Deloitte Top 200: How companies can avoid the ‘triple squeeze’ of inflation, scarce talent, global supply woes

Head of Amazon Web Services in New Zealand Tiffany Bloomquist. Photo / Supplied

Stephen Hawking is famously credited with saying: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

Such advice could hardly be more pertinent than in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the disruptions to traditional business models. The world is still struggling to return to a sense of normalcy, with high inflation, climbing interest rates and supply chain disruption persisting.

Some companies have hybrid or remote workforces that require new policies for managing, but all businesses are requiring an increased level of leadership adaptability.

And technology is playing a bigger and bigger role in helping achieve that.

Commenting on the 2022 Company of the Year finalists for Deloitte’s top 200 awards, head of Amazon Web Services in New Zealand Tiffany Bloomquist said businesses were up against what has been termed the “triple squeeze”.

This refers to the impact on businesses of rising inflation, scarce and expensive talent, and global supply challenges. A recent AWS/Tech Research Asia study found 80 per cent of small to medium-sized companies were feeling impacted by the triple squeeze.

“The same study also found that despite this, cloud spend is expected to rise in New Zealand by 22 per cent in the coming year,” Bloomquist said.

“This indicates that while corporates are prioritising productivity gains and prudent cost management, they are also balancing this with opportunities for investing in long-term efficiency and growth.”

Bloomquist cited Freightways as an example. The courier company picks up, processes, and delivers more than 50 million parcels around New Zealand each year and through technology has been able to scale from 500 scans to 1500 scans per minute. “This means during busy periods, such as Christmas and on Black Friday, the company can scale from doing an average of 600,000 scans a day to over 1.5 million.”

Cyber security is another top priority for companies.

“To harness the benefits of the digital economy, it’s important to remain vigilant on the security of technology systems, and protect the privacy of information stored,” Bloomquist said, adding that regular security and awareness training is a key part of that.

Bloomquist said cloud computing has revolutionised how people and organisations work around the world over the past 10 years.

“We’re only scratching the surface of what is possible. Advanced services such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, data and analytics, and 5G edge computing are driving big thinking, innovation, and growth for companies in New Zealand and globally.”

The Deloitte Top 200 Awards were established in 1990 and are held annually to recognise and applaud outstanding individual and management team performances among New Zealand’s largest companies and trading organisations.

This year’s finalists for the Company of the Year award, sponsored by AWS, are Briscoe group, Vulcan Steel and Ebos Group. Last year’s winner was Infratil.

Click here for a full list of all 2022 finalists.

All the Deloitte Top 200 winners will be revealed at a gala event on December 8.

The event will be live-streamed on the NZ Herald website on this page.