To my mind, "Z" is one company demonstrating how innovation and its value creation goes well beyond just applying new technology or R&D.
In a handbook for staff, investors and other stakeholders on what matters in Z, we read: "We believe that if you want to be a world class Kiwi company, don't just employ people, divide them into functional departments and tell them what to do.
"Instead give them a reason for belonging, the possibility of a bigger purpose, and a hunger for the extraordinary."
Innovative thinking has been applied to capture the identity, the meaning, values and beliefs of Z's people individually, and then collectively as an entire firm. When it comes down to it, at its essence the company is expressing itself as a values-based and organic firm of people, not a clock-on, clock-off machine.
The brand is summed up as "solving what matters for a moving world". "Our driving obsession is to relentlessly look for solutions that help our customers get out and about, get on with their lives and get on with running their businesses."
To me that's a form of innovation - thinking, harnessed to arrive at a point of difference.
Over the years I have had dealings with many types of organisations - big and small businesses, councils and government agencies. For companies, I strongly agree that if they don't believe they need to innovate solutions that really matter to customers and embrace changes of attitude and behaviour that recognise the diverse needs and contributions of staff, they most likely will not remain relevant very long.
Continuing to do things on a basis that "this is the way we have always behaved", becomes counter-productive. Opportunities are missed. For example, many of Auckland's small-medium companies have innovated products or services that have generated success in Auckland. However, a step change in applying innovative thinking would see many develop a business plan to grow internationally.
In the past few months, the Chamber of Commerce has hosted a number of business award presentations. Many began in a garage or back yard and have grown rapidly into successful international companies, and it was traditional innovation that got them off the ground in the first place.
But they have not been content with just innovation of the new idea, the new product, the new approach; they have gone on to apply innovative thinking to build a successful team, create values they all share but at the same time recognise and respect the diversity of who they are and where they come from; in Auckland that is all corners of the world.
To adapt an Ernest Rutherford quote in the context of an SME seeking to establish on a tight budget: "We don't have a lot of money, so we will just have to think." And that, of course, is the essence of innovation.
And my point is: It is the innovative thinking and flexible management that is invested to encourage individual people in the business to bring their values and beliefs that allows a business collectively to stand out in a crowded market.
"It's our people." This was the first words that many of Auckland's recent business award winners attributed to their success. They didn't stand up and recognise the new technology, the software they may have developed, or the marketing plan - as important as these business tools and strategies are.
Instead, the platform on which an innovative company achieves success depends on a broad range of intangible people-centred values and beliefs that create an environment that drives productivity growth and attracts customers.
It is through encouraging the pivotal role of people as innovation carriers - their network, collaborations, knowledge, interactions and know-how - and how this people power is harnessed that becomes the point of difference in building a successful innovation-led enterprise.
Michael Barnett is chief executive of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
