Happy Elephant supping! I agree that the goal is both awesome and achievable. It's also great to see a government project that supports our 'value earners'. We're all good at focussing on the needy but there's an endless supply of 'needs' (it's a question of degree) and this focusses on increasing the pot instead of just spending it.
We need to spend our tax dollars wisely = meanly. (Do you reallise taxpayers are only one third of the population?). So, my priorities for company size are: I'd like to add my support for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial focus in education, especially to help people find their entrepreneurial flair, but at low or no cost. [Kids involvement with fund raising projects is ideal so maybe a 'Kid's Foundation' where all the money is raised by school kids who then choose their own favourite charities for their region (like baby Lions)]. Our practical programmes to support entrepreneurs (eg. our cluster, BIZ programmes, CECC, IoD, Cii etc) now seem to be pretty good but we have somewhat less practical programmes to support new exporters (pace Cate's breakfasts). Marketing doesn't seem to be a national strength yet NZ only really gets economic value from our Hi-tech businesses when we export (new money, not the same old dollar going round and round). So my first priority is to support just what the cluster is doing - helping individual people in companies like mine to export more through contacts, marketing, mentoring, legal support, etc. [How about an international zine/publication 'Kiwi Ingenuity'?] Next, I think that if more of our $1m - $5m turnover companies were obviously successful and quickly growing into $5m - $20+m companies, generating forex without heart attacks and having fun doing it, then new entrepreneurs would come out of the woodwork to emulate them. We'd also be focussing our few tax dollars (competing with kids' education, kidney machines and kakapos) on likely winners with proven commitment, rather than supporting new entrepreneurs who might just be dipping their toes in the water. (I'm not even convinced that we can 'create' entrepreneurs. Like chefs, they can be improved with training but must be born with the aptitude to be a real winner (don't shoot me)). So I'd focus support clearly and mainly on this group (not new startups). I'd like to see national support with recognition for the business 'growers' and 'exporters', maybe an honarary degree for reaching sustainable, recognised steps like 2+ years at $1m T/O, $5m T/O, $10m T/O etc. But I'd like to support our big companies too, since tomorrow's IP (with experience to make it work) is often in the heads of the kiwis who are employed by successful, vigorous and innovative companies. Where would we be without Taits? So big company reserach programmes are a must (more important to me than University programmes even). Thirdly I'd like to support overseas investment, killing the myth that a company sold to an overseas buyer is a loss to NZ. We actually win twice when we sell our companies offshore: once when the kiwi entrepreneur gets the payout (which usually stays in NZ) and again when the new owner invests in expanding its new acquisition (more jobs and experience, bigger markets and exposure, investment in R&D). [Who cares if the IP is owned by a foreigner - it's yesterday's IP that's gone offshore - tomorrow's IP is in the heads of the kiwi employees]. A 10% increase in a $200m company is worth more that 20 new startups (lots of reasons) and overseas investment in NZ is like a low cost loan with payback in yesterday's dollars, not tomorrows (NPV reversed). Also, running a big company is different from running a new venture. Entrepreneurs will want out eventually so we need better exit routes for entrepreneurs so they can go and do it all over again. Lastly, I'd like us to recognise and support the entrepreneurial seeds within otherwise rather staid companies. For example, a national research organisation has an innovative team developing specialist software for growing asparagus which has a worldwide market, but without the business infrastructure and skills to support international software sales. More and more ordinary companies are going to see the software based opportunities for selling their expertise offshore and we need special training, incentives and programmes to help ordinary managers see the not-so-ordinary potential in their own companies and package it inside software for wider markets. [now back to my 2 page to-do list!!] Happy new year, from Sue -----Original Message----- From: Peter Brown [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 08 January 2003 09:57 To: Canterbury Software Email Forum Subject: [csforum] What's the best way to eat an Elephant? Hi All, What's the best way to eat an Elephant? - One meal at a time. I hope everyone had a great break and is ready for an awesome New Year! At the end of this month we have an opportunity to have our say (as a Cluster) about the ICT Task force report. In general I think that the report has an excellent goal and provides the beginning of a road map of how to get there. Rather than try and discuss the entire report on the forum at once what I suggest we do is discuss it section by section over the next week or so. So have a skim through the 1st few pages to the end of section 2 While you're reading, keep in mind the requests of the Taskforce for ideas on: - The draft recommendations - How to implement or action the report (also how could we as a Cluster support the initiative) - What type of group could drive the action plan forward So to start the ball rolling. what do think about the first few pages... My initial reaction to the Goal and Challenge of '100 * $100M companies in 10 years' was "Awesome" then "so how do I get Nightside there, or part way there?". As a company we have goals out to 5 years, the goal from the report gives us something to shoot for at the 10 year mark. Even if we (as a country) get half way to this target it will be a significant achievement! Another thing that comes to mind is that we (as a country) are currently developing people to become employees (e.g. you can view the entire school/tertiary system as training people to work for others) if we want to have a 100 companies at Phase D then it would also be great to have 200 at C, 500 at B. This would mean that a significantly larger pool in Phase A in needed - may be 10,000 or more? So where will these companies come from? We are actually going to need to start developing more people to become entrepreneurs (rather than just letting them pop out of the woodwork here and there). Should this be a Business / Govt / collaborative effort? The Recommendations =================== 2. Commitment Yes we want to grow - so how do we get there? Who are the companies in the $20M+ group (a list would be nice), what can be learnt from them in how they achieved their level of sales, lessons etc? Perhaps it would be good to look at a finer level of detail in Phase A of the table e.g. smaller divisions like <$1M, <$3M, etc. and focus on what can else can be done to help businesses the earlier stages. Building a larger pool in Phase A should enable more companies to 'break through' (more ideas + improved support = more chances of success). Also when you're at this level the achievements of $1M, $3M etc. in revenue are very significant - could/should these achievements be recognized in some way? Based on the figures provided in the report most NZ businesses are in the very front edge (<$5M) so a commitment from the Government to making it easier to create and run a small business in NZ would be a good start. Reducing compliance costs (and time) for these smaller businesses would have the double effect of freeing up money to enable growth and time to sell more (the benefit for those who don't want to grow as much is that they get more time and some spare cash Hmmm. sounds like a good place to focus the clusters support!) Anyway, that's enough from me, now it's your turn (if you haven't gone to sleep already.) Do you agree / disagree, have further comments? Go for it! Regards, Pete Peter Brown Managing Director Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Nightside Test Design Ltd. 64 Greenpark St. Christchurch New Zealand Web www.nightside.co.nz Phone (+64) 3 338-0034 Fax (+64) 3 338-2034 --> via Canterbury Software email forum: Success through Connections Email your messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Searchable list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Leave or rejoin the list: http://canterburysoftware.org.nz/forum.htm --> via Canterbury Software email forum: Success through Connections Email your messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Searchable list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Leave or rejoin the list: http://canterburysoftware.org.nz/forum.htm
