Kiwi coming home

To inform those wishing to return to Aotearoa and to the infrastructure sector, Kea and Holmes Consulting hosted a webinar which touched on:

How technology, sustainability and culture can all work together to increase the productivity of the sector.
Where the skill shortages are within the industry and why offshore talent is important
Understanding the infrastructure industry has changed over the past decades when it comes to embracing cultural and tradition

A huge thank you to Wayne Juno, Senior Leader in the Civil Structures team and Lidia Cooper Team Leader of the Structures team at Holmes Consulting , Jane Henley Founder of Growthlines Limited and Amos Kamo Director of Policy and Performance at Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities for joining the conversation!

Watch the full webinar recording below.

*This content was created in partnership with Holmes Consulting

Opportunities aplenty in Aotearoa

Architecture Van Brandenburg is a cutting-edge architecture and design company with studios in Dunedin and Queenstown. For the past few years Damien Van Brandenburg and his team have been focused on building a 120,000m2 corporate campus for Chinese fashion giant Marisfrolg in Shenzhen, China. Supporting thirty thousand employees, Damien says the campus is like a mini city and it’s design aims to mimic the natural world.

“The design of Marisfrolg is based on nature and how nature can inspire architecture. We have the ability to learn from natural networks and use these to enhance our lives. For example the roof of the campus is created from leaf life shapes which form canopies, they collect rainwater and push it down a ‘stem’ to be collected and reused much like a plant or a tree would. There is a lot to learn from the way in which a forest, for example, will grow and adapt to look after all the species within it. We can learn from this when we think about the planning and architecture of our future cities.

Marisfrolg corporate campus in China takes its design cues from nature

Damien’s designs aim to use as many recycled and sustainable materials as possible and he says the ability for New Zealand cities to adapt and evolve particularly when it comes to sustainability needs to be a key consideration for Aotearoa.

“Nature is constantly adapting and evolving and changing to make things more efficient for trees and plant life. People have had to adapt a lot recently in response to the pandemic, and I think in future we will see that adaptation be applied to the growth of cities. For example could the cities of the future be grown entirely from trees? Could all our homes come from renewable materials such as mass timber construction which is all digitally fabricated? I think the challenges and opportunities are in adaptation. There is a huge amount of data out there to influence city development so cities of the future can really be learning from the cities of today.”

Making sure Aotearoa’s future cities learn from others is something which Professor Anthony Hoete (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Ranana) is passionate about. Anthony recently moved back to New Zealand after thirty years of practising architecture in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. These days he’s working for the University of Auckland using his expertise in optimal density housing to research ways to make Aotearoa’s cities more compact. He feels New Zealand has a number of opportunities in this space but it’s going to require a big shift in thinking.

From Northern to Southern boundaries Auckland is 120km, whereas if you look at a city like London with almost four times the population it’s around 50km from one edge to the other. We have to optimise our density of living as we move forward, it’s the one major means to tackle the housing crisis. We have a lot of opportunities for infill within our cities, a lot of places where we can build up or create more compact living particularly around transport hubs. A lot of houses with empty roof voids. We need to move away from the quarter acre dream and get used to living closer to each other, yet living closer doesn’t necessarily come at a detriment to quality as we can design buildings for sunlight and daylight, for privacy and overlooking, to make the most of shared spaces.”

“There is nothing wrong with a backyard but let’s get rid of the side yard. Moving into the future we need to look at arrangements like terraced housing. High density housing doesn’t mean ugly cities. Paris, Barcelona and Berlin are all seen as beautiful cities and with citizens living side by side and above and below each other. We also need to question the relationship between house and car, we need to look at parking on the street – maybe walking 20, 50 meters to our front doors and I know that’s a bit of a pain-in-the-rain but accommodating the car onsite is really impeding our livable space.”

Along with the ability to increase density, Anthony says New Zealand also has a real opportunity to create less suburban sprawl and more sustainable cities of the future given our unique environment and our culture of embracing technology.

“We can grow pinus radiata and spruce relatively quickly in this country given our soil conditions. Reforestation is a real opportunity. It’s surprising to me that given we have the capacity to plant the second-largest man made forests in the southern hemisphere (Kaingaroa) we cannot socio-economically exploit locally-grown exotic forestry more. We need to shift the entire housing supply model, embrace off-site manufactured processes with a lot more digital fabrication technologies. By doing so, we could minimise waste and upskill and increase the labour market and disrupt housing supply chains.

