Comment: The recently published Enterprise Strategy Group Report (the O'Driscoll report) reviews Ireland's place in the global economy with the objective of enhancing its ability to compete.

While it makes a wide range of recommendations, it identifies two key areas that must be improved on - international sales and marketing, and the application of technology to develop high-value products and services.

It sees these areas as being vital to Ireland's ongoing development over the next decade as they contain significant added-value potential.

Unlocking that potential is more important than ever as our attractions as a production-focused location face intense competition from low-cost countries and the increasing power of global brands threatens a greater than ever number of indigenous companies even in the domestic market.

As markets everywhere open up to more competition, raising the standard of marketing performance and expertise will become more vital and will increasingly distinguish successful companies from also-rans.

Tim Ambler of the London Business School says that, "companies cannot survive without marketing, though they may call it something else", and he notes that "market-oriented, customer-focused companies are more profitable", a call to all companies to raise their marketing capabilities.

We need to see marketing as consisting of two parts - it is, first of all, a philosophy, a culture, an attitude that should run right through an organisation, however big or small - with the managing director or owner leading it.

Secondly, it is an activity or function that has to be organised, resourced and managed.

Marketing practice in turn must focus on two key measures - understanding the customer and delivering enhanced value - meaning better profits and improved shareholder value for the business or organisation.

For too many companies, Marketing it is seen as only being about designing brochures and advertisements - and that narrow perspective can lead to the stunted development of our marketing capability and an undermined national ability to compete.

The reality is that marketing is becoming increasingly complex and diverse, and leading marketing companies have recognised that.

They have invested in developing a deep understanding of how their marketplace and the mix of parties in it operate - that includes producers, service providers, distributors, retailers, service agencies, and of course, understanding consumer behaviour (an important skill in itself).

This understanding then drives branding, product, pricing and sales strategy.

Indeed, O'Driscoll aptly emphasises the context for this: "To secure a strong position in the new global competitive environment, Irish businesses should focus on building a deeper understanding of customers, markets and the wider influences driving product and service life-cycles.

"The Irish enterprise community must develop, and be supported in growing, its capabilities in market intelligence, international sales, promotion, sales and strategic management."

Good marketing skills don't just happen, they have to be learned and applied. Not enough commitment is being put into that by Irish business.

We do have a base from which to build these skills. We have a well-educated and hard-working workforce, open to new ideas, but without a tradition of marketing focus.

That's what we now have to develop. It's interesting that even in other business disciplines - accountancy for instance - the need for focused and ongoing skill development is well understood. Now it needs greater adoption within marketing.

The Marketing Institute believes that a key issue here is the provision of support to help companies develop and acquire the necessary skills and experience.

In decades past, Ireland has very successfully provided innovative support to the setting up of businesses here through capital grants, training grants and tax incentives, all of which contributed significantly to the development of our industrial base.

In recent years, that support has been expanded into the area of R&D and technology through the establishment of the likes of the Science Foundation of Ireland, which has significant funding.

The next stage of our industrial development must be similarly innovative and recognise that we must now invest in marketing and sales skills training.

We now must focus on implementing the specific O'Driscoll proposals - getting foreign-owned companies to locate their marketing and sales functions here, bringing in experienced marketers from overseas to work with Irish companies, placing marketers as advisers in companies to help them on practical marketing issues, providing funds to Enterprise Ireland and others to enable them to work with the Marketing Institute to develop in-company skills at all levels, thus bringing back the kind of focus on international marketing that used to be in the former Córas Trachtála,.

Organisations like the Marketing Institute will work closely with Government and business to devise the best kind of programmes to achieve the objective of developing Ireland's marketing and sales capabilities.

We want to see Ireland become recognised internationally as a centre of marketing excellence.

Ireland has done it in encouraging top-level foreign investments and is doing it in technology application. Now let's do it for marketing and sales.

Brendan Nevin is chairman of the Marketing Institute.