Businesses going global

Matariki celebrations were popular before the arrival of Europeans, and continued into the 1900s. At the beginning of the 21st century Māori began to revive the practice of celebrating Matariki as a time of remembrance, joy and peace. This year Matariki will be marked for the first time with a public holiday in New Zealand. 

Matariki is an important time for Māori and returning Kiwi Adrian Smith says honouring the indigenous holiday is a really positive reflection of New Zealand’s cultural evolution.

“When I lived in London the Māori and Polynesian community would celebrate Matariki together. We would teach our kids the songs so they knew what all the stars were. To come home and discover that it is now a public holiday is really affirming, and once again, sets New Zealand apart on the international stage by showing our cultural uniqueness.”

Matariki is named for the cluster of nine stars that appear just before dawn during the mid-winter months. The first star, Matariki, is known as the mother of the eight stars in the constellation. Matariki is connected to health and wellbeing. The second star Pōhutukawa, serves as a reminder of those who have passed on, encouraging us to take the time to remember them and acknowledge their impact on our lives. The next four stars Tupuānuku, Tupuārangi, Waitī and Waitā are connected with food that comes from the ground, the sky, freshwater and the sea. The seventh star, Waipuna-ā-rangi is connected to the rain, and the eighth is Ururangi connected to the wind. The final star is Hiwa-i-te-rangi, a wishing star, helping us to realise our hopes and aspirations for the coming year.

New York based Kiwi Maia Nuku says honouring Matariki is an important event for Kiwi all over the world. 

“The observation of Matariki as an official holiday is a welcome and wonderful opportunity both in Aotearoa and overseas. It gives us a chance to share our Maoritanga – our culture, ideals, and practices – in an expansive way so people can understand our connections to cosmology and the stars, and their impact on our ocean and landscape in terms of seasons and planting cycles. It’s an exciting development.

There are a number of ways offshore Kiwi can celebrate Matariki. One of the easiest is by sharing kai. Food gives people a connection to the harvests that lead up to the Māori New Year and brings people together to share entertainment, hospitality, and knowledge. Why not check out some of these recipes. Matariki is also an important time for reflection and to remember those who have passed during the year, and honour their memory.

If you would like more information on Matariki please visit this page from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, or for information specific to children you could check out online resources such as this one from Christchurch City Libraries which includes a link to download and print your own Matariki activity book.

Most importantly for our offshore community, Matariki offers the perfect opportunity to connect with friends and whānau either in person or online. It’s a chance to celebrate the unique culture, people, and stories that connect us all as Kiwi no matter where we live. 

Mānawatia a Matariki, celebrate Matariki!

Goodwins is an independent, family-owned full-service real estate agency that has been working in the Auckland market for 30+ years. The company works across the buying, renting and selling market for the wider Auckland area. 

Kea CEO Toni Truslove says Goodwins will be trusted advisors and offer quality service to the Kea community. 

“Advice on the ever changing property market is something that our community are often searching for. Goodwins are a family owned firm who pride themselves on providing support for Kiwi moving offshore who want to rent their homes, and also returning Kiwi looking for rental or permanent accommodation in the Auckland area.”

Goodwins Managing Director Catherine Goodwin says the company looks forward to helping the Kea community in all areas of their move home.

“We are thrilled to announce our exciting partnership with Kea, expanding our collaboration with clients worldwide. Goodwins is committed to providing specialised tenancy services, expert property management, acting for both sellers and buyers of Auckland property, while fostering lasting relationships and accessing premium third-party services.”

Those Kea community members wanting to contact Goodwins to discuss their full range of services can do so here. 

Grant Caunter gave up alcohol but that didn’t mean he wanted to give up beer. This wasn’t an issue in Europe where there was a wide selection of non-alcoholic craft beers on offer, but proved to be more problematic when the family moved back to New Zealand. Having seen the growth in the global non-alcoholic market and seeing a similar opportunity in New Zealand Grant set about launching State of Play – the country’s first non alcoholic brewery.

Grant had plenty of experience running a multi billion Euro beer category with a team of people and a powerful brand behind him, but when it came to starting a small business he had a lot of learning to do. 

