Fran O'Sullivan: Knowledge Wave's energy ebbing away

The Knowledge Wave warriors - the group of young CEO thrusters who tried to forge a partnership with Government - are fast dying out.

Craig Norgate, who got the push from Fonterra last week, is just the latest of this close-knit cabal to depart from a position of strong influence in New Zealand.

Without Norgate in the frame, the group's influence - already on the wane in Wellington - is bound to peter out.

As they either take jobs overseas or get pushed out of their chief executives' positions it is timely to ask whether they would have been better off developing their own companies rather than worrying about the long-term future of NZ.

Arguably, some might have kept their roles if that had been the case.

It is a conundrum that has exercised observers such as the Roundtable's Roger Kerr, who has long argued that the business of business is business.

The basic Kerr argument is that if companies grow the economy will also prosper.

It is a philosophy with which Fonterra's next chief executive, Andrew Ferrier, appeared to concur in his videocast interview from Canada after he was anointed boss of the country's largest company.

His answer would have pleased his boss Henry van der Heyden, chairman of Fonterra, who wants to build shareholder wealth.

The Knowledge Wave - for the benefit of those not abreast of this recent dynamic in New Zealand public life - was a push originated by Auckland University to create a national consensus to take the necessary steps to lift the country's economy to a new plane.

Instead of a reliance on commodity exports, there would be a step up to incorporate more innovation, upskilling and investment in global talent so that the economic growth was based on a knowledge platform.

Auckland University vice-chancellor John Hood gathered a group around him to drive this forward.

The inner core included Bridget Wickham, then chief executive of Auckland University Business Developments, Wickham's husband Chris Liddell, then chief executive of Carter Holt Harvey, Norgate, Deutsche Bank's Scott Perkins, his brother Clark Perkins, who heads JBWere, and Andrew Grant from McKinsey. To some degree there was an element of self-selection among the group. For instance, each of those executives, apart from Hood, were also members of a cosy informal network that included Telecom's Theresa Gattung and former Warehouse chief Greg Muir.

The network did not readily admit new members. Nor did it have much truck with systems, organisations and accountability. While members ridiculed the Roundtable they were not prepared to set up a rival organisation modelled on the Business Council of Australia template they preferred.

Signs of tension in the relationship between the Government and the Knowledge Wave Trust were obvious at the February leadership forum held in Auckland. But even before that the core group was dwindling.

Liddell had already become chief financial officer for International Paper, CHH's parent company.

For Wickham, who has since joined him in New York, the forum was her swansong at Auckland University.

Muir has lost the top slot at The Warehouse, where founder Stephen Tindall has taken over again.

And Hood will become vice-chancellor at Oxford University late next year provided his appointment is ratified by its "Parliament of Dons" this month.

By the time he goes the seas will be wide open for a new group of business leaders to try to ride another wave to influence and success.

Herald Special Report - February 18, 2003: