newthinkingweek.co.nz
newthinkin
The O cial Magazine for New Thinking Week 2007
New Zealand wants to improve its economic ranking. Do we have the resolve? Mike Booker reports 6 World Class Kiwis pro led New Thinking sectors shine
New Thinking Nation Top Class
programme guide inside
Great Expectations
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
OPENING STATEMENT
02. New Thinking Nation
New Zealand wants to improve its economic ranking and forge a new economic identity. Mike Booker looks at the task ahead.
Think Again
Creating a New Thinking Nation isn’t an easy task—just ask any of the attendees at this year’s new Thinking Week. But never has the task been more important. Despite the determined effort by industry and government to create a Knowledge Economy in New Zealand, many economic measures show us slipping or at least level pegging with our OECD competitors. There are signs of hope. At least six sectors, including biotech and manufacturing, show great promise and impressive growth. The World Class New Zealand programme demonstrates the depth of talent this nation is producing. And there have been plenty of major wins: TradeMe, 42 Below, ProActa and Pumpkin Patch to name just four in the last year. I’m sure you can add your own. There is unprecedented effort being ploughed into the New Thinking agenda. For example, the launch of New Zealand New Thinking brand gives exporters every tool they need to sell their story overseas. And of course there’s New Thinking Week. The top class speaker list and event programme is testimony to the commitment you all have to making this country not just the best place to live but also the best place to make a living. We salute you!
New Thinking, New Horizons
Exporters are vital to New Zealand’s economic success and living standards. The Labour-led government is committed to providing an environment in which New Zealand exporters can grow and thrive. Export Year 2007 is an initiative by Labour and New Zealand First that involves private and public sector partners working together to focus on, promote and support exporting more widely. New Zealand is an exporter of quality products with new and innovative companies of which we can be proud. But we need to broaden our base and encourage more companies to take the risks, and export. New Thinking Week will this year specifically reflect these goals. Export Year is a springboard for ongoing action. We are seeking to create an environment where enterprise and innovation flourish, where companies are inspired to reach their export potential, and where our firms have the skills to quickly adapt to new global challenges. This will require sustained effort across organisations, sectors and programmes. Businesses need to adopt a new mindset and new ways of operating in order to break down barriers to trade. As an important part of this, New Zealand New Thinking, is the branding programme promoted by NZTE in all of our international markets. Its goal is to showcase New Zealand to the world as a creative and innovative nation at the forefront of new technologies—a great place to do business and to invest. New Zealand New Thinking is also about promoting the “Kiwi can do” attitude. Our pioneering history, the fact that we are so far away from world markets and that we have had to find our own ways of doing things to succeed at the edge contribute to this attribute. Also, as Ernest Rutherford suggested, we don’t have the money, so we have to think. Whatever the reason, New Zealand has a different way of thinking that enables our companies to succeed in world markets. New Zealand New Thinking companies are smart and savvy. They produce superior and innovative products. And they have powerful brand stories that cut through in international markets. New Thinking Week 2007 brings together some of New Zealand’s leading organisations in enterprise and business development to showcase New Zealand innovation in the high technology and creative sectors.
08. Great Expectations
Six sectors were deemed to have significant potential for economic growth. How are they tracking?
11. Brand You
New Zealand New Thinking brand is designed to help you sell a high-tech, high-talent message offshore. Lauren Bartlett reports on the exporters’ new brand toolkit.
Events such as this provide a great mechanism for industry and government to come together to discuss the issues and the programmes that work most effectively. To grow our prosperity and raise New Zealanders’ standard of living, we need to help more New Zealand companies become competitive in world markets and we need to carve out a unique Kiwi economic identity that plays to our strengths. Thank you for participating and we urge you to make the most of the business opportunities the week provides. - Phil Goff, Minister of Trade and Trevor Mallard,
Minister of Industry and Regional Development
14. Top Class
Meet the six high-achievers nominated as finalists in the World Class New Zealand Awards. When will you be nominated?
16. Programme Guide
Good speakers, inspiring awards, great coffee. Find out what’s happening and where at New Thinking Week.
Produced for New Thinking Week by Idealog Limited. Editor - Vincent Heeringa Designer - Francis van Beek Printed by MHP Design and Print
New Thinking Week 2007 is brought to you by:
New Thinking Week is proudly supported by the following:
NEW ZEALAND
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are we there yet?
new thinking nation
While New Zealand has enjoyed one of the highest growth rates in the OECD over the last five years, we need to maintain this to catch up with the average OECD income. Mike Booker looks at the numbers and asks if we’re on track
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New Zealand has to be smarter and faster than most other countries
I
n the early 2000s New Zealand Inc took its first serious steps on a journey to leave behind the laggard growth of the old ‘sweat of the brow’ economy and embrace the vision of a high-income, knowledge-based New Thinking nation. That’s a noble aim, and one that pretty much everyone agrees is worth pursuing. But here’s the rub. To get there New Zealand has to consistently and significantly outperform the OECD average in a range of measures, such as productivity, investment and innovation. Decades of underperformance from the 1970s to the 1990s have seen us drop out of the top bracket; to get back, New Zealand has to be smarter and faster than most other countries which usually are no less ambitious. The Business Council of Australia, for example, wants to lift Australia’s living standards (11th in OECD in 2004) into the top five countries in the world by 2012. So, how are we going? The answer, in strict ranking terms: not good. In the OECD’s latest material wealth rankings (for 2005), New Zealand is in exactly the same position it was at in 2001– 21st in terms of per capita income. And it gets worse. New Zealand currently has one of the lowest economic growth rates in the OECD. David Skilling, the chief executive of economic think tank; the New Zealand Institute, says New Zealand has had a good run economically for the past few years and it is not surprising the economy has cooled down. “But there is no sign of New Zealand generating the super-normal economic performance needed,” he says. “We
2.0 1.5
2.3%
spain
spain
Though it has its fair share of critics, GDP per capita remains the internationally-recognised measure to compare national incomes. It simply divides the value of all goods and services produced in a country by the total number of residents to produce an average national income. Back in 1970, New Zealand’s real GDP per capita was just under the OECD average. Before then we were
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Productivity
If you are looking for a single culprit to blame for New Zealand’s poor ability to create new wealth, look no further than our low levels of productivity— that is, the efficiency with which we convert resources such as labour, materials and capital into goods and services. In February’s OECD
0
1995-2005
2003-2004
nz
0.5
2004-2005
Source: oecD in figureS 2006-2007
1.58
oecd avg. 1.66
David Skilling, New Zealand Institute
ensconced in the top half of the then much more exclusive OECD club. What followed was a relative decline in our wealth that was only arrested in the early 2000s and we are now hovering around 85 percent of the average and in the low 20s among the 30 OECD member countries. In commentary, the organisation said the slowing of our GDP per capita growth was “almost entirely because of lower hourly labour productivity”. GDP per capita equals labour productivity multiplied by labour utilisation, hence the efficiency with which we work has a critical role
avg.
oecd avg.
0.5 0
2001
2002
2003
oecd
nz
nz
nz
nz 0.21
0.99
1.0
1.52
1.5
1.72
1.96
New Zealand has a lot of the basics right such as tax, inflation and regulation. But we need a next generation of policy to get New Zealand moving up the economic rankings. How much do we want it?
Investment and savings
New Zealanders are poor savers by OECD standards, but the importance of domestic savings in fuelling economic growth is contentious. New Zealand’s gross savings as a percentage of GDP are more than those for the US and the UK, and are not a lot worse than Australia’s. Skilling says the reason for our low productivity is the paucity of business investment. He says our lack of domestic savings holds back investment in the domestic economy because these savings are more likely to be used to finance productive investment in New Zealand than foreign savings.