“I had to be open and honest where I needed help, then go out and find it and then accept that help. Growth for a New Zealand small business owner is all about connection and networks. In Amsterdam I would present the growth strategy simplified to a plan on a page, I would get it signed off, and off we went. As a start-up in New Zealand the network had to be built from the ground up,  connecting directly at every stage from supply and manufacturing to the consumer.  The story and purpose of State of Play was picked up early and a few favours given to build brand momentum. I have a lot to thank those suppliers, store owners and webstore shoppers that took a punt early.” 

Grant says he also experienced the challenge of keeping costs in check while being competitive and growing distribution fast in the market. In the beginning he had his eyes on scale, so the value chain just didn’t work. Especially with a few unexpected challenges – the brewery which brews his beer is based in the Hawkes Bay could not operate after the cyclone meaning shipping costs went up 50%, all while New Zealand continues to suffer a CO2 shortage. 

“In the past 12 months I have bootstrapped the operation myself so that’s been a big learning curve in managing cash flow, especially with the weather events and resulting supply chain issues. I have survived the first year, grown each month and launched a new variant every 6 months. The good news is the non-alcoholic market is growing faster than even I expected.”

Despite having to learn the small business lessons from scratch Grant says there are plenty of global learnings he has taken from his time at Heineken that have helped him navigate the past 12 months.

“The great gift I got from working for Heineken is to have the consumer needs at the centre of all  brand decisions. If I had put supply chain at the centre of all my decisions, I wouldn’t have gone past the first brew because it wouldn’t have made any sense. Other markets also give a window to the future. There are patterns that each market follows depending on the growth stage of each category, so I totally believe the growth will come, the only question is how fast.”

“The other thing Heinkein focuses on is building brand trust and being top of mind for the category as it grows. The work done early will pay off when a wider audience is entering this new beer segment. I am the only brewery exclusively making only non-alcoholic beer, and a lot of craft breweries are bringing out non-alcoholic options, because the market growth in New Zealand is so strong right now. So I am always thinking how do I stay visible and connect? How do I stay at the top of this category, how do I make myself stand out?”

His advice to those at the beginning of their journey is to think big and focus on what makes you famous in your markets. 

“My whole business model was to skip the ‘small business’ part and act big from the word go. So I am always juggling things but being agile is one of the benefits of being a small business, my supply agreements need a month’s notice. The brewing is a month’s notice, so that allows me to juggle my cash flow and grow according to demand.”

“I have a master plan to grow outside New Zealand, but I need to win at home first. New Zealand is the perfect market size and maturity to innovate and learn fast, and get to enough scale that the value chain works and affords the cash to enter a new market that will require even greater investment as an import with no brand awareness.  When I export I already know the consumer in that market will be different, the competitor landscape will be different and they will be at a different stage of category maturity.  

All going well Grant is eyeing the Australian market later this year but says he still has some things to work through with local partners and export costs. Long term he believes the New Zealand non-alcoholic beer category will become around 6% of the New Zealand beer market – it’s currently sitting at 2% and will really kick off this summer as the social value of a good zero arrives at every backyard bbq. Grant is already planning on how his business will adjust and who will help him to keep up with these rapid category growth phases. 

My biggest advice is to use New Zealand’s best asset – clever Kiwi with a growth mindset.  A brand with a solid DNA, rich in purpose and story requires people who know their stuff and can share their knowledge of the next growth phase and challenges to keep you focused. Bringing in the right people at the right stages of growth, not only will help you, they will also open you up to all sorts of other amazing connections. New Zealanders willingness to connect and share wisdom is the most valuable part of being a Kiwi business owner. 

If you would like to hear lessons from more global Kiwi about advice for your export business make sure you join Kea in Auckland on July 5th 2023 for our ‘Global lessons for Kiwi businesses‘ event.

The EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year is an annual competition which brings together visionary founders, CEOs and business leaders from around the world to celebrate the accomplishments of leaders whose vision and innovation are transforming the world for the better. The event takes place in Monaco over three days and entrepreneurs must first take out their national title before making it through to the final global rounds where they will be assessed by a diverse panel of independent judges who assess the achievements against four criteria, entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and impact.

CEO Phil Thomson says the trio will be asked questions about Auror’s global reach, the positive impacts the company is having on the world, and their focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. To help prepare for the competition the team spoke to Kiwi who have gone through the process in the past. 

“As part of the preparation for the judges’ questions in Monaco we were able to meet with some former NZ winners like Phillip Mills (Les Mills), Diana Harrington (NZ Natural), Rod Drury (Xero), and Dan Radcliffe (International Volunteer HQ) which was a real highlight. We also had fantastic input from the NZ-based competition judges – Vaughan Fergusson (Vend), Cecilia Robinson (Tend Health and My Food Bag), and Jeremy Moon (Icebreaker). We’re excited about doing the same for EOY winners in the years to come – there’s so much knowledge to pass down to ensure the next generation is putting their best foot forward.

Phil says the competition has been a great opportunity to meet people who are also making a positive impact on the world and to also share with a wider audience the work that Auror is doing. 

“Being able to work with some of the world’s biggest and best retailers to stop crime and understand the complexities and impacts is a huge undertaking, but being part of the solution is something we’ve never wavered from. We will always be looking at ways in which we can work with both retailers and law enforcement to make an impact for good together.”

“There is naturally pressure when you’re put in front of 3 global entrepreneurs (all former country winners) with only 20 minutes to tell your story.  However, when you get to talk about your own company and share what you’re doing, the pressure quickly makes way for enjoyment. Having the chance to share our views with the judges on building an exceptional place where great people come to do their work, connecting communities to stop crime, and using tech for good, is a real highlight.”

The trio join a prestigious list of well-known New Zealand entrepreneurs including Peter Beck, Mohammed Hikmet, Nick Mowbray, Diana Harrington (also Diane Foreman), and Rod Drury who are all previous competitors. 

Sarah is a Kea World Class New Zealander, published author and CEO of EXOS, a company which provides human performance coaching to everyone from elite professional athletes to corporate executives. She describes her current roles as the perfect combination of work and passion but getting to this point wasn’t always a linear journey. 

After moving to the US in the 90’s to take up a role at Virgin, Sarah thought her career trajectory was on track. She has just been promoted to Lead Marketing Manager for a huge global brand and she was charging into her new role with a sense of purpose. However things were about to take a turn. 

“Within a year of my promotion I was fired from Virgin for being cocky, unwilling to ask for help, out of my depth and ineffective. The loss of my job meant I was also in danger of losing my green card, which would mean I would have to leave the US. Knowing I wasn’t ready to go home, I started desperately searching for another role.” 

The job Sarah eventually landed was with video gaming company Atari, unfortunately she had overlooked the fact she had zero understanding of video games and not a whole lot of passion about the industry. 

“My time at Atari can only be described as an epic fail, I couldn’t grasp the product, the consumer or the business and ended up getting side-lined to run ‘non core projects’ and then laid off.”

After losing two jobs in six months, Sarah took some time to take stock of what she wanted and refocused on her ultimate goal which was to work for Nike. Getting her foot in the door of one of the biggest sports brands meant taking a job a few steps back from where she had worked her way up to, but Sarah says that decision turned out to be one of the best she ever made and working at Nike gave her the opportunity to learn a big lesson, the importance of mentors. 

“I think having strong mentors is so important, these need to be people you work with who can

see you in action, see you in the ring. I had some fantastic mentors at Nike, people who were so giving as to make the effort to take a young kiwi like me under their wing.  I can’t actually believe how lucky I was to get up close to some of the great legends of the industry like Howard White, the now VP of Jordan Brand and Coach George Raveling, Nike’s director of Basketball, both of whom have just been portrayed in the recent film ‘Air’. The fact that they made time for up and comers like me had a huge impact on how I wanted to show up as a leader. They

were leaders who knew what they wanted and they had the courage to go after it.”

“Another of my mentors was former Air New Zealand Deputy CEO Norm Thompson. I started my career with Air NZ and Norm was the reason I moved to the US in the first place. To this day he’s one of my greatest mentors. When you find people you really admire you should never let them go. I find as I’ve gotten older in every chapter of my career, Norm was there 20 years before me, so his advice is invaluable.”

