wonderful success.

I didnt know anything about George before last night's show but he did impress me and I wish him well. I think he might need a strong partner to keep him grounded but his creativity and potential for creating employment is very evident

The Sky chat was revealing for such a minor detail in relation to his debts.

He was affronted to be told it might be a good idea to show the bank he would cut his 900e a year subscription to 360e a year. The advisors seemed taken aback by his reaction.

He whined that he wouldn't give up letting the kids watch the Simpsons on a Sunday at 6.

As it happens the Simpsons is on the basic package so his "think of the children" argument was flawed.

I suppose there's no possibility the bulk of that sky package is spent on something more George centered like Sky Sports.