Kiwis shine in Forbes annual 30 under 30 list
Every year, global magazine Forbes release 30 under 30, celebrating young entrepreneurs, innovators and more. Here are some of the Kiwis featured this year.
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Young Enterprise Scheme celebrates 40 years
The student-focused Young Enterprise Scheme is celebrating 40 years of creating and nurturing New Zealand's future business leaders.
Geoscience solution company wins Hi-Tech Company of the Year
Geoscience solution and environmentally conscious company Seequent wins big at the Hi-Tech awards, being titled the Company of the Year.
Heartbeats, not headcounts: Here are all the winners of the 2019 Humankind Awards
<p>The winners of the 2019 Humankind Employee Experience (EX) Workplace and Inspiration Awards were announced last week, which celebrate the companies that are creating the best possible experience for their employees. Top honours went to Xero, Overland Footwear, Lysaght Consulting, Cake Commercial and Balance Agri-Nutrients. As well as this, the director of people experience at Auror Kirsti Grant was named the EX Designer of the Year.</p>
The Humankind Workplace Awards finalists are announced, with wellbeing a well-defined priority
<p>Finalists for the Humankind Employee Experience (EX) Awards have been revealed, with Sharesies, Xero, Smudge Apps and Overland Footwear among the companies that have made the cut. The EX Awards were created by leading HR company Humankind to celebrate New Zealand’s best places to work, with trends of purpose, wellbeing, technology, and doing more with less highlighted.</p>
25 things with Ben Kepes: Five New Zealand companies’ journeys that inspire me
<p>Ben Kepes is a technology analyst, commentator and consultant. His commentary has been widely published in such outlets as Forbes, Wired and The Guardian, while he has also been an investor in a large number of early-stage technology start-ups across three continents and has had successful exits to listed and privately held companies in Canada, the US, and the UK. He currently sits on the boards of a number of non-profit, privately held and listed companies in New Zealand and the UK and has won a number of accolades, including being a recipient of the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Award in 2016. Here, he shares five New Zealand companies or journeys that inspire him. </p>
Sian Simpson is signing off after five years at Kiwi Landing Pad
<p>Kiwi Landing Pad’s director of community and content Sian Simpson is leaving her post after five years. A well-known figure in New Zealand’s start-up community, Simpson has helped grow Kiwi Landing Pad’s group of New Zealand entrepreneurs that are expanding to new markets into more than 6000 members, with people tuning into its webinars from 45 countries around the world. We had a chat about her legacy and key learnings from working with so many inspiring Kiwi businesses over the years.  </p>
25 things with Ben Kepes: Five ways to improve New Zealand’s investment ecosystem
<p>Ben Kepes is a technology analyst, commentator and consultant. His commentary has been widely published in such outlets as Forbes, Wired and The Guardian, while he has also been an investor in a large number of early-stage technology start-ups across three continents and has had successful exits to listed and privately held companies in Canada, the US, and the UK. He currently sits on the boards of a number of non-profit, privately held and listed companies in New Zealand and the UK and has won a number of accolades, including being a recipient of the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Award in 2016. Here, he shares five ways to improve New Zealand's investment ecosystem. </p>
MYOB Women in Tech, part five: Sharesies co-founders Brooke Roberts and Sonya Williams on smashing ceilings
<p>Forget the ingredients touted as necessary to make a little girl in the age-old nursery rhyme, What Are Little Boys Made Of? To be a woman business leader, you need to have more than a pinch of resilience and a dash of tenacity. This is because although the country has made big strides when it comes to inclusivity, there’s still work to do before true equality is reached. Take the recent 2019 MYOB Women In Tech Report, which found nearly half of the industry’s women leaders have personally experienced gender bias during their career, just a quarter of local technology businesses have equal representation in their leadership teams and only one in ten tech businesses work to actively address discrimination. Sharesies co-founders Brooke Roberts and Sonya Williams talk carving their career paths, overcoming personal challenges and finding grit.</p>
Software-as-a-Service: Our tech industry’s secret sauce
<p>PushPay, Xero, Parkable, Vista: New Zealand’s ever-expanding community of SaaS businesses demonstrate our ability to create a lot out of a little and build highly profitable, world class companies right here on our shores. To further build on this community’s abilities and nurture them towards success, NZ’s innovation agency Callaghan Innovation recently hosted the sold-out Southern SaaS in Auckland for a second year. Here, we have a chat to some of the speakers, including Silicon Valley 500 Startups partner Marvin Liao, about why sales is the most important aspect of growing a SaaS company, tips for investment and much more.</p>
How can Auckland build more inclusive economies?
