Gill South: To see ourselves as others see us - it isn't always a pretty sight

Jordi Masramon, a Spanish student doing an MBA at the University of Otago. Photo / Supplied

Over the years, visitors to New Zealand haven't always been complimentary about the country and its people. While criticism can be hard to take, New Zealand leaders should never stop listening to the international take on the way we run things here - no matter how painful it is.

Jordi Masramon, a chief technical officer from Spain who is doing an MBA at the University of Otago, cites a recent survey in Australia which found that New Zealand businesses, while pleasant to deal with, didn't have any interest in maintaining long-term partnerships with their Australian counterparts.

Masramon is not surprised. He believes New Zealanders possibly over-value their remoteness, thinking there is something special about doing things on their own. "Perhaps it is from being such a young country, still."

This sense of independence is evident in the workforce, too, he says. From what he has heard, New Zealanders prefer to work for small businesses and, in some cases, take the entrepreneurial route rather than working for large companies their entire careers. "They have a negative view of big companies; people feel trapped working for big companies, they don't want the individual to disappear," he says.

Masramon formed his views by listening to business leaders who have lectured to his class and by case studies of New Zealand companies. He is horrified by the statistics: about 95 per cent of exports come from 10 per cent of New Zealand businesses and 70 per cent of exporting companies export only $10,000 worth of goods or services a year. "Ten thousand dollars a year? That's nothing, that's pocket money," says the Spaniard.

"Being dependent on the primary sector, this is more what you are expecting from Third World countries. For them, it's the only thing they have. New Zealand should try and develop some more added-value products.

"Why not try to create a product that is competitive - something that only intelligent people can do?"

Why should we listen to this guy? He's just an overseas student. Except Masramon is not a naive, young student. He is a 40-year-old with an established career - he is on sabbatical from his job at an internet broker. He has also done postgraduate study at Macquarie University in Sydney.

And the Spaniard is one of a class of 25 MBA students from Iran, Russia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States, Spain, Germany, India, New Zealand and Canada. They are all smart people from their late 20s to early 40s and most agree New Zealand Inc is under-performing.

The group is heading to Auckland this week to meet some of New Zealand's largest companies to learn more about what makes local business tick.

Sealord chief executive (and Otago alumnus) Graham Stuart will be one of the workshop speakers. Others will include the heads of strategy from Fonterra and Zespri.

Stuart, who has worked in senior management for 20 years and has a Masters of Science in business and economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says his relationship with the MBA students is not one-sided.

"When you have to get in front of students asking probing questions, you assemble your thoughts. The process is quite beneficial for most of us doing our day jobs," he says.

"All of us [at Sealord] diagnose, we are all interested in understanding NZ Inc. Most of us have view on what needs to be fixed."

The Sealord CEO and former head of strategy at Fonterra also does some talent-spotting at these meetings. Michael Gleissner, Sealord's chief financial officer, is an Otago MBA graduate.

One topic Stuart has discussed with the students is the deplorably low foreign investment by New Zealand companies. "We are at the bottom of the [OECD] league table," he says.

"The fact that we don't invest offshore means we don't get close to customers and [therefore] lack the innovation that is meaningful to customers."

Sealord has international marketing networks with offices overseas, and factories in other countries in a bid to get closer to customers.

This year's MBA class has found that New Zealand chief executives are approachable and non-hierarchical in comparison with their European or North American counterparts. Stuart agrees: "Kiwis are comfortable running up and down the hierarchy."

But somewhere along the line, there's a blockage preventing companies from truly succeeding internationally, the students point out.

"They ask: 'How come they never get the products and services to international market?"' says Ian Lafferty, the university's director of executive progammes.

One untapped opportunity that could be better marketed, for example, is the huge amount of coffee that New Zealand roasts. "But if you were to ask anybody what New Zealand is famous for, nobody would say coffee," says Lafferty, a Scot.

They also don't think that New Zealand businesses make the most of the clean, green label, he says. For example, more could have been done to showcase the purity of the water used in 42Below vodka.

The MBA students believe life is too comfortable in New Zealand for entrepreneurs to want to leave and seek their fortune. "You see a lot of NZ companies using the domestic market as a test - but then they might get locked in forever ... they tend to get embedded in New Zealand," says Lafferty.

Gill South is an Auckland freelance writer.

The University of Otago is holding an information evening for prospective MBA students in Auckland on Monday, July 19. More information: otagomba.co.nz