Q&A with Wayne Norrie Chair of the Beachheads Advisory Board

What are the issues facing New Zealand businesses trying to operate internationally?

In New Zealand we operate in a very small business environment compared to some of our target offshore markets. So not surprisingly, the issues tend to be:

• Focus – Many opportunities will come your way and seductively look like they will return easy cash and profits, especially when you often desperately need it! Very rarely is that true. Low hanging fruit in offshore markets is low hanging for a reason. Stick to your knitting.
• People – It is extremely difficult to attract, afford and retain high calibre skills in offshore markets, where the competition is paying them many times more than is often budgeted. 
• Strategy – what works here in New Zealand is not often portable. New Zealand can be a more forgiving market, and allows us to operate on a more generalist basis. We can pick up and operate non core activities here, and even believe they are core. This is difficult to do in a larger market, especially for smaller players. Executing to a ‘laser’ like strategy, rather than a ‘lantern’, can be a challenge for many companies.
• Learning – the landscape will change and tactics need to change as well. Our pragmatic self made approach can sometimes mean we are less likely to take advice and learn from others.

Are you seeing more or fewer opportunities for businesses in the current economic environment?

The world is getting smaller and it is now easier than it has ever been to expand your business geographically. Back office functions exist in the cloud, and opening new markets is often risk reduced to sales and marketing efforts in the early phases.

This offers greater opportunities for New Zealand companies. We may have a small market, but we are highly skilled at running companies very efficiently. We have to be. These attributes, coupled with the ease of geographical expansion provides many opportunities offshore - even in tight economic times.

In fact, this can be the upside for many New Zealand companies, as traditional ‘business as usual’ options are no longer enough and outside the square solutions are being sought.

How important are in-market relationships to successful New Zealand business?

In a word - critical. Business has always been about people and relationships. Period.

In a global sense in New Zealand we operate in a small village, where it is much easier to form relationships.; we know most of the players; there are only two degrees of separation in the business world; we can get round the barriers to key decision makers; introductions are easy to get so we can create networks and form relationships quickly and easily.

None if this is true in large markets. This is why the Beachheads programme offers so much value as it can help you form critical key relationships in larger business environments.