WELLINGTON: New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s general manager of services and convenor of judges for the 2015 awards, Mr. David Downs agreed the finalists are a diverse bunch, but there are also common threads which connect many.
For example, many are high-tech firms that are rich with intellectual property, which have come up with unique ways to solve problems using technology. Many are also highly specialised, operating in very narrow niches.
David Downs is New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s general manager of services, and convenor of judges for the 2015 New Zealand International Business Awards. What are some of the commonalities you’re seeing amongst the Kiwi companies doing well offshore? There’s definitely a trend towards high technology, high IP-type businesses. They’re companies that are adding value and creating value in different ways. So for example there are firms like Movio and SnapComms, which have come up with ways to use technology to solve problems that people didn’t realise could be solved.
There’s also a niche aspect, which we see in organisations like International Volunteer HQ. This is an incredibly successful company out of New Plymouth, which is a world leader in the very small niche of volunteer travel. We see this time and again – the companies that do well are the ones that know what they’re good at and do it relentlessly well. Then, of course, they can strike a different kind of problem because they have to find people who want the things that they’ve chosen to be a specialist in. So it isn’t necessarily an easy road to go down, but when companies do it well they can own a market even from a small country like ours. Overall there’s a real optimism among these companies, and all of them are on a serious growth curve. They’ve all got their own challenges to get there, but it’s amazing to see these incredibly innovative small businesses that are growing so aggressively and optimistically.
Another big commonality we see, and it’s playing to New Zealanders’ natural skill with people, is a real customer and user focus with the product or service. When you’re doing business in New Zealand you’re typically doing it person to person, and when you apply that in an international context it can help you gain a real understanding of the end consumer or customer, which allows you to arrange your product or service around them.
One of the things we ask all the entrants is how they approach the market and establish themselves. And the answer tends to be that it takes lots of travel. One of the chief executives I was reading about visits an international market every six weeks for at least a week at a time, so that’s a substantial portion of his life that he’s spending on a plane. I guess that’s a price of doing business from this part of the world. An alternative strategy – or perhaps one that companies adopt when they get a bit bigger – is to hire in-market experts to work for them. Locally engaged staff reduces the travel strain, but also brings a wealth of knowledge about the market and customers, with on-the-ground cultural and business knowledge.
Are there some things Kiwi companies could be doing better to establish themselves in international markets?
There’s definitely one thing, and that’s the ability for organisations to market themselves – to talk about their story and portray themselves in a compelling light. When we’ve been going through the judging you’ve almost got to battle your way through some of the entries to find out what is the core value proposition for the customer. It’s there – the companies definitely have one and it’s fantastic – but often companies are shy, or aren’t very good at portraying it.
I think it comes in part from the fact that Kiwis aren’t so good at blowing their own trumpets. But I also think it comes from the fact that most Kiwi business leaders are multidisciplinary, so they come at it from a product or a sales perspective, without necessarily seeing the value of other disciplines they might not be as familiar with, like marketing, which is a bit of a specialist skill.
There’s also an opportunity for more companies to take a collaborative approach to their product innovation, development and commercialisation by working with partners – someone like Callaghan Innovation, for example – then taking that niche solution to market with a compelling story. One of NZTE’s core strategies at the moment is to foster this kind of coalition approach because it’s not a natural habit for Kiwis. Typically we want to own an entire problem, rather than picking off a bit of it we’re really good at and then working with others who have complementary skills.
