Creativity Is Not Enough

New Zealand is ranked one of the highest countries in the OECD for hatching new ideas, but quite lowly in taking those ideas to the world and turning them into big business.

Why is this and what can be done about it?

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has recently released a report entitled “Playing to Our Strengths. Creating Value for Kiwi Firms” and in it seeks to identify traits that hold us back in becoming successful business owners and what to do about it. Those traits can be summarised as follows:

Satisficing. We are more driven to have a good lifestyle than kicking on and creating significantly more wealth.

Thinking for our customers. We tend to presume too much and view the world from a distinctly Kiwi perspective. This often results in focussing on short term issues, rather than building long term relationships.

Self reliance. The old Kiwi mentality of “do it myself” which typically results in effort being too thinly spread and performance in critical areas of the business being lower than it needs to be. Reluctance to plan for succession and picture the business beyond the current owner is also typical.

Tall Poppy. This causes us to have a profound reluctance to give and receive feedback and a similar reluctance to use specialists. Along with the fear of failure there is also almost a fear of success and this tends to stymie the willingness to experiment and take risks.

Undervaluing IP. Recognising the need to protect the IP that is created as part of the innovation process is important so that future revenue generation opportunities can be exploited.

The report goes into explaining a range of strategies that owners of entrepreneurial businesses should consider adopting, but as a business advisor I have no hesitation in highlighting the need for owners to engage professional help in their business and “turbo charging” its growth. Rather than relying on trial and error, using a specialist, be it a good accountant, specialist lawyer or business coach, can make a huge difference to the success of a business and also the speed in which that success will be achieved. The ability to step back from the coal face and focus on the longer term vision is essential to take a business to the next level. Sometimes that ability can only come from an independent and objective point of view.

If you would like to discuss your business and how to take it to the next level, contact the author at iconnorthshore@gmail.com