NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Business

Liam Dann: Drury world-class business talent

Liam Dann
By Liam Dann
Business Editor at Large·NZ Herald·
24 Mar, 2013 04:30 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Rod Drury is an anchoring force for the tech firm. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Rod Drury is an anchoring force for the tech firm. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Liam Dann
Opinion by Liam Dann
Liam Dann, Business Editor at Large for New Zealand’s Herald, works as a writer, columnist, radio commentator and as a presenter and producer of videos and podcasts.
Learn more
A number of wealthy international investors have picked up on Xero and its cloud-based accounting software.

It is only just three weeks since Kiwi IT company Xero made headlines for cracking $1 billion in market capitalisation ... without having turned a profit.

But its stellar stock market run hasn't abated and, in the short period since, the company has added a further $316 million in market value, with its share price closing at $11.23 on Friday.

Clearly a number of wealthy international investors have picked up on the impressive story of the little tech stock from Hobbit-land making waves in the world with its cloud-based accounting software.

Last week there were a couple of days when the price was soaring faster than you could compose a tweet about it. There was something a little bit too heady to it. Even founder Rod Drury would probably agree. Drury told the market last Monday that the company's surging share price was likely due to increased profile internationally after the appointment of an ex-Google executive, US media interest and recent road shows in Australia attended by more than 3700 accountants.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Yep that would do it. That, and a well-placed article on the Forbes website - penned by former Fonterra boss Andrew Ferrier - probably didn't hurt either.

Brian Gaynor pointed out, on one of the days that the share price went really bonkers, there were three wealthy international buyers understood to be buying in the market at the same time.

Hopefully the madness settles for a bit because there is a danger in too much market hype for even the best of companies.

The market capitalisation of companies can get driven far beyond what can be justified by short and medium term returns, effectively putting them in bubble territory. And bubbles can burst.

And it would be a great shame for anything to derail the progress of Xero which is doing all it has ever promised to do and is hitting its highly ambitious customer targets every six months.

Through all the madness founder and chief executive Drury remains its anchoring force.

Discover more

Shares

Overseas buyers pushing up Xero, says Drury

17 Mar 09:40 PM
Telecommunications

Xero helps market to push higher

20 Mar 04:30 PM
Companies

Xero shares rise 8 on back of overseas investors

20 Mar 04:30 PM
Employment

Xero, Orion will hire Telecom workers

21 Mar 10:05 PM

A lot of nice things have been written about Drury. He was the Herald's pick for Business Leader of the Year in 2012.

As our profile at the time noted, Drury lives something of a double life.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He is a multi-millionaire entrepreneur trotting the globe to promote his fast-growing company.

But he is also a Hawkes Bay-based father of three, a keen surfer and unashamed tech geek.

It has been fun to read Rod Drury's twitter feed over the past few days.

He remains cool and unaffected despite the huge surge in his own personal wealth.

His Twitter is a steady stream of gadget and software related quips and comments that might otherwise belong to a small-time IT blogger.

There's the occasional plug or retweet of a glowing review for Xero software - but no more than you might expect from anyone who shares both professional and personal aspects of themselves in the online space.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

He maintains the sort of social media mix that keeps you on the inside of the commercial-shy online world. Drury remains one of the cool kids online. He is intuitively comfortable online.

His social media presence is a reminder that Xero is not an accounting company scrambling to fit into the online world, it is an online company that has made accounting systems its core business.

It has a Silicon Valley outlook - and now it has a Silicon Valley share price.

Drury is, whether he likes it or not, a big part of the value of Xero. He is a world-class business talent - a rare mix of leader, manager and entrepreneur and, importantly, a top marketer and salesman.

Drury's leadership role may not be so crucial as the company hits maturity. If the Xero product, which I've never used, is as good as the company believes it is then it shouldn't need to be.

But for now his commitment and drive must have a lot to do with the value that those wealthy investors are putting on it.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

A strong figurehead goes with the territory in the dot.com world. For examples of how important relationships between the founders and their tech companies are you don't have to look far - Microsoft, Apple, Facebook.

Of course, you'd be hard pressed to find many who would say Xero's market value isn't running far ahead of schedule right now.

But what is amazing is that there is every reason to take Xero seriously as a company which could - if everything goes right - one day justify its current worth.

Drury made headlines one more time last week.

He - as well as Ian McCrae, chief executive of another Kiwi growth story, Orion Health - made the bold claim that their companies would most likely be hiring some of the workers who will lose their jobs in the Telecom restructuring due over the next 12 months.

The statements looked brash in newspaper headlines, but really the pair were just stating the obvious.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

There will be opportunities for some of the skilled IT workers that Telecom sheds - not just with Xero and Orion but within the rest of the local tech sector which remains consistently upbeat and forward-looking.

And there will be opportunity not just for the computer programmers and systems guys - but for the marketers and sales people and other white collar workers that these companies will need to support their New Zealand-based offices as they grow.

The challenges facing Xero and other IT companies as the foreign buyers start to take an interest and buy in are well documented.

We won't keep all these companies resolutely New Zealand-owned for ever but whatever happens to them it all adds to a culture of IT success in this country.

It is exciting to watch.

Food, tourism and cloud-based creativity in IT, design and media - that's an economic formula to keep New Zealand in the First World through the 21st century.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

That's why New Zealanders should be backing companies like Xero, even if for most of us, its price and risk profile don't make it an obvious investment option.

It is a job-creator. And more than that, it is one of a number of exciting young companies that is creating the kind of jobs our children will stick around to do.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Business

Media Insider

TVNZ boss on the future of the 6pm news, Shortland Street - and a move into pay TV

19 Jun 09:37 AM
Premium
Shares

Market close: GDP beats forecasts but NZ sharemarket dips

19 Jun 06:24 AM
Premium
Business

Innovation milestone: NZ approves lab-grown quail for consumption

19 Jun 04:34 AM

Audi offers a sporty spin on city driving with the A3 Sportback and S3 Sportback

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Business

TVNZ boss on the future of the 6pm news, Shortland Street - and a move into pay TV

TVNZ boss on the future of the 6pm news, Shortland Street - and a move into pay TV

19 Jun 09:37 AM

Will this be Simon Dallow's swansong year as the 6pm newsreader?

Premium
Market close: GDP beats forecasts but NZ sharemarket dips

Market close: GDP beats forecasts but NZ sharemarket dips

19 Jun 06:24 AM
Premium
Innovation milestone: NZ approves lab-grown quail for consumption

Innovation milestone: NZ approves lab-grown quail for consumption

19 Jun 04:34 AM
$162k in cash, almost $400k in equipment seized in scam crackdown last year

$162k in cash, almost $400k in equipment seized in scam crackdown last year

19 Jun 04:29 AM
Gold demand soars amid global turmoil
sponsored

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP