Talkback: More 'tall poppies' should be encouraged to grow

The tall poppy syndrome is one of the toughest things to fight.

Here in New Zealand, it flies in the face of the business person's need to promote him or herself.

If television networks can call people "stars" because they appear on a dancing or singing competition and if the New Zealand Rugby Union has begun to promote individuals, then surely the syndrome is waning?

I think it is. When I tell people about my becoming a consumer print publisher two years ago and the first person to launch a website as a print title in more than one country, I get pats on the back. Even the Herald has been good enough to give us coverage, unlike some media I can name.

Some look at Lucire, the fashion magazine I established, and get frightened. It's as if little old me could threaten the existence of a broadsheet newspaper. This is the type of experience that stifles some of our brightest minds. If confronted with this narrow-mindedness often enough, they'll get discouraged.

They might bugger off to America like Chris Lewis did. Or they might just decide, with high tax rates to boot, that it might just be better not creating that world-beating business for the good of Aotearoa.

But even more dangerously, it lowers our expectations as a nation.

In my lifetime, I've seen our advantages eroded, from hybrid cars to the information society.

Folks my age remember that once upon a time, tens of thousands of cars in New Zealand ran on Kiwi-made natural gas and petrol, and we were one of the first countries to have Teletext. Both are the origins of the technologies that the world now says are desirable.

We even came up with the popstars concept and got plenty of countries copying that. Now we prefer licensing Pop Idol and giving some money to some Brits. For what? Coming up with the idea of a Cowell-mouthed tosser as a judge?

I would rather say that a Kiwi is capable of getting a Kiwi concept into other nations.

I began Lucire in New Zealand as a website in 1997. In 2004, it went to print, since people like the feel of a fashion magazine. Last year, I took the title into Romania. The US is next. Maybe France. That way I'm going to help us earn some money back from the times we buy French-owned brands such as Just Juice and Citrus Tree and Griffins and Eta.

Taking the opposite tack - using a brand that is proudly from New Zealand and not changing it - is not always easy.

In 2004, we had plenty of people tell us that they thought Lucire was a foreign magazine, meaning they thought that nothing that good could come out of New Zealand.

I say: "Bollocks." We just had a mega-movie come out of Miramar. I picked up the brilliant Idealog magazine recently. Two more words: Karen Walker. Why can't we have a fashion magazine that some are calling "New Zealand's fashion bible" taking the fight to the home of Vogue?

Our duty in the media, especially with the prospect of an economic downturn, is to encourage new businesses. And to raise expectations of New Zealanders, which the Government isn't doing.

That means being more aware of where our dollars are going when we shop for orange juice, biscuits or magazines.

I don't want to feel like a liar when I make my next speech in New York, saying: "The best things come from New Zealand."

* Jack Yan is CEO of Jack Yan & Associates and the founding publisher of fashion magazine Lucire