Founder of the New Zealand Green Building Council Jane Henley says our building sector is one of the last sectors to innovate and when it comes to cities of the future, innovation and factory manufacturing within the sector will be key.

“Currently the building industry is very bespoke, we need to look at how we can drive a manufacturing mindset. Innovation is key to sustainability and cost effectiveness. The more we can drive computer technology and bring that into the market, we will be able to reduce waste and reduce design cost wastage. If you build better buildings you in turn will have better cities.”

Another key consideration for New Zealand is how we incorporate our culture into urban planning. Deidre Brown has a background in Māori and Pacific architecture and says the cities of Aotearoa’s future must celebrate their place within the pacific.

“Right now the University of Auckland is working on a project looking at how Tāmaki Makaurau would have developed into a modern city without colonization. If we can imagine that and build a model of that then we can start to think about how we could bring some of that back. I think cities of the future have to reflect the people living in them and also reflect the heritage. When they are able to do that they can better adapt to their environment.”

But perhaps the most important consideration when it comes to the cities of the future is making sure they are spaces people want to live in. Damien says he’s optimistic we can create future cities which are not only kind to the planet but also kind to people.

“If you start imagining what future cities might look like, many people will have this idea of sci-fi futuristic cities which are often portrayed in movies. But I think more of an optimistic solution which I think is achievable. Future cities should have spaces, environments, and cultures that we want to be in, that are inclusive and fair. From a design perspective I want the foundations of these cities to be as welcoming as possible, I want people to be able to move through cities without huge congestion, to be able to make the most of things such as small-scale aero transportation. I’d like to think future cities will have buildings which can generate their own power and can be adapted to grow food, to allow farming to take place within a city environment. But overall I think the cities of the future need to be inclusive and welcoming, to allow people to feel safe.”

After studying Mandarin at Victoria University in Wellington Ethan was offered a one-year scholarship to continue his language studies at a university in Eastern China. One year quickly morphed into two, and then as he was preparing to fly home he attended a networking event for Kiwi in Shanghai. That event led to him being offered a role helping a fortune 500 company set up their craft beer portfolio in Shanghai. After several years working in Shanghai Ethan and his Chinese partner Zoe decided in 2018 to make the permanent move back to Aotearoa. However moving home wasn’t as easy as Ethan had imagined.

Ethan and his partner Zoe on top of Yellow Mountain

“I found it really tough to return and I think that part of that was expectations. When I left I was in my early 20’s I was free, off on this big adventure and I was expecting the Chinese culture to be vastly different. What I wasn’t expecting was New Zealand being so different on my return. For me it was a shock that it was so hard to get a job, and so hard to settle back in. On top of that I felt responsible for making sure my partner was adapting to Kiwi life as well, she had moved from a city of millions in China to a small dairy farm an hour and a half north of the nearest city, Whangarei, it was a big change for her as well.”

The couple had the idea to start a tourism company offering authentic tours in the Far North in Mandarin. Ethan got a job as a tour guide for a different company to build up his experience, while his partner started a digital marketing campaign. Then Covid started making headlines around the world.

“Because Covid hit China first we were lucky enough to see the writing on the wall, and while we had put a lot of time into our businesses we hadn’t yet started spending serious cash to purchase things like vehicles so we were incredibly lucky to be able to see what was coming and avoid too much of a financial hit. We had designed and imported a coffee van to complement the tours but we were lucky to be able to sell that once it arrived in New Zealand.”

With Covid spreading and Ethan and his partner both out of work they did odd jobs picking Kiwifruit and freelancing while they tried to find their feet. Ethan says convincing people of his offshore experience was often difficult.

“It feels like you have gone off and you have done all these different things and you have had all these experiences and you’ve developed so much and then you come back and it feels like people treat you less professionally as though you have taken five years off, not as though you have been growing and bettering yourself. It felt like I was starting all over again.”

The downtime however did give Ethan a chance to reflect on the changes in New Zealand and the one thing that surprised him was the prevalence of Māori culture, a language that is part of his identity but that didn’t speak.