Slipping Productivity
GDP per hour worked – percentage annual growth
2004
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Growth
oecd
oecd
oecd
aust
aust
aust
1.0
1.9%
have to do better. The income gap with Australia has remained constant.” In 2005 the Ministry of Economic Development published a set of indicators to monitor New Zealand’s economic performance, with an emphasis on measures showing progress towards the New Thinking economy. To get a real handle on where we are at we have updated these indicators.
2002 we rose to 20th on the back of a low exchange rate, good commodity prices and a surge in immigration—an economic tail wind that eventually blew out. A look at the OECD’s latest quarterly GDP statistics shows that New Zealand’s current 21st position is now under threat. In February, the OECD said in its commentary on New Zealand’s progress on implementing reforms that growth in GDP per capita had slowed and remained significantly below the OECD average.
to play in lifting national incomes. Increased labour utilisation (hours worked per head of population) has driven about three quarters of New Zealand’s recent economic growth. Given low unemployment and limited hours in a day (New Zealanders already work a large number of hours by international standards) there’s not a lot more improved productivity to be wrung out of doing more work. Productivity is about creating more goods and services, or at least the same, while using equal or fewer inputs such as labour, capital and materials. In practical terms this translates into doing existing work smarter, creating more high-value work and doing less of the low-value stuff. We have been bad at this for at least three decades to the point that in 2005 our GDP per hour worked was US$28– the 22nd lowest in the OECD.
Once a pace setter
Income: average annual GDP volume growth
3.6%
3.6%
3.7%
3.5 3.1% 3.0 2.5
3.2%
3.1%
2.6%
2.6%
2.7%
3.4%
In 2006 the World Bank ranked New Zealand the easiest place in the world to do business
“I’m optimistic things will improve, but we need to keep on making continuous change” —Stephen Tindall
Getting better
Investment and savings – gross capital formation (as a percentage of GDP)
21.47
15 10 5
17.19
oecd avg.
0
93-93
02-04
oecd avg.
nz
nz
20.77
20
He says programmes like Kiwi Saver will make a difference, but there needs to be a greater realisation of how important savings are for economic growth. Physical capital growth is a key driver of better labour productivity. Investments in capital lift the amount and quality of machinery, equipment and infrastructure lift the productivity of workers by giving them access to better, smarter and faster ways of working. Gross fixed capital formation—the investment in assets to produce goods—ran above the OECD average between 2002 and 2004 after spending most of the previous two decades running around, or below, the OECD average.
Innovation and enterprise
The innovation and enterprise of our businesses are key drivers of productivity and business growth. New Zealand businesses do it tough compared with most of the rest of the world—to maintain growth they have to export when they are relatively young and small and end up battling remoteness from markets with limited resources. Given these circumstances, in some areas we do well. Our businesses appear to take on new innovations at about the same rate as European Union countries, there’s a high level of entrepreneurship (at least in the form of start ups) and research and development expenditure has grown strongly. R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP has got closer to the OECD
average after sitting under half the average during the 90s. In 2003, New Zealand R&D was running at 1.6 percent of GDP compared with the OECD average of 2.26 percent. There has been strong growth in the number of triadic patents—filed with the European, Japanese and US patent offices—granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office to New Zealanders. During the 1990s there was an average 64 such patents a year—since 2000 annual approvals have been regularly running at more then 100. The US is the target market for most companies seeking to commercialise their IP offshore. Adoption and adaptation of new technology are at least as important as developing new knowledge. In the key area of information technology (IT), investment in New Zealand has been low. For example, in mid-2006 our broadband uptake ranked us 22nd in the OECD. On the enterprise front, the New Zealand Institute suggests that lifestyle-focused aspirations of many New Zealand business people—‘the three Bs: the BMW, the beach house and the boat’—are holding back business growth and exports. It believes these aspirations are as much a product of the New Zealand environment as they are ‘hardwired into the DNA of New Zealanders’.
