A group of 'next-generation' chief executives is quietly working to transform NZ into a top-performing small economy on the Irish model. FRAN O'SULLIVAN reports.
If Helen Clark uses the Knowledge Wave conference in August to launch some major Government initiatives, a little-known chief executives' ginger group should take some quiet satisfaction.
Close to fruition are a range of circuit-breaking schemes, from driving innovation through to launching international task forces to attract world-class businesses to invest here, and aggressively courting the Kiwi diaspora to use its connections to New Zealand's advantage.
Next week's Budget will be remarkably light on the necessary initiatives to underpin New Zealand's transformation to a knowledge-driven economy.
The Crown Research Institutes, with their billions of dollars of intellectual capital, will be launched down the commercial track.
But Finance Minister Michael Cullen has dispelled notions that any true Big Ideas, such as a foreign direct investment programme, will be unveiled.
It is the big ideas which concern the predominantly Auckland-based "next-generation" chief executive activists who have been collaborating with Auckland University, Government and Opposition players to promote the "Catching the Knowledge Wave" conference.
With New Zealand's competitiveness continuing to erode, holding a talkfest without ensuring pragmatic outcomes is not an option.
The private sector guerrillas have been filling the gaps in an environment where Government bureaucrats lack sufficient business experience and sheer connections to underpin the Prime Minister's aim of transforming New Zealand to a knowledge-based economy.
Their leading lights - Carter Holt Harvey's Chris Liddell, Deutsche Bank's Scott Perkins and McKinsey's Andrew Grant - all have demanding day jobs. But they - together with the rest of the core group - are passionately committed to making New Zealand the world's most impressive small economy.
Ironically, the Business Roundtable with its $2 million-plus annual budget and full-time executive, was approached before the 1999 election to refocus and drive similar initiatives. But the Roundtable informally declined the activist approach.
Its executive director, Roger Kerr, produces excellent analysis on many of the big issues, but he was quickly sidelined last year by the Prime Minister. The Roundtable's influence initially waned under the Labour-Alliance Government. But it keeps topical through its analysis of macro-economic policies, focus on fiscal rectitude and examination of current issues such as the move to drop the right of appeal to the Privy Council.
The Roundtable recently canvassed its members, reviewed its operations and is working to improve its communications. This change has not come fast enough for players such as Liddell who has now resigned from the Roundtable.
He says he wants to have a more active influence on New Zealand's future direction and membership of the smaller, free-wheeling group enables him to do so. Running a large forestry company allows only so much time for wider interests.
But ginger group members such as Perkins, Credit Suisse First Boston's Bill Trotter and Baycorp's Gavin Walker still belong to the Roundtable.
Liddell holds in high regard the organisation's ability to do quality research, but he says the Roundtable's views are well-known. For the Carter Holt Harvey chief, whose wife, Bridget Wickham, is also a leading member of the ginger group, it comes down to a "debate versus direct action" approach.
New Zealanders are the world's ultimate committee joiners. But the ginger group has declined to give itself a name or brand. The reasoning is that by taking an essentially underground approach, it will be able to have more direct influence with the Government.
There have been meetings with Clark and her minder Heather Simpson. But the group is reluctant to talk openly about its work in case its relationship with the Government is jeopardised.
The ginger group includes The Warehouse founder, Stephen Tindall, to whom many of the players look as a guiding light, Korn Ferry's Annika Streefland, former Fletcher Paper chief executive Alexander Toldte, Kiwi Dairies' Craig Norgate, PR Jenny Raynish, Russell McVeagh's Andrew Harmos, Telemedia's Chris Jones and University of Auckland Development's Bridget Wickham.
Some of them have accompanied cabinet minister Pete Hodgson to Israel to study business start-up initiatives, hi-tech strategies and the development of a venture capital industry. The Irish model is frequently cited - particularly the hard-edged drive by the Irish cabinet to arm-twist their business diaspora to get behind Ireland's resurgence.
