Business Venture Competition: Gold medal for private sector

The Great New Zealand Business Venture is a tribute to Kiwi private-sector initiative.

And in particular, the ability of the corporates to reach down and embrace smaller business players.

Privately funded and driven, its task - to inspire a raft of new world-class business start-ups - has been completed before the Government even got out of the starting blocks with its own business incubator projects.

If this is an example of private sector "can do" in action, then New Zealand stands a good chance of being more than simply the "last bus stop on the planet." And we need more of it.

Other countries such as Germany and Switzerland have used the McKinsey-developed business competition model, but the New Zealand project has spawned far more start-up proposals.

Take the German experience as an example. Munich and Berlin between them attracted 256 budding entrepreneurs to the first phase of the programme in 1996. In New Zealand, the comparable figure was 420.

McKinsey predicted that more than 4000 jobs would result if only half the start-ups in Munich and Berlin were successful. Time will tell with our New Zealand finalists - but the omens are excellent.

What the Great New Zealand Business Venture demonstrates is that Kiwis must put to one side their distrust of big (corporate) business if New Zealand is to develop as a world-class economy.

Government politicians worked themselves into a lather over the Business Roundtable's backdoor sponsoring of the "lost generation" advertisement. But if the politicians want to form partnerships with the private sector, they need to grasp the fact that it's not just the politicians who are passionate about this country's future.



So let us chalk up congratulations and thanks to the proponents of the Great New Zealand Business Venture: Deutsche Bank chief executive Scott Perkins, Andrew Grant of McKinsey, Paul Lockey of Lion Nathan, Jon Hartley of Infinity Group and Venture chief executive Bridget Wickham.

Each of these businesspeople is world-class in his or her own right. The hollowing-out of New Zealand's corporate sector has happened and this process, just as in Australia, will continue. But it's instructive that this small group of players has still been able to enthuse, cajole, or sheer bludgeon enough other passionate Kiwi businesspeople to keep this project alive and flourishing.



In my view, the project belongs within the private sector, and it's important to New Zealand's future that more private sector handholding operations continue.

New Zealand is too small to marginalise the passionate players. If this is an example of private-sector leadership, then let us see more of it.

* The New Zealand Herald is proud to have been the media partner for the Great New Zealand Business Venture.