Rakon could be the poster child for New Zealand business.

It was founded as a maker of radio crystals by Warren Robinson, 71, in the basement of his Howick home in 1967.

Sons Brent (managing director) and Darren (marketing director) have made it a world leading manufacturer of high-performance crystals and oscillators, essential components of Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation hardware.

Just 5 per cent of its products are sold in New Zealand with the rest sold to the world, many to the world's leading engineering companies: Motorola, Siemens, Ericsson and Samsung.

Some of their products end up in the hands of the world's defence forces. But the company does not like to talk about it, especially after the products were linked with smart bombs in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Rakon has picked up numerous awards, including New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's 2005 Supreme New Zealander Exporter of the year. Sales stood at $70 million last year and are growing in line with the 20 per cent to 30 per cent rise in the wider market.

This week, Rakon unveiled the world's smallest GPS receiver - the size of a baby's fingernail. And now, eyeing the huge potential for the inclusion of its products in the 500 million to 600 million mobile phones and the 70 million to 80 million cars manufactured each year, it is considering a stock exchange listing.

In short, if more New Zealand companies followed its lead, the country would be making headway in resolving many of the problems dogging the economy: A reliance on commodity exports, heavy indebtedness to the rest of the world and a sharemarket that lags its international peers.

But the brothers have not let their success go to their heads. It is the tail end of the Christmas break. Brent Robinson has just flown in from Great Barrier Island, cutting into his holiday especially for the interview with the Business Herald.

However, sitting in the beige boardroom of Rakon's Mt Wellington headquarters, neither cuts the corporate image - open-necked shirts, tanned, taciturn and still betraying traces of the roll-up-your-sleeves ethic that has propelled Rakon to where it is.

Brent Robinson, 46, who started as an electronics apprentice with the now-departed Pye electronics company in Waihi before joining the family firm in 1979, contrasts Rakon's new governance regime with its past.

Rakon has just appointed two independent directors, including chairman Bryan Mogridge, a director of Mainfreight and Pyne Gould Corp, and for the first time is holding regular board meetings.

"As we have grown over the years, we have just huddled in one of our offices - regularly," says Brent Robinson. "If we are going to raise capital and are looking at an initial public offering [the new governance regime] is necessary. Certainly, the company is at the stage where it needs those strict disciplines."