KEY POINTS:
Microsoft's Kiwi chief financial officer Chris Liddell believes the next wave of companies in the top 10 of the New Zealand stock exchange could be "mini-multinationals" that harness the power of technology to export goods.
Liddell - former chief executive of Carter Holt Harvey - was in Auckland yesterday to launch Microsoft's new Office and Windows system.
He said that by 2026 the New Zealand stock exchange could be made up of small companies that have used the power of technology to build into global players.
"Technology answers many of New Zealand's business challenges," said Liddell. "It can improve productivity, overcome work shortages, overcome distance, train a highly skilled workforce and grow our local business into world-class performers that, in turn, invest back in New Zealand."
A new generation of companies would emerge that would supplement or replace the existing companies on the stock exchange, he said.
He observed that "the opportunity had never been greater to create a mini-multinational based in New Zealand - designed and owned in New Zealand, made in Thailand, assembled in China, sold in the US - why not? I see some encouraging signs, such as Pumpkin Patch and Icebreaker, who are creating interesting new business models and breaking away from a New Zealand base."
A "sea change" had occurred in what type of New Zealand companies had become successful over the past 20 years, he said.
Fletcher Building - formerly a part of Fletcher Challenge - is the only surviving company from New Zealand's leading stock market-listed companies in 1986.
"You may find that as a depressing statistic but if you look at the US, there is a similar phenomena, and when you look over long periods of time, it is natural for companies and industries to turn over. I think it is a healthy trend and not one we should be concerned about."
Liddell was chief financial officer for International Paper before joining Microsoft in 2005 and is now based in Redmond, Oregon.
But New Zealand still had to improve its education, infrastructure and policy settings if it wanted to adequately support and encourage the next generation of companies, he said.
"There are a huge number of things we can do in NZ ... systematic applications across a number of fronts until all of a sudden you get to a tipping point and it makes a difference," said Liddell.
A key way in which companies would move to the new business model would be through the internet, he said.
"It is critical that we get broad-based adoption of broadband in New Zealand. It is a facilitator of personal and commercial applications, in terms of video and websites which requires high speed broadband."
The internet was helping small companies because it allowed them to catalogue a "massive" number of products at a small cost, he said.
Internet shopping giant amazon.com, which sold over 10 million book titles, was one example, he said. This business model "had application in New Zealand, because we are a country of small-volume niche products".
He said he did not profess to know all the answers but was "passionate about the future of the country".