<p>Auckland, like many other cities across the world, suffers from enclaves of inequality. The economic gulf between Ponsonby’s soy latte drinking elite, and the communities out in ?tara-Papatoetoe and Mangere-?t?huhu, has only widened in recent years. So how can the city build more inclusive economies? </p>
Why the kumara needs to speak of its own sweetness: David Downs on how to take your idea to the world
<p>From raising capital from international investors, to expanding into new markets, to selling to an overseas buyer – the challenges of taking a New Zealand company to international prominence are many, and to surmount them, we’ll likely need more than just number eight wire. So how do New Zealand businesses become more internationally minded? Jonathan Cotton talks with NZTE general manager David Downs about how to navigate the tricky waters beyond New Zealand’s shores.</p>
Listen: The Ground Breaking Podcast’s Eli Smit interviews Pat Macfie
<p>It’s not often you stumble across a ten-year-old New Zealander hosting a business podcast, but then again, most nine-year-olds aren’t like self-proclaimed budding entrepreneur Eli Smit. After discovering Smit as our Emerging Talent, we will be hosting season two of Smit's podcast on Idealog. In this episode, Smit chats with the former global director of media at Xero, Pat Macfie. Macfie has built up a reputation of building high performing global creative teams and has partnered with several premium global brands across his career. Here, he talks about his passion for his culture, storytelling and inspiring the next generation.</p>
Wellbeing in the workplace: Here’s how its affecting your staff, and your bottom line
<p>Idealog editor Elly Strang recently spoke at the Magazine Publishers Association conference about the importance of wellbeing in the workplace, and the key takeaways from <a href="https://wellbeing-month.idealog.co.nz/">Wellness Month</a>. She shares why it shouldn't be thought of as a luxury nice-to-have, like yoga classes, as research is showing it impacts on your bottom line, as well as some tips on how to create change in the workplace. </p> <p></p>
Best Awards: There is no such thing as a New Zealand typeface by Alt Group and Klim Type Foundry
<p>Serious question: is there such thing as a typographic accent? Something that speaks to our Aotearoa-ness and stands out amid a veritable sea of all sorts of typefaces evocative of almost anything and everything? The judges at the 2018 Best Awards decided yes, which is why the Purple Graphic Pin went to Alt Group and Klim Type Foundry for There is no such thing as a New Zealand typeface.</p>
Vend eyes further international expansion, with plans to boost its head count by nearly 50 percent
<p>New Zealand retail tech company Vend is well-known among Kiwi SMEs for its point of sale product, but as it widens its scope and pushes into the North American market, it’s supporting rapid growth with a hiring spree of 125 staff.</p>
Soul Machine’s Greg Cross on winning the 2019 NZ Hi-Tech Flying Kiwi award: ‘I’ve never had so much fun working in the tech sector’
<p>Soul Machines co-founder and chief business officer Greg Cross, Predict HQ, Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck and Pushpay were among the big winners of the 2019 NZ Hi-Tech Awards held on Friday, which celebrates the best performing high-tech companies in New Zealand. Cross, who was nominated by his peers into the Hi-Tech Hall of Fame, shares some learnings from a career spent taking New Zealand tech companies to the world, and the direction he hopes the tech sector will take in the future.</p>
Here’s the wellbeing policies some of New Zealand’s top companies are rolling out for 2019
<p>In 2019, companies are more focused than ever on the health and happiness of their staff, as wellbeing becomes increasingly seen as a key indicator of success along economic value by governments and organisations across the world. This is because while the corporate world has long seen the bottom line as the be all and end all, companies are increasingly taking a more holistic view and recognising that looking after the wellbeing of their people will in turn, make their bottom line healthier, too. We reached out to some of New Zealand's top companies and asked what they're focused on for this year and why. Here's what FCB, Isthmus, RUSH, Southern Cross, Xero and Trade Me responded. </p> <p></p>
Helius Therapeutics’ Paul Manning on five New Zealand brands that inspire him
