An insight into a culture of innovation and enterprise that is difficult for a large, global company to create, according to IBM's vice president of innovation and technology, Nick Donofrio.

Ten years ago when IBM was going through what Donofrio described as a "near death experience", it had a revelation. "We discovered the simple, hard fact that all the smart people in the world don't work for us, " he said.

Since then the company has stepped up its efforts to forge links with smaller companies, leading up to last week's announcement that IBM is to locate its European Venture Capital Centre in Dublin.

The EVCC is one of three such centres the company has worldwide, the others being in California and Israel. IBM is not looking to invest capital itself but will instead look to venture capitalists and state bodies such as Enterprise Ireland to make introductions to companies working on technology that might be of interest.

"We're not interested in buying every company that's paraded in front of us. It's rather building a partnership that we're looking for, " said Donofrio, though he wouldn't rule out buying "one or two" Irish companies if they showed sufficient promise.

The selling point is that IBM will admit suitable candidates into the inner sanctum at its European headquarters in Mulhuddart, west Dublin.

There they will meet IBM executives and "thought leaders" in related disciplines and, in certain circumstances, be allowed to use IBM's own intellectual property and its technology to help in developing their own products.

The payoff for IBM, according to the woman heading the new centre, will be that the company can open a window on niche areas and new technologies at an early stage of development.

"We're building a more strategic relationship with Enterprise Ireland, " said Deborah Magid, director of strategic alliances and software strategy with IBM venture capital.

IBM feels that, by providing access to technology, expertise and, in certain circumstances, capital, it can help fast-track small technology companies which it can then partner in the future.

Enterprise Ireland chief executive Frank Ryan said forging relationships with companies such as IBM could potentially be of significant benefit to young companies.

"The average time it takes a start-up to get going is 18 months. During that 18 months the opportunity for entrepreneurs to have access to IBM's technical expertise and knowledge is enormous, " he said.

Ryan named fast-growing Dublin software company Curam software, an IBM strategic partner, as an example of a firm making the kind of progress that EI hopes other Irish tech firms can replicate.

Curam, which has turnover of more than 20m, is one of EI's high-potential start-ups, companies it believes can continue to grow sales at a compound annual rate of over 15% and can break the 50m sales barrier. It hopes the new IBM initiative can help bring through more Irish companies with that kind of potential.

Apart from working with Enterprise Ireland, IBM has already scheduled meetings with prominent venture capitalists over the coming days to see if there are any likely candidates within their portfolios.

So far the reaction from the VC community to the new centre has been positive.

John Treacy, chief executive of Trinity Venture Capital, is one of those scheduled to meet IBM's EVCC team. He saw the development as "a very positive move".

"I think Ireland has done very well to get this. It could have gone anywhere, " he said.

"It can only be a good thing, " said Niall Carroll, managing partner of ACT Venture Capital and a director of the Irish Venture Capital Association.

Carroll, for one, believes in the prospect of IBM handing out golden tickets to emerging Irish companies to visit its factory. "Do I believe in their genuineness? Yes I do, " he said.

Naturally, VCs are also intrigued by the prospect of giving their portfolio companies a jump-start. The quicker they grow, after all, the quicker their backers can exit.

Working with a mentor with IBM's expertise and resources could "help some of our early stage companies to take a big step forward", said Carroll, who plans to "talk them through the portfolio and see which ones we can jump straight in there".