Helping Kiwis fly

Wednesday 1st May 2002

They might not want to live here but they do want to help NZ Inc. New Zealander Debbi Gardiner, now living in the US, went along for a bit of "How are ya, mate" at the launch of the Kiwi Expatriate Association.

What inspires 100 Kiwi expatriates, some sporting jade and bone carvings with their conference garb, to cram into a faculty club at the Berkeley University School of Business in California for an intense 12 hours of seminars and networking?

The motivation is patriotism; the catalyst is the launch of the Kiwi Expatriates Association. KEA is a privately funded organisation, a spin-off from the "Catching the knowledge wave" conference. It was set up by The Warehouse founder Stephen Tindall and David Teece, a New Zealand-born professor at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. It and other similar networks (see "Expat organisations") are aimed at linking experienced Kiwi expats with New Zealand exporters to give them advice and contacts to expand offshore.

Take one New Zealand businessman, who flew to the US specifically to attend the KEA launch but didn't want to be named in print. Four years ago in Auckland, during the height of Silicon Valley's business-to-business boom, he started up what he hoped would be New Zealand's first international e-commerce firm. He went to San Francisco with clear goals: to find niche markets and raise more funding to expand into the US. Initially, things went well - he secured a San Francisco office, hired a small sales team, found market development partners and technology companies to team up with. But with the collapse of the tech market in March 2001 and the subsequent US recession, he realised his company's targets were too aggressive and the cost structure too high. Funding became increasingly difficult to raise, and four months after settling in California, he was forced to close his operation and return to Auckland.

"I was devastated," the businessman says. "We were unable to restructure the domestic operations fast enough to avoid receivership. I had to fire the staff. Creditors and investments were burned." He believes future Kiwi entrepreneurs might avoid the same anguish if KEA and other networks succeed. In particular, he would have relished being able to turn to New Zealand senior executives for advice instead of having to rely on the advice of US companies that turned out to be more self-serving than helpful. And he might have got help with recruitment, possibly of New Zealand-born salespeople.

KEA opened its first branch in Silicon Valley in March and plans to open branches in London this month, Sydney (in June) and in other parts of the US and Asia later in the year. Teece, a long-term California resident, says he'd like a network of 70,000 Kiwis in three years.

This is not just a socially oriented wine and cheese club for homesick Kiwis. The aim is to give New Zealand businesspeople a ready-made network to tap into for advice and support. "If New Zealand businesses are to grow and succeed in foreign markets, they need to use the Kiwi worldwide community far more effectively," says organiser, Mark Vivian.

"New Zealand expats can create a virtual Silicon Valley - an information-sharing network for New Zealand firms," says John McMillan, a New Zealand-born professor at the Stanford Business School. New Zealand companies need information on what's happening in the world of technology, McMillan says, as well as help with the nuts and bolts of doing business in a foreign market. "The whole model of aggressive capitalism in the US is something that few people in New Zealand would inherently understand unless they'd lived or worked here," says Mike Hendry of OrderWare Solu-tions, also a speaker at the launch.

New Zealand has world-class biotech, software and industrial engineering companies that have every opportunity to go global, says New Zealander Andy Lark, global marketing vice-president for Sun Microsystems in the US. Lark recently set up his own network, Global Network of Kiwis. "For a country of New Zealand's size, the talent there is incredible." Despite this, few medium-sized New Zealand companies have gone global. New Zealand companies need help and unless this global network of Kiwis gets engaged in helping New Zealand businesses win these global markets, it might not happen, Lark says.

I love New Zealand

Tindall sees it slightly differently. Sporting an "I love NZ" T-shirt, he told KEA delegates in a televised address that Kiwis who feel that being a New Zealander is part of what got them to where they are today have a responsibility to give back.

New Zealand businesses should start thinking of expats as an "extended New Zealand labour force", Teece says.

Whether overseas New Zealanders actually have the time, energy and, in some cases, the knowledge to help their compatriots remains to be seen. Angela Heckler, a senior software engineer in San Francisco, says she doesn't see herself as experienced enough yet to help a New Zealand tech company, but hopes to be able to do so in the future.

Truth be told, many overseas New Zealanders probably need a bit of persuading that the old country really has the know-ledge and the will to succeed in the big wide world. Several ex-patriates at the KEA launch said they preferred working abroad because attitudes there were more conducive to entrepreneurial thought.

When Lark asked how many expats had gone home that year for business, only three people raised their hand. "I believe that if you go home, stay home and try to do business in New Zealand, you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find," he told them.

Expats often have an outdated view of their country, says Science and Technology Minister Pete Hodgson. "New Zealand's economy is trundling along very well … Its patent application rate is low, but on a per capita average it is the second in the world, and increasing quickly. Two years ago there was one incubator in New Zealand. Now there are 12."

The numbers of Kiwis abroad are fuzzy. Richard Spears, a demographics analyst with Statistics New Zealand, says the official figure is 500,000. The "Catching the knowledge wave" conference claimed 700,000. Overseas census records show 450,000 self-proclaimed Kiwis in Australia, 20,000 in the US, 40,000 in the UK and 9000 in Canada. Then there are the children of long-term Kiwi expats, who also hold New Zealand passports. Boston Consulting in New Zealand puts the total figure at 6.8 million. Most of these feel a loyalty to New Zealand without wanting to come back - just yet, anyway.

Notes from a huge island

Five tips from KEA

If you are a technology company, don't go overboard on the clean, green Kiwi stuff. In fact, downplay the New Zealand angle. "It's not about denying you are a New Zealander," Lark says. "But, frankly, a chief executive of a large company can't draw the dots between software and a clean, green environment Down Under."
Few Americans realise it's no further from San Francisco to New Zealand than it is to London. They see New Zealand as the end of the world and are going to be worried about after-sales service and breakdowns. So make sure you've got systems in place and some persuasive arguments.
If you are a New Zealand technology company run on a minimum budget trying to break into the expensive US market, try hiring an experienced senior executive willing to work in exchange for a cut of the profits once the company takes off, says Steve Hess of New Zealand start-up IStrategies International. Hess, an Englishman, came out of retirement to work for IStrategies and is convinced other "grey hairs" like him would do the same. The advantage of older executives, he says, is that they are often able to work part-time for free or minimal wages until the company is up and running.
Break down the market into a series of cities and states, each with their own specific industries and demands. "The average budget in small companies in New Zealand could be exhausted on airfares between US states alone," says Lark. "Best to use the Kiwi expat connection to target, then navigate the market."
What about promoting yourself as a source of cheap engineering talent for US companies?

Expat organisations

Kiwi Expatriate Association (KEA): A network of expat New Zealanders prepared to give help and advice to potential exporters. KEA's database and website went live mid-April. "We won't sell the information; only email addresses will be listed and the government will not have access," David Teece says.

www.kiwiexpat.org

The Global Network of Kiwis (Gnok): Founded in late 2001, Gnok aims to use senior US business and technology people to coach small numbers of well-established New Zealand technology companies to penetrate the US market.

Contact founder Andy Lark, andy@gnok.net

ANZA Technology Network: Non-profit business network aimed at bringing together Australian, New Zealand and US technology companies and executives. It has big funders like Macquarie Bank, Intel Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, Austrade and Investment NZ. Inaugural ANZA Technology Showcase to be held in San Francisco from June 2nd to 4th.

anzatechnet.com; contact Guy Manson, guy@anzatechnet.com

Debbi Gardiner
kiwichick@earthlink.net

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