<p>Paul Manning is the co-founder and executive director of Helius Therapeutics, New Zealand’s largest licensed medicinal cannabis company, but most of his career has been spent in the design and advertising sector. He launched an agency called Metromedia at the age of 22, which went on to become New Zealand’s largest independent agency before being acquired by Ogilvy on 2007. He was then the executive director at Ogilvy before joining Clemenger Group as managing director of 99. A former EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Manning has worked at the highest level with major agencies and consulted to dozens of New Zealand’s leading brands. Here's five New Zealand brands that inspire him. </p>
Optimal Workshop on why it has installed a chief smoothie maker and chief happiness officer
<p>A new-age job title, 'chief happiness officer', is being smeared across business portfolios like lashings of margarine across soft focaccia bread. It joins a list of other modern roles found in the valleys of our tech industry, such as ‘chief evangelists’, ‘technology unicorns’, and ‘PR wonderboys’. But while at first the role of a chief happiness officer may smell of self promotion, pricey avocados and unfettered positivity, it seems the value goes deeper than a tacky title, as it may signify real change in workplace culture and unlock productivity levels. One business who believes this is Optimal Workshop, a large user experience design company based in Wellington New Zealand, who has employed a person who reportedly makes daily juices for its staff of 49. We ask its CEO Andrew Mayfield the value in this newly established role, plus chat to its ex ‘chief happiness engineer’ turned ‘people experience officer’, Alex Doggett, on what she does.</p> <p></p>
Four things you should look for in a New Zealand start-up
<p>Hardy Michel is the operations manager at Sharesies, an online investment platform that is one of New Zealand’s fastest growing companies with over 40,000 customers. He has also previously worked with start-ups firsthand at Booktrack, Snowball Effect and Lightning Lab. Here, he shares four things those wanting to work for a start-up should look for in a company. </p> <p></p>
Is it time to let our companies fly? Report unveils NZ ‘unicorns’ create more than $34 billion in value
<p>It’s a strong point of contention when a successful Kiwi company gets bought out by an overseas investor, with many questions around its loyalty to our local economy. However, a new report conducted by Callaghan Innovation has tracked the exits of companies over fifteen years and worked out where that money has gone. It shows that fifteen years after one of New Zealand’s largest tech companies was sold to a US buyer for around $100 million, Kiwi entrepreneurs have created at least nine businesses worth more $1 billion each. It suggests rather that global success breeds local growth. We chat to the CEO of Callaghan Innovation, Victoria Crone, about the findings from the latest Callaghan Innovation report.</p> <p></p>
Helius Therapeutics’ Paul Manning on five ways New Zealand’s economy could be diversified through innovation
<p>Paul Manning is the co-founder and executive director of Helius Therapeutics, New Zealand’s largest licensed medicinal cannabis company, but most of his career has been spent in the design and advertising sector. He launched an agency called Metromedia at the age of 22, which went on to become New Zealand’s largest independent agency before being acquired by Ogilvy on 2007. He was then the executive director at Ogilvy before joining Clemenger Group as managing director of 99. A former EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Manning has worked at the highest level with major agencies and consulted to dozens of New Zealand’s leading brands. Here's five ways he thinks New Zealand's economy could be diversified through innovation.</p>
More than a marketing lever: Tickled Pink’s founder on why business is the most potent force for positive change
<p>In an era where large-scale action is needed to address the looming environmental, social and economic challenges, business represents the single most potent, organised force for change on earth. This is the belief of Tickled Pink's Jerry Beale, who is a former social and cultural strategist at agency True and spearheads a business that helps to boost New Zealand companies' bottom line performance and staff engagement by helping them increase employee happiness, find their purpose and strengthen their workplace culture. Here, he has a chat about why  we will see more brands like Patagonia that donate US$10 million to fight climate change, why business has become a forceful movement for change and how New Zealand businesses are doing when it comes to embracing audacious change.</p>