The next 10 years for The Icehouse

“We have worked hard for 10 years but think we can do more in the future,” CEO Andrew Hamilton said, “and will be hiring more people to work directly with companies

“There is plenty of technological innovation out there and there always will be new ideas, opportunities and gaps in the market.

“It’s the same everywhere as the pace of change continues to accelerate with markets changing in technology, networking and web-based applications. New Zealand is well placed with talent and innovation to take advantage of this environment and has become more aware of the importance of winning business internationally.”

Mr Hamilton said the Icehouse had assisted 65 startups and around 2500 SMEs. Startups have created around 500 jobs while SMEs earnings have grown by 31 percent.

He said building export capabilities was fundamental to Icehouse programmes, resulting in start-ups generating 70 percent of their earnings from offshore while 15 percent of SMEs were exporters.

“We develop a of pipeline of companies and NZTE works with us to help them go global,” Mr Hamilton said.

Icehouse was formed in 2001 by the Auckland University Business School and a core group of corporates including the Bank of New Zealand, Telecom, the Boston Consulting Group, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard.

Others including Gen-i and Ernst and Young have since become partners.
They established the centre with $2 million funding and continue to make annual contributions.

The venture has also been strongly supported by NZTE, the NZ Venture Investment Fund and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.
Initially known as the Institute for Entrepreneurship, the name was quickly changed to the International Centre for Entrepreneurship (ICE) for branding reasons.

The importance of SMEs

Its aim, Mr Hamilton said, was to recognise SMEs’ importance to the New Zealand economy and generate jobs and prosperity through growth.

And a major goal was to restore New Zealand to the top half of the OECD’s per capita GDP ratings.

“In the fifties, New Zealand was third but now it is in the bottom third,” Mr Hamilton said, “but we need to be in the top 50 percent and the only way to do that is to make existing companies bigger, launch a raft of new businesses and have more companies winning internationally.

“But Icehouse by itself won’t get New Zealand into the top half. We are as good as we can be and must share our knowledge with other incubators to help launch new businesses – and we have got to give innovators what they need, such as advice, money and networks.”