Zealand an outlet for its innovation and creativity and a source of new ideas and people. Research shows there is a direct link between productivity and exporting as global trade gives exporters opportunities to specialise and develop economies of scale. In any case, we need to export more because we can’t extract the growth rates we need from the domestic economy. We are starting this race from a long way back. According to the New Zealand Institute, New Zealand is the only developed country to have less international integration now than ten years ago. “The world is globalising but New Zealand is not participating meaningfully in this process,” the institute comments in its Dancing with the Stars report. Between 1997 and 2004, the growth in the value of New Zealand exports of goods was below the OECD average while service exports were above the average.
Economic foundations
A broad measure of how New Zealand’s general economic foundations stack up internationally is the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report which looks at indicators such as public institutions, infrastructure, the macro economy, market efficiency and business sophistication. In the 2006-07 report we ranked 23rd in the world, down from 22nd the year before. Dragging New Zealand’s score down were poor performances in innovation (25th in the world), infrastructure (27th), macro economic indicators (25th) and business sophistication (26th). Our institutions (which the forum says include concepts such as property rights, the environment, the judicial system, perceptions about the efficiency of government spending and the burden of government regulation) were ranked eighth. Our regulatory environment does even better in the World Bank’s 2007 Doing Business report which ranks New Zealand’s regulatory environment at number two in the world (behind Singapore) for overall ease of doing business, topping measures such as ease of registering property and protecting investors. We also do well in ease of starting a business (third in the world), getting credit (third) and employing workers and paying taxes (both tenth). In 2006 the World Bank ranked New Zealand the easiest place in the world to do business.
The future
So in summary, how are we doing? So-so. David Skilling says “New Zealand has a lot of the basics right such as tax, inflation, the government books and regulation. On these counts New Zealand benchmarks well.” He says the focus now needs to be on the “next generation” of policy to get New Zealand moving up the rankings again. “We have been talking a lot about it, but what are we going to do? We need a clear view of what we want to achieve and broadbased buy in. The question is, how much do we want it?” Stephen Tindall, The Warehouse founder and original member of the Knowledge Wave Trust (which has morphed into the New Zealand Institute), takes a long term view. “We are suffering from what happened 20 or 30 years ago.” While New Zealand was turning away from compulsory savings, Australia accelerated its scheme. He says it can take 12 to 15 years for a company to truly reach its potential. The same applies to the programmes and initiatives now in place to lift our economy’s growth rate. The two big issues Tindall sees confronting New Zealand are the lack of savings caused by a flawed regime that supports unproductive investment in property; and the need for a coordinated approach between business and government to accelerate exports. “I’m optimistic things will improve, but we need to keep on making continuous change.”
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Skills and talent
An innovative economy needs skilled and innovative people. Student achievement in our education system is keeping pace with most other OECD countries, but there are concerns about the under performance of Maori and Pasifika students. An international study, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), shows New Zealand students are among the top performers in reading mathematics, science literacy and problem solving. New Zealand also has high levels of continuing education and training.
International connections
A more world-wise and internationally connected New Zealand has always been a fundamental aim of the architects of the New Thinking New Zealand. The world would provide New
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SECTOR WRAP
Biotechnology Boom times
Last year’s Biotechnology Industry Growth Report showed strong expansion in the sector between 2004 and 2005. Export revenue increased over 30 per cent to $142 million; the number of biotech organisations increased 15 per cent and biotechnology expenditure growth increased from an annual 1.2 per cent between 1999 and 2004, to more than 20 per cent from 2004 to 2005. NZ Bio chief executive Brian Ward puts the spurt in activity down to two factors: increasing international recognition of the quality of New Zealand’s science and the willingness of potential international partners to collaborate on this science. He says there has also been an improvement in the local venture capital market with more money available to support the science at an earlier stage than in the past. Ward says there is real potential for the biotech sector to be a $2 billion industry in five to ten years. Some 90 per cent of the $2 billion would be exports, as the small New Zealand base forced our biotech companies to have an international outlook from a very early stage. The biotechnology sector also has spill-over effects to other parts of the economy—notably to agriculture. A recent report calculated that the biotechnology sector makes an economic contribution to the primary sector worth $300-400 million a year.
