The kiwi business advantage

A major innovator in this region was George Eastman who started Kodak.

With its slogan 'you press the button, we do the rest,' he put the first simple camera into the hands of consumers in 1888.

In so doing, he made a complicated process easy to use and accessible to nearly everyone. In its prime, Kodak employed 60,000.

Less than one-quarter remain. The reality is that the same cities and towns have been dying for years. Manufacturers came to the region for the cheap hydro power. Today most have closed. 

These companies could not change and reinvent themselves. 

I write this to prompt Kiwi entrepreneurs to see the other side of the US. We tend to focus on the sophisticated side as leaders in technology, automobiles, software, and entertainment.

The capability to change

Yet many aspects of the US are in dire need of new ideas and new ways of thinking. While there are vast differences between the societies, here lies the opportunity for Kiwis. 

I believe Kiwis have a very strong ability to change and make change happen.

I came to New Zealand in 1990. It was a time of cucumber sandwiches, chocolate fish, instant coffee and grocery stores that closed at 1 pm on Saturdays.

Kiwi society changed.

It is this ability to change that Kiwi businesses can offer their American counterparts.

Innovation is about change and change is about innovation. Some define innovation in terms of implementing ideas that create value. 

A better way to view innovation is building a capacity to change. If you can lead change in a business or industry, you can focus on the ideas you need to make it happen. This “change” must be in the products we sell to customers, how we create value in a business, and how we manage people to deliver this value.

NZTE recently published, “Manufacturing+ Creating Value in your Business.” 

In it I read, “As a nation of small companies, New Zealand has a considerable advantage when it comes to generating innovation solutions and rapidly adapting them into our businesses…How well a company is geared up for innovation can be gauged by its capacity to continually develop, integrate and apply knowledge from many diverse sources.”

Building your capacity to change is the best business strategy for long term success. It assumes that the status quo is not an option. Today’s innovation can end up as tomorrow’s mediocrity.

The ability of Kiwi entrepreneurs to act on new technologies or concepts quickly is the key for innovation.