Ethan and Zoe celebrate being back in Aotearoa

“I am Māori but I grew up without the language, it had died out on my father’s side of the immediate family, but it had left a sense that something was missing. Shortly after I returned I was fishing at the lake and my nephew called me on the phone and he said catch some ‘tuna’ and I said oh there is no Tuna in this lake, and he said no ‘tuna’ which is the Māori word for eel. That really struck me that there is a whole generation growing up now where Te Reo is prevalent in their world much more than it was for us and other generations. And that hit me more than anything just the prevalence and the growing appreciation of Te Reo and I realised I had been all over the world and could speak several languages but my own language was not one of them. I had always wanted to speak Māori but I never learnt and I realised I had to change that.”

Both Ethan and his Chinese partner decided to learn Te Reo Māori. Ethan says his background in studying languages definitely helped, and he’s grateful that returning home has given him the opportunity to better understand Te Reo me Te Ao Māori.

“Language is a window into a culture, you can try and understand a culture but if you don’t have the language you will always feel like you are looking at a world through a window. Whereas when you have a strong grasp of a language you can open that door and be involved rather than just observing it. The feeling of it is very different, for me that is definitely the drawcard.”

Ethan says he can now hold his own in Te Reo and practises the language whenever he can. But for now it’s his fluency in Mandarin that is helping him settle into his new role.

“I was lucky enough to land a role working for the Asia New Zealand Foundation supporting NZ businesses to better understand the markets in Asia. There are a few focus sectors where we see good opportunities for Kiwi so I am focused on getting market knowledge into areas like the creative industries and the tech sector, areas where New Zealand has a lot of value to add.”

Ethan’s partner Zoe gets to grips with her new environment.

While Ethan and his partner have settled back into New Zealand he says he does think about how his years away changed him as a person and how they have allowed him to bring a different view back to Aotearoa.

“I’ve changed in so many little ways, there have been so many little learnings, it’s like that saying, drop by drop a bucket is filled with water. It’s the random conversations you have with people that make you think in a different way or realise a viewpoint you had never thought of. All of that can only make you a better person, and I think that acceptance, understanding and different viewpoints are all great traits that returning Kiwi bring home.”

Chelsea trained as a sports physio in Sydney before emigrating to New Zealand in the early 2000s with her Kiwi husband. She worked in a physio practise in the South Island picking up work here and there with high performance athletes before moving to Auckland in 2011 to take up a role with the newly created organisation, High Performance Sport New Zealand. Then one day out of the blue the NBA came knocking.

“I got an email from an American guy asking if I could look at some issues in their programme, that in itself wasn’t out of the ordinary as I did do that sort of work from time to time. But then all of a sudden I was offered a full time job and was moving to San Francisco and joining this crazy world that was the NBA.”

Chelsea says she had only just started to feel like a real ‘Kiwi’ in Aotearoa and the move to the US brought a fresh of culture shock, however as she began navigation her new role and all that came with it she was surprised to realise that the franchise were also trying to navigate their round her.. Specifically her gender.

Chelsea and 3x NBA Champion Stephen Curry hang out pre game. Photography credit Noah Graham

“When I first arrived I thought my ‘otherness’ was because I was a Kiwi, despite the fact my gender had been brought up on several occasions, I never really believed it was an issue. I had come from a place where being a woman and doing what I do wasn’t unusual so it took me a while to realise in this new climate I was in fact incredibly unique. I was told that the biggest hesitation of bringing me into the team was because I was a woman, and I thought that was absurd, I was like your biggest concern should really be that I know nothing about basketball, you should be concerned about the fact that I literally googled basketball when you offered me the job, who cares if I’m a woman.”

A female management role in the NBA in 2016 was rare, so rare in fact that there were no female toilets, showers or changing rooms. In the early days Chelsa brushed it off, preferring instead to focus on doing her job as best she could but after a while she realised that she had an incredible opportunity to change things for those who would come after her.

