By Susie Nordqvist
Kiwi firms are being told to harden up and stop using excuses for poor performance.
It comes as the Prime Minister launches a strategy today to increase trade with China.
John Key was on Auckland’s waterfront today encouraging businesses to think globally.
But one Auckland economist says Kiwi firms tend to focus too much on things they cannot change.
Rhema Vaithianathan, and Auckland University economist, says instead businesses should work on recruiting and retaining top talent.
“People tell me all the time; ‘we're too small, we're too far away from our key markets, we can't get the finance’, and you know, ‘the RMA is making it really hard for me to do business’.
“When the World Bank ranks how easy it is to do business in countries, New Zealand is number three. So get over it.”
China is the world's second largest economy and Michael Barnett, from the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, says isolation is not a problem for Kiwi businesses when it comes to Asia.
“When you look at the pace at which they're growing, and the enthusiasm and the optimism that they have in those markets, that's obviously where we should be right now, and probably for the next decade,” he says.
But Vaithianathan says Kiwi firms need to improve their management to become more competitive and simply setting goals is not enough.
“We've got goals in New Zealand coming out of our ears,” he says. “It's not for want of setting down a goal that we're failing to achieve it, it's for want of doing something about it, and it's for want of looking within to see what our mistakes are.”
Mr Barnett says we need to build the capability of businesses in New Zealand and “get them focused on export markets”.
“That's the only way this country's going to succeed.”
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