ICT Steady as we go
In 2003, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) taskforce set a target of the sector contributing ten per cent of New Zealand’s GDP by 2012. At the time, ICT was worth about 4.3 per cent compared with HiGrowth Project executive director Garth Biggs’ calculation of about 5.6 per cent now. To get to the ten per cent mark, the focus is on increasing the number of ICT companies with annual sales above $20 million. Export income, according to IDC Research which mapped the ICT sector in 2005, would need to be about $16 billion if the ten per cent target is to be achieved. How are we doing? Exports in 2005 were worth $1.1 billion compared with $900 million in 2001. Exports represent just seven per cent of total ICT sales. Biggs says the ‘enabling’ aspect of ICT needs to be emphasised. ICT makes up between two and five per cent of the sales value of all our exports. “We want people to understand that every kilogram of butter that leaves this country has an ICT component that has lifted efficiency in its production. The difference in productivity growth between New Zealand and the US is explained by the difference in ICT investment.”
Creative Sector Growing louder
The creative industries continue to outpace national growth figures. In line with other OECD countries the sector, at last count, was growing nine per cent per annum. Emerging niches are in screen-production, fashion, design and publishing. New Zealand’s screen production (feature film, television commercial, television series, digital content) industry now has gross revenues of $2.6 billion, with the latest foreign investment standing at $667 million and growing. International demand for filmmaking in New Zealand is driving further investment in production facilities in Auckland and Wellington as New Zealand continues to be a top destination for the global screen industry. New Zealand directors, animators, crews and actors have now worked on several Hollywood box office hits, and homegrown New Zealand films continue to strike a chord with global audiences. The country is also earning a reputation as a world-leading television commercial destination. New Zealand‘s fashion and apparel sector, with exports of $230 million, is another high-profile contributor to the creative sector. New Zealand designers first appeared at Australian Fashion Week in 1997, and since then New Zealand designer labels have graced the catwalks of Hong Kong, Paris, London and most recently New York. New Zealand wool has been used to produce high-quality textiles, featuring innovative New Zealand and Pacificinspired designs.
Great Expectations
Six sectors have great potential for economic growth. How are they performing? Pretty damn well
In 2002 the government identified three sectors to promote because of their ability to have an “extensive influence throughout the economy”. The sectors biotechnology, ICT and the creative industries each had a taskforce attached and an agenda for change determined. Other sectors have been added for their ability to have a real impact on economic growth rates, their competitive advantage and their consistency with the vision of a global, innovative New Zealand economy. Four years on, how are they doing?
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Food and beverage Firm foundations
The value of the food and beverage sector has been growing at a compound rate of around five per cent a year over the last decade, with exports standing at $15.3 billion in 2004. Cable Bay Vineyard chairman and former chief executive of Heinz Watties for Australasia, David Irving, says because 75 per cent of our food and beverage exports are in the hands of producer cooperatives and subsidiaries of multinationals, we need more New Zealand-owned exporters with $50 million-plus turnover. He says the key issues for the success of these companies include engaging Chinese food producers in their supply chains and capturing China’s rapidly growing middle-class with high quality New Zealand food and wine. “We’ve also got to recognise the convergence of food and health by responsibly producing food and wine that embraces this trend, properly nullifying the current food mile and any other fad, and capturing the imagination of international consumers.” The one person who will most permanently influence a lift in New Zealand’s export performance is the owner manager of our growing medium-sized firms, Irving says. “It is this person who should be the subject of our efforts to achieve better results— not his advisors. “No country has the natural advantages we have. The time has come for the New Zealand food and beverage industry to take proper advantage of world consumer trends.”
