8 December 2009
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) has published a new book to help businesses create value, grow profitability and develop exports.
The publication of Creating Value in Your Business is part of a project that started in August 2005, when NZTE convened the Manufacturing Vision Group.
Made up of industry leaders, manufacturers, unions, and government representatives, the group in late 2006 launched a report Manufacturing+ A Vision for World Leading New Zealand Manufacturers.
Since August 2005, more than 500 people around New Zealand have participated in workshops and contributed insights about what businesses could do better to create more value. This feedback, as well as theory and six case studies, form the basis of the Creating Value in Your Business book.
The book has been edited by Professor Mike Pratt, Professor of Leadership and Sustainability and Chairman of the Manufacturing Vision Group.
Professor Pratt says there is an “urgent need” for businesses to consider what the customer, consumer and end-user actually need and value.
“Traditional business models have involved ‘pushing’ a product into the market because the technology exists and then looking for customers.
“Capturing emerging market opportunities that are tailored to a particular customer need helps instead to ‘pull’ the product or offering into the market,” Professor Pratt says.
About 60 high-growth businesses have used NZTE’s Manufacturing+ programme to partly fund in-house workshops for implementing the Value Creation ideas and enhancing their performance.
NZTE Group General Manager Business Solutions Grant McPherson says the ideas about creating value don’t just apply to manufacturers.
“The Value Creation model promoted through our Manufacturing+ programme has been used by businesses in virtually all industries.
“We think the Creating Value in Your Business publication will be useful to existing exporters and to businesses that plan to export in the future.
“The concepts are also important to domestically-focused companies, who need to be aware of global trends and alert to the business models their overseas competitors are using,” Mr McPherson says.
Read the creating value in your business book
Distributed by Jennifer Andrewes, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, phone +64 4 816 8318, mobile +64 27 228 0261, or email jennifer.andrewes@nzte.govt.nz.
About New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) is the Government’s national economic development agency. Our job is to lift New Zealand’s economic performance by helping more New Zealand businesses to grow and compete internationally. Our services are tailored to business needs and include programmes to build international contacts, improve performance and provide access to capital and investment. We are a global organisation and our overseas networks provide the international connections businesses need to grow internationally and to attract investment into New Zealand. In 2008 we were judged ‘best of the best’ at the World Trade Promotion Organisation Awards.