“I started receiving lots and lots of letters from little girls – they see you on the television, and they see that you are there with the coaches and you are actually part of the game. Up until that point the only females they have seen have been dancers or entertainers. I would get these letters from girls and the fathers of little girls talking about creating pathways into sport science and it is impossible to not be touched by that. Once I stopped fighting and pretending that my gender was insignificant it was actually easier because I was able to become an advocate. I realised I needed to take this seriously, if I was being judged for being female, if there were no changing rooms or toilets for me, then I had a real opportunity to stop the next person from feeling like that, I had a responsibility for the people who came after me. That I had become a role and I was breaking stereotypes.. I realised I needed to respect that, because it’s a powerful thing.”

Chelsea on the job during a Golden State Warriors match

Chelsea was fortunate enough to be part of the Golden State warriors for three years in which time they won the NBA championship twice, she says being part of that moment was something she will never forget.

“To watch a group of people be that talented and to pull it together that consistently not not just once but twice I didn’t think I can ever explain how remarkable that feels, especially because it’s not my win, it belongs to the athletes, I got to be part of it because of them, it’s not mine. That I got to experience that and be there is such a gift.”

However despite the amazing high of an NBA championship win (and the shiny jewellery that goes with it) Chelsea says her biggest career high was actually something she experienced off the court.

“The highest moment for me was when I got to a place where culturally, I had learnt enough about my athletes to be able to serve them properly. It’s not just that we were different genders, they were also all different cultures and none of those cultures were mine. I honestly believe that to make a high performing person perform at their highest you really need to meet them as the person they are. Their motivations, their cultural needs, their family needs, their performance needs. After about the second year I finally felt like I was getting to that place, where I was reaching them at a level that was culturally appropriate. I wasn’t sure I would ever get there and if that was the case, then have I really served them? That’s not to say I know it all, I could spend another 20 years working there and not know everything, but to be able to understand where they are coming from enough to be able to give them what they need, that was my biggest high.”

A lone female face, Chelsea sits with players and staff at during an Atlanta Hawks game.

After three years with the Golden State Warriors Chelsea was offered the role of executive director of athletic performance and sports medicine for the Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks had finished bottom of their conference and had the ambitious goal of turning their losing streak around with the aim of making it to the conference play-offs within three years. For Chelsea the opportunity embodied everything she loved about the NBA culture.

“They just kept raising the bar for you. Someone would say can you do this? How about this? Why don’t you have a go at that? Well if you did this then you must want to try that? The steepness of the learning curve is incredible but they support you and have so much trust in you. People expected things of me that I never even expected of myself that I had never imagined of myself, to this day it still feels a little bit make believe. But that was invaluable and it leaves you with this new look on life of why aren’t we having a go, why aren’t we pushing?”

“I went in as a high performance physio and came out six years later with a NBA vice presidency and I came out sitting in boardrooms learning the business of basketball because someone said well you have done that so why not give this a crack. They just keep pushing you and they place so much trust in you that you can do what they give you, further and doing more. when someone gives you that level of support it drives you.”

Chelsea saw the Golden State Warriors win the Championship twice during her time with the club.

By the end of the three years the Hawks made it through several rounds of the playoffs to compete in the Eastern Conference finals, making them one of the top four teams in the NBA that season, a crowning achievement for the club. Chelsea meanwhile had been promoted to vice president of athletic performance and sports medicine. An executive position, and one of only two women at that level.

However the drive and opportunities came with sacrifices, the job was seven days and week up to 18 hours a day. And after three years in Atlanta, Chelsea and her husband were ready to come home. Right now she’s taking a break, allowing herself time to reflect on a whirlwind six years and the lessons she has learnt. Lessons she hopes to bring to her next role in New Zealand.

“I think for me the biggest learning was around the organisation of people and how you set the bar for them. You have meet firstly as humans, if you do that there isn’t anything blocking us from connecting. There’s absolutely no reason why a white woman, half aussie half kiwi who knows nothing about basketball can go into an established organisation with all its history, and within four and a bit years be sitting at the vice presidency table when she went in as the physio. That shouldn’t work, but it did and I have had to unpack that a number of times. I think it’s because once you break it down it’s about humanity. It takes some bravery to meet someone as human because it means accepting you are one too, but once you can find that common ground with people then you can build up from there, while that might be a real challenge it’s also where the real payoff comes from.”