Education New direction
The export education sector is experiencing a decline in tuition revenue—a situation that is energising providers to develop new models to compete in the global education market. Some tertiary institutions have been able to buck the downward trend—AUT University, for example, has been one of the few universities to increase its year-on-year overseas student numbers. But it is clear new directions are needed. In 2005, the education sector contributed nearly $2 billion in foreign exchange; the forecast for 2006 is $1.7 billion. While the decline is not too dramatic, Steve Jones, an education specialist with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, says that New Zealand education providers should look toward other promising sources, such as the US$300 billion corporate training industry. To that end, NZTE plans to facilitate a threeto-five-year development programme, as well as focus on industry and government clients. Some in the sector are already seeing success with a new approach. Polytechnics International NZ, which is owned by a consortium of the major government tertiary sector institutions in New Zealand, has secured a $20.6 million contract from the Bangladesh Government to improve secondary schools. The NZ Tertiary Education Consortium has also gained a multimillion dollar contract to provide course content, quality assurance and some staff training for degree programmes to five Colleges of Applied Sciences being established in Oman.
Specialised manufacturing Work ahead
Manufacturing, which by the broadest measure underpins 63 per cent of New Zealand exports, has undergone rapid change since the 1980s due to the effects of globalisation. The sector’s failure to grow as fast as other parts of the economy—as has been the case in most developed countries— saw manufacturing’s share of GDP fall from 21 per cent in 1987 to 15 per cent of the GDP. But a manufacturing vision group was not impressed with suggestions that the sector was a sunset industry—and pointing out that while it would be difficult for New Zealand manufacturers to compete on price, they have opportunities in high-value, specialised manufacturing. “In the absence of scale—in all except the dairy industry—innovation, partnering and emotional engagement in some combination therefore appear to be the best opportunities for value creation,” says the group’s report, entitled Manufacturing Plus: A Vision for WorldLeading New Zealand Manufacturers. One area of “massive potential” for New Zealand manufacturers, is to move up the value chain—from primary commodity to elaborately manufactured. “This has far greater potential than inventing whole new industries.” This is reflected in statistics: ten per cent of exports remain unprocessed (down from 15.3 per cent in 1990), while Elaborately Transformed Manufacturers — those that produce high-value products — contribute around 32 per cent of New Zealand’s goods exports, up from 19.3 per cent in 1990.
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Story by Lauren Bartlett
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t all began back in 2001. A group of high profile business people gathered in Wellington, including Theresa Gattung, the Tamaki brothers, and Chris Chetland of Kog Music. During a brainstorming session with Industry New Zealand (now New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) the group agreed that there is an x-factor in the New Zealand psyche that gives it an advantage in business, but this viewpoint isn’t portrayed internationally—the view of a post-colonial, natural wonderland is apparently still the most popular. 100% Pure continues to portray New Zealand’s natural features very successfully. And sometimes it helps. Brands such as 42 Below, Icebreaker and Untouched World thrive on it. But the ICT sector still struggles with the Middle Earth impression. “If you’re in IT and knocking on doors in the northern hemisphere there is no
advantage in saying you’re from New Zealand, when the image they have in mind is of a pastoral nation,” says Julian Moore of NZTE. Prateek Chaudry used to live in Dubai. He now works at The Department of Doing, an advertising and marketing firm that helps clients produce campaigns that make connections overseas. “Sometimes having no image is better than a clean, green one—at least you can show what you do and build on it,” he says. To counter the pastoral effect, NZTE and its advisors developed the New Zealand New Thinking brand. In essence the brand stands for freshness and innovation. “New Zealand has a great belief in ingenuity. We believe anything is possible,” says Moore, who emigrated from the United Kingdom 16 years ago. The film industry is an example. Many people thought New Zealand wasn’t capable of producing
the three major The Lord Of The Rings films here, but Kiwis just got on with the job. Director Andrew Adamson, of Shrek and Narnia fame, took this on to Hollywood. “He broke all the constraints there, just by putting a fight scene ten minutes into the film rather than leaving it to build up,” says Moore. This is what New Zealand, New Thinking is all about—creating a new image to reflect the business nous available down-under. “We want to put New Zealand businesses in a position where doors do open and the answer is ‘this person’s worth speaking to’. It’s just like any other branding; we need to start building recognition, price premium and loyalty.” This can’t be done with just advertising. New Zealand, New Thinking is a combination of offshore marketing and targeted editorial, as well as providing New Zealand businesses
with tools to get into the spotlight at trade fairs, such as the CeBIT show in Hannover. The New Thinking initiative has even stretched as far as setting up a New Zealand retail environment in Hong Kong, named New Zealand Focus, aiming to sell New Zealand food and
whiteware has been earmarked for a new apartment development in China. Paul Linton, chief of Metra, subsidiary of MetService, agrees that a strategic branding approach is necessary. Metra takes weather data and turns it into information graphics.