After five years at Nike, Sarah was headhunted to take on the CEO role for Gatorade, at the time the business was losing significant money and the company was looking for someone to turn it around.

“When I took the CEO role at Gatorade, the job that had to be done was huge. For the first two years I was convinced every day that I was going to be fired. However because of my experience at Virgin and Atari I realised that while being fired wasn’t what I wanted, it also wasn’t the end of the world. I think this allowed me to take bigger swings, to think outside the box and really go after some crazy ideas – some of which worked and some of which didn’t. It ultimately showed me the value of resilience.” 

Sarah says those crucial resilience skills were once again put to the test when she started her current role with EXOS, a company which among other assets owns 400 gyms around the world. She was appointed CEO in February 2020, a month later the world went into lockdown.

“One of the biggest lessons I think people need to understand is that ‘Shit happens’ If you are not well prepared for this as an executive coming into the workplace then you are going to have a really rough ride. When the global lockdowns started I had an incredible sense of calm, I knew I had been in some really rough spots of Gatorade and like I got through that I would get through this. I think this is something we need to prepare the next generation of executives for, especially those who up to recently have been working in pretty favourable global environments. If you learn to accept adversity then you can learn how to navigate it and in business sense that is incredibly important, particularly if you want to be a good leader.” 

The other thing Sarah wants the next generation to understand is the incredible value of building face to face relationships. 

“These days it’s all digital first and people are so obsessed with using data to make decisions that sometimes we lose our sense of intuition, we forget to talk about what we feel and what our gut is telling us. I think in this next chapter we are really going to value young people who have learned to build very human relationships and can have a face-to-face conversation.”

“I think as Kiwis. We’re oddly good at networking, we seem to be able to build really deep relationships with very influential people. We travel around the world, and we are really interested to learn about people and I think that’s something resonates with coming from a small country, the relationships we build are a lot more real.”

Alongside her career, Sarah is also a mother to three children, all who over the next few years, will embark on careers of their own. While she acknowledges the incredible changes the world has gone through since she started out, she says she feels the secret to them succeeding still centres around two key things.

“I am a big believer in trying a lot of things. I tell my kids don’t worry if you feel like you’ve made a bad decision because everything always leads to something. Try as much as you can and you’ll learn quickly where you shine and where you thrive. And secondly make your own passion, don’t just expect to ‘find’ it. I feel like we keep telling people they should have found their passion by 20 when in fact a lot of research says once you find something that really grabs your attention and you work at it and develop your craft, that’s what leads to passion. It’s so important to love what you do, because that’s what’s going to get you through the hard stuff that will inevitably come your way.”

In 2014 Ashlee applied for a young reporter scholarship to attend the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China. She embarked on her first big overseas adventure, an adventure which left her waiting more. Two years later she was in Norway covering the Youth Winter Olympics with the support from her Kiwi employer, Newshub, when she learnt the IOC was launching their own digital channel which would be based out of Spain. She applied for a role and before she knew it was on a plane to Madrid. 

That was the start of seven crazy years in an incredible job which took Ashlee all over the world. A day after landing in Spain she was on a plane to South America to cover the Rio 2016 Olympics and from there the whirlwind never really stopped. The Olympic channel and Olympics.com tells athletes’ stories before, during and after the Olympics every four years. She worked with a team that provided constant exposure for sports and Olympians 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in 12 languages.

Ashlee admits she likes to do things ‘a bit differently’ and the idea of moving to Spain appealed to her more than a traditional OE in somewhere like London. 

“I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, so I had this grand idea that I would move to Spain and learn to play the guitar while also learning to speak Spanish, but those two things are much easier said than done.” 

The Olympic Channel hired staff from all over the world so Ashlee’s immediate workmates came from places like Kenya, Malaysia, Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain. Despite being based in Madrid the common language in the office was English and so the opportunities to practise Spanish were not as common as Ashlee had originally thought. 

“What was really great is that we were a new team from all over the world, all going through this new experience and adventure together. Some people had children and we would have gatherings where they would bring their kids along and the kids were speaking fluent Spanish with our Spanish colleagues. They were picking it up so quickly at school and much faster than their parents and the rest of us.”