Hard-stretch economic targets and an entrepreneurial culture are part and parcel of their ambition. Practically, their focus is for New Zealand to build some globally relevant businesses, undertake broader globalisation projects and get the country to build on its traditional strengths.
Andrew Grant credits last year's visit by media baron Sir Anthony O'Reilly as providing inspiration for the group to form. Sir Anthony - executive chairman of the Herald's owner Independent News & Media - pushed a message that New Zealand should be doing more to encourage foreign companies to set up shop here, get corporate taxes down and align itself with the huge US market.
Grant said the O'Reilly message that New Zealand should get out there and "love to death" potential investors was apt. Like Scott Perkins, he wants to harness players such as Lion Nathan chairman Douglas Myers, overseas-based entrepreneurs Alan Gibbs, Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite - and their connections - to get foreign direct investment flowing in New Zealand's direction.
Their view is that while such players may have been offside with the current Government, there comes a point where narrow political partisanship should not override the national interest of getting New Zealand moving.
In September 1999, Grant put forward a catalytic role for the Roundtable which would have added soft focus elements to its hard-edge policy agenda. These included aspiration raising, a shift to a more entrepreneurial culture, creating "angel" networks, and acting as a hub for informal and informal task forces to use New Zealand talent.
When Grant left New Zealand in the late 1980s, the Roundtable was the "hottest thing in town" - an elite, dynamic and influential organisation he aspired to join.
But by late 1999 it had lost its impetus and did not inspire many of his generation of executives.
The Government's informal "hit-list" - those deliberately left off the invitation list for last year's Government-Business forum - is understood to have recently dwindled as efforts are made to rebuild connections and remove misunderstandings.
But the ginger group - and other groupings - certainly gets the Government access which was once automatically the Roundtable's.
Where does all this leave the Business Roundtable?
Many of the private sector players who pushed for the 1980s and early 1990s wave of deregulation have since stepped down. Driving force Douglas Myers is planning a shift to London this year. Roundtable chairman Ralph Norris says the organisation must review its processes and objectives regularly to stay relevant.
"Any business organisation has to ensure that it has engagement with the Government, and while we may have differences in philosophy, that shouldn't mean we don't engage in dialogue."
Kerr has already presented to the Roundtable the results of a survey on future strategy and the issues the group should pursue.
BMW chief Geoff Fletcher is confident the Roundtable can rebuild its presence under Kerr.
He says that without the Roundtable's robust stance during last year's standoff between Government and business, the cabinet would not have modified its position and started talking to the business sector.
Another member said the organisation had been pretty dead for a year. "It was intellectually fantastic quality, but the attendance was pretty insipid."
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu executive chairman John Hagen - whose firm sits on a number of competing business groups - believes there is still plenty of mileage in the Roundtable.
For Kerr, it comes down to the basic fact that while the Government may pursue innovation and a range of knowledge-society initiatives, there still must be further reform in areas such as corporate tax, Government spending and cutting red tape.
He points out that despite all the comforting noises at the Prime Minister's love-in with the business sector late last year, the recent review of the Resource Management Act was a complete disappointment.
The chief executives' ginger group is certainly not the only new player in town. Helen Clark is also tapdancing with the Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Business for Social Responsibility icon Dick Hubbard was the only businessman to get a serious gong in the latest Honours List.
But New Zealand is too small not to use all the serious players.
Herald Online features:
* The jobs challenge
* Common core values
* href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=57032">The knowledge society
Official website:
Catching the
Knowledge Wave
Budget 2001 full coverage
Budget links
CEO's guerrilla fighters for a new NZ
A group of 'next-generation' chief executives is quietly working to transform NZ into a top-performing small economy on the Irish model. FRAN O'SULLIVAN reports.
If Helen Clark uses the Knowledge Wave conference in August to launch some major Government initiatives, a little-known chief executives' ginger group should take some quiet satisfaction.
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