showcase other New Zealand products. “It acts like a test market. We know how well certain products sell; now it’s a case of expanding,” says Moore. It’s already had a positive effect. Some of the food products are now stocked in Asian supermarkets, and Fisher & Paykel
Buy a newspaper in Hong Kong or watch the news in the Middle East and more than likely the graphics come from Wellington. The company used contacts from NZTE’s Beachheads programme and embodied New Zealand New Thinking tools into their pitch.
“The perception is that Kiwis are notoriously honest. But this isn’t enough in business. To take what we are good at offshore, we needed to create a brand.” That brand, or at least its key essence, is contained in New Zealand New Thinking. NZTE aims to equip exporters with a toolkit of Power Point slides, fern logos, mini-movies and pictures to include in presentations and interactive branded information for firms to show prospective foreign clients. “For this to work, New Zealand businesses have to embrace it. It’s all about people getting out there and telling the stories,” Moore says. “When I moved to New Zealand everybody told me New Zealand was a great place to bring up kids. It has so much going for it here, but not the economic performance we need. There’s no reason why it can’t be a great place to live and be a great place to work.”
Visit newzealandthinking.com to find out more
Inspiring imagery: The slides, pictures and brand identity in the New Zealand New Thinking toolkit allow exporters to sell a powerful idea through inspiring and consistent messages. The idea is to present a unique and unified image of New Zealand as a source of business innovation
Get yours: To check out how you can use the New Zealand New Thinking toolkit visit newzealandthinking.com
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WORLD CLASS NEW ZEALAND AWARDS 2007
Top CLaSS
“As a culture awards identify leaders as role models. Kea Chairman Stephen Tindall says the esses of Kiwis both congratulating and supporting the succ we need to place greater emphasis on
ise ss New Zealand Awards recogn ent to advertising, the World Cla From chemotherapy treatm and to help New Zealand companies their time, knowledge and skills successful Kiwis who give tions racted over 100 top-level nomina tionally. This year’s awards att industries succeed interna based awards, plus an inees short-listed for six sectoraround the globe, with 22 nom from overall Supreme Award.
at home and around the world.” ured for his late Professor Alan MacDiarmid was hono The 2006 Supreme Award Winner, the making him only awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, contribution to science. In 2000, he was y 2007. award. Sadly he passed away in Februar the second New Zealander to receive the on March 15. The Supreme Award will be announced
Manufacturing Geoff Ross Founder of 42 Below During the day Geoff Ross worked for Saatchi and Saatchi. At night he retired to his Wellington garage to conjure up new and flavoursome vodkas dubbed 42 Below. He sold his first bottle in 1999. Sales grew, first to friends and relatives, then to colleagues and bars and so on until 42 Below established global sales and caught the ear of Bacardi, which bought the company last year for $138 million. The brand won gold in the World Spirits Awards and is now the world’s most awarded vodka, scoring a ‘Grand Slam’ clean sweep in 2006 with gold at all four of the world’s leading spirit competitions. It is sold in 10 countries and the list of outlets is growing. The Ritz London, Beverly Hills Hotel and more than 4,500 of the best bars worldwide now stock 42 Below. The spirits company was listed in first place in the 2005 Deloitte Fast 50 and is a great example of what branding can achieve in real dollar terms.
