'Ambassador' off to Seattle

By ADAM GIFFORD

While some perceive the departure offshore of many of our best and brightest as a loss to the country, the diaspora can be seen as an opportunity.

The expatriates form a sort of Virtual New Zealand, opening doors for visiting New Zealand business people who are trying to sell their products or services.

Now Virtual New Zealand is establishing a beachhead in the upper echelons of Microsoft Corporation, with the move to head office in Seattle by Asia Pacific law and corporate affairs PR manager Alex Mercer (pictured left).

In her new role as worldwide group manager communications for law and corporate affairs she will leave the anti-trust issues to the large teams already working on that continuing Microsoft-sized headache.

"I'll be working on copyright and intellectual property issues, from communicating with our top-tier management through to integrating those issues with our marketing campaigns," says the Auckland native, who has spent the past three years based at Microsoft's Sydney offices.

Ms Mercer says there has been a shift in perception of software piracy in Asia Pacific in recent years, much of which can be credited to Microsoft's former top lawyer for the region, Ron Eckstrom.

"There's been a lot of education and awareness, and the Eckstrom era was about building copyright legislation for some of these countries."

She says most countries in Asia now have laws in place and some are starting to see the benefits of enforcing them because of pressure from foreign investors concerned at the treatment of their intellectual property.

"We're trying to change short-term and long-term attitudes, and that will take a long time.

"We're working with governments, industry organisations and consumer groups to enlist their assistance in trying to get the average Joe Bloggs to respect intellectual property and understand why it is such a benefit," Ms Mercer says.

It's an uphill battle in countries like China and Vietnam, where pirated software is rife.

The registration wizard in Windows 98, which requires the product to be registered or it will fail to work after 50 installations, has thrown up some interesting results.

"In China, 86 per cent [of attempted registrations] were from counterfeit products. That means consumers would buy the product thinking it was genuine and try to register it. They want to buy the genuine product, but accessibility and availability is an issue."

As her replacement in Sydney Ms Mercer is trying to recruit a New Zealander, "because I know they will be committed and will get the job done. I make no bones about it, I think New Zealanders are more lateral thinking. They just get the job done, they are well educated and they have a very good ability to get on with other people, and that doesn't matter what age or culture they are.

"I would love to have a virtual environment of New Zealanders in all pockets of the world. I'm not betraying the country by leaving to go to the US, where you are actually being an ambassador for a small country," Ms Mercer says.