The Bank of New Zealand's chief executive Anthony Healy has challenged other Kiwi business leaders to overcome what he sees as five key issues facing New Zealand.
These include upskilling business owner-managers so they grow faster, capturing more opportunities from Asian economic growth, responding to environmental issues such as the degradation of lowland waterways, getting faster uptake of digital opportunities in businesses, and dealing with school underachievement.
Speaking at an Auckland business lunch yesterday, Healy illustrated his points using five numbers.
The first was 450,000, the number of small and medium-sized businesses in New Zealand who collectively contribute 28 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. Healy said many SMEs grow to a certain size and scale and then fail to take the next step that would allow them to go global.
The second number was 470,000, the estimated number of Aucklanders of Asian origin in 2012. Taking advantage of this shift requires a changed attitude from some New Zealanders as much as it does on open borders and trading arrangements, he said.
Third on the "Healy index" was 62, the percentage of New Zealand's lowland river waterways officially classified as unsuitable for swimming. Healy said this was not just a farmers' issue - the problem was collectively owned by anyone who has eaten anything produced on a farm.
The fourth number was 517,000, the New Zealand premises with access to ultrafast broadband, although less than 40,000 do so. Digital technology enables savvy Kiwi producers to expand their world trade and sell direct to consumers in ways that would have been inconceivable a few years ago, he said.
And his fifth and final figure was 26, the percentage of New Zealand students in 2013 who left school without a qualification at NCEA level 2 or above (equivalent to passing senior year Australian high school subjects).
This is an edited version of a report that
first appeared on BusinessDesk.