“I think in Aotearoa we can sometimes pigeonhole people. We say you do this, and this is what you are capable of and please don’t step outside of that. What we need to start saying to people is well how far can you go? What tools and support can we give you? Can you do that? Why don’t you try this? If you do that in your organisation everybody wins. It takes bravery and belief and huge amounts of human investment, but the payoff is that people will achieve things they never thought they were capable of. As a country we can only benefit from that.”

For those businesses starting to plan ahead with this new information, there is much to be learned from those overseas who have already begun navigating some of the more common challenges.

Kea Connect’s global community is both willing and able to offer advice to businesses in Aotearoa looking to adapt to this new normal. We spoke to several offshore Kiwi who shared advice on three common areas of concern.

Supply chain delays

With the summer holiday season fast approaching, it’s a key time of year for our business community. Ryan Bennett is based in the USA and is the Vice President of Sales at ShipHero, a leading provider of Warehouse Management Software and eCommerce Fulfillment solutions. He says many eCommerce and retail businesses are adjusting to longer lead times due to delays in shipping and planning is key.

“I see some businesses utilising air freight if their products are small, light, or of higher value, while others are ordering inventory months in advance and seeking financing options for the cost of owning stock earlier.”

Pressure on global sea freight is expected to continue

Most online retailers’ sales follow the 80/20 rule, 80% of orders come from 20% of their total SKUs. Ryan’s advice for Kiwi businesses is to order larger quantities of the top-selling 20% of items for peak season. He says New Zealand retailers shouldnt be afraid of running aggressive sales on slow-moving products (the other 80%), if the supply of goods or materials is delayed to ensure they capture much-needed revenue during peak season. “It’s critical to be flexible and quick to pivot during these unprecedented times.”

Closer to home, Melbourne businesses are reopening after enduring some of the longest lockdown periods worldwide. Kerry Osborne is a business mentor advisor working with SMEs in the Victorian capital and says supply chain issues have seen many manufacturers become less reliant on overseas imported materials.

“Manufacturers are now looking to the circular economy to supply recycled product, such as recycled plastic pellets for their goods. Also handmade and local products are really taking off both in online sales, but also within stores, as they open and use live streaming for those still unable, or unwilling to travel. I am also seeing local communities and businesses banding together to promote their food, wine and local products regionally and in urban clusters, which also uses that sustainable theme and recycling, circular economy at its heart.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says globally the effects of Covid will continue to strain supply chains and ongoing pressure on global sea freight is expected to continue as are long standing cargo delays. This is particularly prevalent for ports along the USA West Coast. In response, businesses that usually ship to the West Coast have shifted cargo to ports along the East Coast, Gulf and Pacific Northwest.

Travel Restrictions

Difficulties around international travel continue to challenge export businesses. Whether it’s keeping front of mind with partners or securing offshore investment, it’s a frustrating environment and it’s easy for Kiwi businesses to feel left behind.

Chris Perfect helps businesses navigate risk and says there are a few tactics that Kiwi businesses can employ to make sure they stay front of mind until our borders reopen.

“Every geographic market, business segment, and industry is different. “There is no single factor that a business can rely on, but here are some themes that I’ve seen help clients navigate the pandemic to stay front of mind:

be creative – there is an ocean of samey-samey client engagement out there, even small amounts of creativity in the look and feel of engagement can make a big difference
emphasise the relationship – think personalise, empathise, energise.
don’t use guesswork – chase feedback and monitor buying patterns relentlessly. Then learn from it: be better, be more resilient.”

For businesses concerned about raising capital offshore, investor relations and marketing expert Elizabeth van Rooyen says many professionals have realised there are plenty of opportunities they can access digitally, and businesses should leverage this.

Difficulties around international travel continue to challenge export businesses

“In the venture capital world, there have been many instances of founders getting access to offshore investors through Twitter or other digital mediums that has led to funding entirely virtually. Because of this shift, investors are getting access to a whole new range of differentiated deal flow compared to the venture capital down the road from them. Business owners should take advantage of this.”

Team morale and productivity

Along with the more business focused challenges, many companies are also working out how to bring people back into the office safely and productively in the months ahead.

Chris says businesses that have done well in the USA are those that have focused on the aspirations and human concerns of their employees.