Biotechnology John Bedbrook Vice president of Research and Development for DuPont Agriculture and Nutrition Dr. Bedbrook was the first person in the world to clone a plant gene. He has published over 100 scientific papers and authored multiple U.S. patents. His work at the biotech frontier included taking part in the first public offering of an agriculture biotech company in 1983 and then releasing the first genetically modified microbe in 1985 to combat plant frost damage. He joined DuPont in July 2004 when it acquired Verdia Inc, a US company led by Bedbrook. He is developing six genetically modified products to improve crop productivity. Dr. Bedbrook received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Auckland. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Harvard Medical School and held a Jane Coffin Childs Fellowship to Harvard University. He is currently based in Piedmont, California.
Creative Industries Kevin Roberts Worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi When Kevin Roberts is not the world’s most famous New York-based Liverpool-born Kiwi, he is the chief executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world’s top ten advertising agencies. In 1989 Roberts moved from Canada with his family to Auckland to become chief operating officer with Lion Nathan. During the next seven years he oversaw the transformation of the company from a large New Zealand brewer to a significant force in the Asia/Pacific beverage industry. A New Zealand citizen, he has offices and homes in New Zealand, New York and St Tropez. Roberts was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Waikato in 1998 in recognition of his achievements. He co-authored Peak Performance: Lessons for Business from the World’s Leading Sports Organisations. Last year he penned The Lovemarks Effect: Winning in the Consumer Revolution, a sequel to his best-selling book Lovemarks.
Research, Science, Technology & Academia Paul Callaghan Professor at Victoria University Professor Callaghan is acknowledged internationally for his work on magnetic resonance—a means of tracking molecules through radio waves. Callaghan’s magnetic resonance methods are used worldwide in the production of plastics, liquid crystals and detergents and have helped Kiwi dairy company Fonterra develop the best mozzarella cheese for pizzas. Callaghan also works on various nanotechnology projects. In between his research, Callaghan is a frequent speaker, broadcaster and author, sharing his passion for science with ordinary New Zealanders in a compelling and good-humoured fashion. Professor Callaghan received his BSc (hons) at Victoria University of Wellington. That was followed by a DPhil degree at Oxford University, England. He now works as a researcher at the MacDiarmid Institute and was honoured in 2005, with the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Information & Communications Technology Brian Peace Chairman of Peace Software In 1984 Brian Peace took advantage of his computer science degree and set up Peace Software Ltd. Twenty years on, the boy from Kihikihi, (near Te Awamutu) was the head of one of New Zealand’s largest software companies, employing more than 400 people at its peak. The company survived even after Enron, a major client, collapsed in 2001. In July 2006 Peace Software was acquired by NASDAQ-listed, First Data. The development headquarters remain in Auckland. Peace CIS, the software system employed by First Data, is operating in 35 markets. Peace lives in the Seychelles with his wife and young daughters. Peace was named Ernst and Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year in 1999 and received a Distinguished Alumni of the University of Auckland in 2001.
Finance, Investment & Business Services Ralph Norris CEO Commonwealth Bank We know him best as the man who turned around Air New Zealand. These days Ralph Norris heads the Commonwealth Bank as the managing director and chief executive in September 2005. He started his working career with Mobil Oil New Zealand in 1967, before joining the Auckland Savings Bank (ASB) in 1969, which became a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. He was appointed managing director and chief executive of ASB Bank in 1991. He retired 10 years later but in 2003 he was made chief executive of Air New Zealand. Norris was awarded a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business in 2006. He is a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management and the New Zealand Computer Society and chair of the Commonwealth Bank Foundation as well as a member of the NSW Premier’s Business Roundtable.
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