MAY/JUNE 1986
Crafts Council of Ireland Thomas Prior House Merrion Road Dublin 4
Telephone 680764 / 603070
raw materials available. This for us is the business of design and is very much a part of everyday work. No doubt we are exceptional because our ordinary lives and our business cannot be really separated. Our office and workshops are part of our home — there is no geographic or time division. There are disadvantages in this because there is a danger that we work too hard and too long, but we are also lucky because we do not have to be two different people. How we live is how we work and we can find a happy balance because living and working are the same things to us. Maybe there is a learning here about management: that in the end it is only common sense not some mysterious and strange subject.
Carmen and Edmund Chesneau receiving their National Design Management Award commendation from the President of Ireland, Dr Patrick Hillery.
CHESNEAUS HONOURED Speaking before a large gathering at the major award ceremony in Kilkenny Castle after being honoured by the President, Dr Hillery, as one of the three finalists in the Design Management Award 1986, Carmen Chesneau said that to talk of Design Management in their business sounded strange and they very nearly decided not to spend the time drafting an entry for this award. "So we were very surprised to be shortlisted and would be very happy if our success would give encouragement or help to small firms like ours. "Of course 'Design' is all important to us because we make products that sell first on design followed by good quality. This was a matter of choice; we wanted to make products for the high-quality market, which gave us a chance to make an honest product with a classical design using the best
"So the message we would like to give is to fix the objective firmly. Every business must be profitable to survive — so that must be the first objective. The second point in our case is to enjoy what we do. We did not want to make compromises in that and so everything, except being profitable, must bend to that objective. To us 'Good Management' is simply doing what is necessary to keep that objective always in sight. Ireland has given us this opportunity and we are very grateful for all the help we have got in the last six years from the IDA, AnCO, CTT and Kilkenny Design. We can honestly say we would not be where we are to-day without them. "We are very grateful to the jury for shortlisting us, because they are showing that anyone can be successful if he has his objective clearly fixed and knows that everything must bend to that objective."