Speed key to survival - expat

Michael Boustridge. Photo / Greg Bowker

The business environment has changed a lot since Michael Boustridge left New Zealand 14 years ago.

Back in town to receive honours at Wednesday's World Class New Zealand Awards, the former president of British Telecom Multi-National Corporations said the world now moves at such speed New Zealand companies must ensure they keep up.

He said that video calling was reducing the gap between business, clients and customers and speeding up how companies interact.

"It's going to change the way we work. It reduces the cost of doing business. If you can point and click and talk, you can build a personal relationship [with those you're dealing with]," he said.

Boustridge said that pace was the key to survival and success in the current climate.

"If it takes six months to do something, you're not going to do it - someone's going to get their first."

Rather than seeing quality slide, Boustridge said this speed allowed companies to improve their products almost instantly.

"There's so many feedback mechanisms these days, if someone doesn't like something, they tweet it and the corporation immediately fixes it. Before you used to write a letter, that used to go to a department, that department wrote a report - now it's instant."

As well as moving quickly, Boustridge said the new world order of business would be dominated by those with the strongest partnerships.

Boustridge said business here should take advantage of Sir Stephen Tindall and David Teece's Kea ex-pat network.

"[Kea] is 30,000 strong so that's an awful lot of intellectual capital you can tap into," he said.

"Some are entrepreneurs, some are into big business, everyone has a different background."