Along with the language there were also other things that Ashlee had to learn as she adjusted to life on the other side of the world. 

“While I was in Rio, I bought a bunch of postcards and on the plane I wrote to all my family. My dad is from a big Maori whanau and he has 13 Uncles and Aunties so I have a lot of second cousins that I wrote to, but once I landed back in Madrid it took me three months to send them because I couldn’t find stamps anywhere. It turns out you buy stamps from the tobacco shops in Spain and that’s somewhere I never would have thought to have looked.”

That was just one of the many, many lessons she learned along the way. 

“I used to think it sounded silly when people would say ‘travel changes you’ but now I see what they mean. I think it’s more than just travelling to places, it’s living and immersing yourself within a new culture and community. It’s going through the transition of trying to establish yourself in a different country and understanding your identity there that really changes and impacts you. I think that growth and those experiences are really positive things.”

Despite loving her time overseas, Ashlee and her Kiwi partner always knew they would return to New Zealand someday, and it was during the pandemic that they began to think about when the right time might be. 

“I’d spent seven years travelling and learning and exploring and just having the most wild adventure, but I think being overseas during Covid really took its toll. I’ve always been a really proud Kiwi and I struggled with the fact that I couldn’t come back to visit. I remember it got to a point at the start of 2022 when it was three or four o’clock in the morning and I was trying to win one of the isolation lottery spots and I just felt really frustrated and so upset with the whole situation that, I don’t know, I just felt really broken.”

Having moved back to New Zealand earlier this year Ashlee says she and her partner are enjoying being home and closer to friends and family. She’s also determined not to lose some of the skills she picked up overseas including her spanish. 

“One of my best friends is Spanish and she speaks to me on the phone in Spanish or Spanglish (Spanish-English), so it’s really good when I catch up with her because I end up speaking it as well. I was really nervous about losing the language so I am working to keep it up.”

Despite her incredible role overseas Ashlee is excited about future opportunities in New Zealand and sees moving home as a really positive next step in her career. 

“On a professional level, I felt like I’d been able to do so many cool things, but I also knew that I was ready for a new challenge because I didn’t want to be living on a plane. When I looked at what was happening in New Zealand and Australia, there’s a lot of really big sporting events coming up in the next 10 years and I was really excited about the opportunities. I’m really looking forward to taking everything I have learned overseas and being able to apply that here. New Zealand is a real front runner in terms of Women’s sport, not just with what’s happening on the field, but with media and the way in which we portray women. I love that, and I want to be a part of it, so I’m really excited about the next few years. 

Ashlee says her advice to other Kiwi looking to return is to firstly make sure it’s the right time for you and secondly to give yourself the time and space you need to, as a way to close that chapter of your life.

“Take the time to think about what is right for you. I know that sometimes people feel like they have to return for a whole lot of reasons so I guess my advice would be to allow yourself time to work out what is calling you home and then take the time to say goodbye to the place you have been living. I think it’s important to give yourself the time to really celebrate and appreciate the time that you’ve spent overseas, to go to the places and people that brought you joy and if possible, don’t rush saying goodbye. Leaving a place can be really hectic and stressful, so it is important to give yourself time to process everything and visit your favourite cafes or parks one last time, see the people you spent time with, just to help close that chapter.”

After being home three months now Ashlee says she is still settling into life back in New Zealand and getting into a routine. She’s happy to take the time to settle back in properly. 

“It’s difficult to get the balance right between coming back and giving yourself the grace and the time to kind of adjust and enjoy being here, but then there’s also that next gear of, okay, now we need to get into work. We need to get a job, we need to set ourselves up. I think it’s important to just remind yourself that some things are going to take time and  that previous jobs, or previous, moves didn’t all fall into place immediately or perfectly and coming back to New Zealand is no different.” 

“I see New Zealand through a new lens these days,I have definitely come back with a fresh new perspective. I worked out that in 2022 I had been on over 60 flights which is more than one a week, so I am definitely enjoying the change in pace back here. You travel to all these amazing countries and they’re really special and you have beautiful memories, but there really is something about New Zealand that is unique, and there really is no place like home.”