Technology reinventing regions: Drury

Rod Drury says the small market nationally means people have to get offshore and think about being global from day one.

Now is an exciting time for the regions, Rod Drury, chief executive of leading business software company Xero, told a Tauranga Chamber of Commerce lunch meeting this week.

Mr Drury, who has been based in Hawke's Bay for the past six years, said that technology was allowing businesses to reinvent the regions.

"It doesn't matter where you're from," said Mr Drury, citing the development of Xero from its New Zealand base over the past nine years to become a dominant supplier in Australasia, a leading competitor to Intuit in the UK, as well as a strong contender in the US as its fastest growing market.

"What we are finding is that we have some competitive advantages being from New Zealand," he said. "We only have a small market, which forces you to get offshore and think about being global from day one."

And the company's strong position in its domestic market allowed it to use New Zealand as a test lab for its overseas expansion, said Mr Drury. By contrast, some of Xero's incumbent competitors were having problems breaking out from their borders.

"Smart people are now using technology to get the benefit of the lifestyle in the provinces, while doing things that are big globally," he said.

"The provinces are incredibly exciting in the way they are using technology. The message has to be, we're not just sitting here going surfing, we're actually building global businesses.

"We have to change the attitude of the regions from just cruising to thinking about our obligation as people of working age to drive these export businesses. We now have a much more sophisticated story to tell."

The re-pricing of the Auckland property market was accelerating the conversation about the attractions of the provinces.

Mr Drury said his experience of working closely with the councils in Hawke's Bay had shown him the importance of making sure the region was a great place to visit, which in turn attracted businesses to settle.

Business in Hawke's Bay had worked with the councils to create a plan that combined big vision projects with a number of smaller projects that could be easily ticked off to create momentum.

Priority One chief executive Andrew Coker, who attended the lunch, said it was great that Mr Drury was stressing the importance of the regions in creating economic growth.

"We are doing this here in Tauranga. The objective is to join the dots between business and council to collectively create the soft and hard infrastructure that attracts people and businesses," he said.

Mr Coker noted the submissions of leading local businesses to the council's Ten Year Plan in support of developing more civic amenities. "They felt strongly the need for us to invest to attract and retain people and businesses here," he said.