Mr Derek Miller was chief executive with adM@rt, Asia's first and very successful home-shopping company in Hong Kong, "a place of concrete canyons and green hills". Sensing the coming shake-up in the technology sector, he came to the Republic as director general of the National Institute for Transport and Logistics.

"I couldn't see the sector sustaining itself. You cannot sustain a business on the top line in black and the bottom line in red. I felt the bubble was going to burst at some point. I wished to move out before the restructuring came," he says.

But if he had a sense of foreboding about the IT sector, he has no such concerns about the Irish economy.

He has a theory about island economies and sees parallels between the Republic and Hong Kong.

"If you look at the great economies of the world, they are islands off continents - Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Japan. Ireland provides a stable environment, plus a well-educated workforce.

"Hong Kong started in manufacturing; it's now a service provider off the coast of a continent.

"Ireland started in manufacturing, but more and more was moving into the service sector and I see that move continuing. That will help us to maintain growth in Ireland."

He says 10 years ago, it was world-class manufacturing practice that made the Irish economy but we have moved on from that.

"People are willing to change and I think Irish businessmen are open to change. We will be able to weather any slowdown that is affecting other countries.

"I think the Irish education system is very good. When you combine that with a business ethic you have a recipe for success.

"But if you don't adopt modern practices you won't benefit from the trappings of success. To me these are all pluses but unless you embrace the new technologies and change you won't benefit."

The particular new technology he has in mind is his passion and his specialisation - supply chain management.

People see distribution as supply chain management, he says, but supply chain management is the whole supply chain from purchasing right through to delivery to the customers.

"We now have a situation where products coming off production lines are 99.9 per cent perfect. Irish companies need to look beyond world-class manufacturing to supply chain management. Supply chain management focuses on the customer.

"If you look at a traditional company, it will have a purchasing department, a selling function and an accounts function, and they all have their targets. The supply chain brings all those separate functions together and by uniting them into one single entity we're able to improve customer service, and by doing this we can reduce costs.

"If the Celtic Tiger isn't going to become a Celtic Wimp, Irish companies need supply management."

This was identified by the Government as crucial to the development of indigenous industries and, under the National Development Plan, considerable resources are being provided for its development.

A survey of US companies showed that, by employing supply chain management, companies can achieve a 50 per cent reduction in inventory, a 40 per cent improvement in all-time deliveries, a ninefold improvement in out-of-stock rates and a 27 per cent reduction in order-cycle time.

But how do Irish companies rate on a world scale in supply chain management?

"In a survey in Ireland last year, we identified that the majority were not embracing best practice supply chain management. Only 14 per cent of companies had a boardroom presence for supply chain management. It should be 100 per cent. It's probably the biggest hurdle to the introduction of supply chain management techniques into companies," Mr Miller insists.

The National Institute for Transport and Logistics is based in the Dublin Institute of Technology in Aungier Street (and no, Derek Miller can't tell you why your bus was late this morning, as he often has been asked). Its core functions include increasing the awareness of the benefits of supply chain management; education and training; a consultancy service for companies; and research through its centre of excellence, which Mr Miller says is on a par with other centres of excellence in Europe.

The institute's education programme has two facets: a diploma course for middle management and a masters for high-flyers. This year, there are 40 on each course and it will rise to 60 next year.

"The courses in the institute are pitched at the earner-learner market," he explains. "We don't deliver any traditional third-level courses although we support other courses in Ireland. We are actually delivering something that is new to Irish business."

Training modules are held on Fridays and Saturdays over a two-year period, and he says the institute goes out and finds the best business people and academics and flies them in to deliver a module.

"We have about 50 lecturers contracted to deliver our modules. They are leaders in their field. You normally find they have a passion for their subject. We're teaching the leading-edge techniques in business," he adds.

If Mr Miller wasn't so committed to his job, he might have become an international rugby referee; indeed, he refereed one international at under-21 level and has 11 years' experience at national championship level.

Born in Dundee in Scotland and brought up in England, it was not until he went to Swansea University to do a BSc in economics that the rugby bug bit. But the training took too much time and his other passion kicked in.

"I attended a lecture in logistics in my second year at university and was fascinated by logistics and decided that was where I was going to make my career."

He did a master's in transport planning and management at the University of Westminster and set out on a course that would take him through all aspects of logistics.

Retail logistics took him to the Finefair chain of supermarkets in Scotland; third-party logistic skills were acquired when he reorganised a distribution centre for Marks & Spencer, and the manufacturing skills were acquired with Quaker Oats.

He wanted international experience, so when headhunted by Dairy Farm International, the largest retailing company in Asia and part of the Jardine empire, he upped stakes and went to Hong Kong. By now he had an Irish wife, Patricia, who comes from Dublin, and a daughter, Sophie. They now have another daughter, Naomi.

He was responsible for around 400 7-Eleven stores in Hong Kong and the supply chain for the 80 stores they operate in mainland China.

"My warehouse was located on the second floor of a 13-storey building, the largest commercial building of its kind in the world - 13.5 million square feet. There is a dual carriageway road going up to each floor."

In time, he became operations director for the supply chain for all transport, 7-Eleven stores, and chilled and frozen foods. He won the Descartes customer recognition award in 1999 for designing an automated chilled supply chain system, the first of its kind in the world.

Then Mr Jimmy Lai, the Richard Branson of Asia, asked him to set up the internet home-shopping business. It was identified that home shopping was a supply chain problem.

"I implemented supply chain . . . into home shopping and, when I completed my changes, the productivity achieved was twice that of any home-shopping company in California."

He says he jumped at the chance to come to National Institute of the Transport and Logistics "because it provided the opportunity to work in an organisation that is dedicated to supply chain management, which is an area I have a passion for.

"To be able to work in supply chain management full-time, I couldn't turn down that interest. It's like a hobby to me. And the message of introducing it to Irish companies is something I deliver with a passion".