To compete and succeed in the global economy, a company needs to secure at least 100m in sales and in today's world where markets are consolidating companies have to scale and be market leaders in their field to thrive into the future.

Setting out to achieve sales of 100m may, to some companies, seem like a task more daunting than eating an elephant, but the achievements of Enterprise Ireland's scaling clients announced this week prove that Irish companies can advance that dream, taking it one bite at a time so to speak.

The companies that are now beginning to break through scaling targets are true leaders in the Irish context . . . proving that Irish companies with the right strategy and ambition can compete and win in the world market.

Although Ireland has a vibrant culture of entrepreneurship, the number of indigenous companies with export sales north of 100m is extremely small. As a result, there is a dearth of role models for companies that are currently working to achieve scale. Many of our scaling companies are the first indigenous enterprise in their sectors to scale, but all have the ambition to be the first in the group to break the 100m mark.

In our experience, Irish business people are well received when they go abroad to explore new and emerging markets and their expertise in sectors such as ICT, engineering, construction and biotechnology is wellrecognised. But to achieve scale, acquisition is a must and to build a multinational, the management of small companies must have the courage, ambition and capacity to acquire or be acquired.

In the cases of both Kerry and CRH, from an early stage their management recognised that in order to grow they would have to acquire and to do so successfully they would need to develop a management team that had the capacity to successfully execute an ambitious acquisition strategy.

When Kerry acquired Beatreame food ingredients in 1989, they paid more for the company than the net worth of Kerry at the time.

But with sales of $112m a year with three plants in Wisconsin and one in Ohio, Beatreme Food Ingredients was a leader in the ingredients sector of the food industry and gave Kerry access to greater technology and a more expansive customer base.

The task to scale is daunting, but if your product or service meets customer needs internationally and you have the will to build management capacity and the courage to undertake ambitions acquisitions, then there is every good reason that your company could be the next one to scale up and win.

The supports are in place and their efficacy is proved in the achievements of our scaling companies. All you have to do is ask yourself: do you have the ambition and drive to lead your company to be the next successful Irish multinational?

Patricia McLister is Head of Enterprise Ireland's Scaling Division.

'WINNING' with JACK & SUZY WELCH will return this month