Wells is concerned the evident uptick in the Australian economy will be a serious resources threat for New Zealand.
"Singapore, Hong Kong (a little bit) and Asia, but particularly Australia when it fires, it fires at a high rate of productivity. That's a major concern," he says.
Stepping up performance in transport, infrastructure and productivity would play a big part in improving New Zealand's competitiveness, says Wells.
Infrastructure provides a lot of work for his law firm and also helps the legal environment as a whole, he says.
Chapman Tripp's relatively young, idealistic lawyers expect the firm to be taking responsibility when it comes to issues around sustainability, the environment and company culture, he says.
"It's about more than doing bill-ables and earning money, they want to see a focus around work that serves a greater good rather than what we are doing at the moment," says Wells.
The Chapman Tripp partner reports seeing positive signs of health in the business community which is not necessarily being discussed publicly, he says.
"The employment market is still strong and our clients talking to us show a degree of confidence in the momentum that you don't get from the surveys," he says.
While international trade is unpredictable right now, the mixed messages from the New Zealand business environment presents a confused picture, says Wells.
"What worries me is you might find us talking ourselves into negative territory that doesn't really exist."
And though the Government could have handled certain issue better — aiming high on things like renewable energy and then backtracking — it is putting issues on the table, which need to be confronted, says Wells.
"The thing we like is that there is an ability to engage with the Government and be listened to," says Wells.
New Zealand has a relatively positive political environment to conduct business in compared with Australia, the UK and the US, he adds.
Wells predicts that housing will be what hurts the Government in the run up to the election.
This process was much more difficult than anyone anticipated and it's why, instead of many thousands of houses, only a few hundred have come onstream, he says.
Chapman Tripp is working on improving its own performance with the help of technology. It is automating certain contract processes which is allowing it to compete at different price points in the market and appeal to a new type of client.
If successful, it will lead ultimately to needing fewer junior lawyers and employing more technical staff.
"It's been quite a lot of work in collaborative teams, it sounds a little bit like some of the transformation that Spark's gone through.
"But it's really just facing up to, this is the technological world we're working in and we've got to keep working and moving with that," he says.
Nick Wells' big issues
• Top three business priorities next 12 months
Technology and innovation.
Client engagement.
Culture, our people and community.
• Biggest achievement past 12 months
Retention of and dedication of a complement of high-quality people.
• Biggest regret
Never doing enough for the community we work, live and play in.
• Single biggest factor to assist my business to remain internationally competitive from New Zealand
Ability to afford globally aligned salaries to attract more subject matter experts back to New Zealand, to then connect back with the international market, to increase productivity for the New Zealand economy as a whole.
- Additional reporting Fran O'Sullivan