“Some workers will find returning to the workplace difficult, many have happily settled into a life of remote working, others will have concerns about the risk of contracting COVID if they return to a shared workspace. Open and frequent communication is key, emphasising the positives: increased productivity, less loneliness, and firmer boundaries between work and home life. Businesses should be ready to make reasonable accommodations. With recruiting challenges in many sectors now is time to be pragmatic rather than dogmatic.”

Former management consultant turned entertainment entrepreneur Rebecca Assice says her key tip for New Zealand businesses is to use this time to work together with your competitors to reopen your industry in the most productive and positive way possible. “Collaboration is more important than competition”.

Whatever your focus is over the next few months, remember that you are not alone. Kea Connect’s free service is happy to connect you with our global community of experts to help with the challenges facing your export business. If you would like an introduction to any of the contributors mentioned in this article, or anyone else in our international community, reach out today. To learn more about how Kea Connect can help your business and our process, see here.

We would like to thank those people from our global community of experts who helped with this article.

Ryan Bennet, VP of Sales, Fulfillment at ShipHero, USA

Rebecca Assice, Owner, Virtual Room Asia Pacific and Escape Hunt Australia & NZ, Singapore

Chris Perfect, Owner and Principal Consultant, Concept and Perspective, LLC, USA

Kerry Osborne, Lead Mentor, Managing Partner, The Leaders Mentor, Australia

Elizabeth van Rooyen, Head of Investor Relations & Marketing, Invest Unlisted, Australia

A structural engineer, Travis worked in the Netherlands for three years and in Texas, USA for another seven. When he initially started to think about returning home, he believed it could negatively affect his career.

“From a personal perspective I was quite keen to come home but my biggest hesitation was having my career stalling and not having a role in New Zealand that would match the type of work, and the excitement and fulfillment I was getting from my job in Texas.”

After graduating from university in New Zealand Travis had worked for Kiwi company Holmes Consulting, and while still in Texas he had the opportunity to have lunch with his old boss Hamish Nevile.

“It wasn’t a recruitment conversation, just a catch up but I told him that we were thinking about coming home. He told me what was happening at Holmes and discussed some projects that were coming up. It totally changed my expectations of what was available back in New Zealand. All of a sudden I realised my ideas of the market, the opportunities, the salaries etc were all ten years old. That one conversation made me realise how wrong my assumptions had been.”

In April Travis and his partner landed back on Kiwi soil. After taking up a Team Leader, Civil Structures position at Holmes Consulting, Travis says he’s impressed at how much the engineering industry has changed.

“I think the industry as a whole has definitely matured in New Zealand. There is recognition as a country that we need to do something about our infrastructure, and that’s really important and also provides a lot of opportunities. I’ve always respected Holmes as a company, and to come back and see the projects they are working on and see the culture and sense of team is really exciting.”

The other thing Travis says he’s looking forward to is the future opportunities his new job holds.

New Zealand is a small country and we need to improve the infrastructure because good infrastructure improves the quality of people’s lives, but at the same time we need to do that in a way that ensures the country remains a beautiful place, balancing those two things moving forward is an exciting challenge.”

Travis says his offshore experience has given him valuable experience and knowledge to bring to his new role in Aotearoa.

“The world is becoming more and more connected, no matter where you work you end up working with different cultures, different ways of thinking etc. So having that offshore experience, working with different people, seeing things done a different way, I think that definitely provides a lot of value when you return.”

And that’s a sentiment echoed by his boss, CEO of Holmes Consulting, Hamish Neville.

“Kiwi are always open to learning from others and are agile enough as a nation to rapidly implement this thinking to the New Zealand context. One of the key things I see in those returning is what international best practice and thinking looks like from a sustainability and ‘engineering for climate change’ perspective.”

Travis says he’s really grateful he kept in touch with his colleagues at Holmes Consulting and wants other offshore Kiwi to realise how important those connections back to New Zealand can be. He wants to encourage other offshore Kiwi to not be afraid to reach out and connect with those in their industries in New Zealand.

“Don’t let your previous expectations of New Zealand govern your decisions, I had a warped view of what the engineering and professional industry was like, but once I started talking to people I started to get quite excited about the opportunities.”

*This content was created in partnership with Holmes Consulting

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