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World changing Kiwi

Your career in journalism has spanned much of the globe. Can you give us some background into the last few years, and a couple of highlights from your global experience?

Joining Reuters News Agency after spells as a kid on New Zealand newspapers was transformational and I spent 15-years around the world. I was fortunate to cover stories from the fall of the Soviet Union, to Nelson Mandela’s election, and the first Gulf War. I moved into digital news at The Times, Microsoft, and CNN. In the US, I led an investigative reporting group, which did the Panama Papers. I’ve been very lucky.

How has the media landscape changed over the course of your career?

I have managed to work at reputable organisations with strong ethics. Journalism is still the “rough first draft of history” rather than being definitive. We’ve never had more access to higher quality journalism: there was no past golden age, it’s now. The financial challenges of an advertising-led business model are clear but I fear the move to subscriptions will mean more and more high-quality sources are closed off and that the free space risks being left to sensational journalism and misinformation.

In an age where fake news is more prevalent than ever and mistrust in journalism is growing, where do you believe the future of media is heading?

Media organisations have brought some of this on themselves by blurring what is opinion and news, let alone entertainment, which leaves readers confused as to what the intent is. There’s also a general trend in society to favour belief over fact which is evident in New Zealand. Fortunately, during Covid-19, New Zealand has been well-served by politicians, experts, and to a large extent media. I think brands that stand clearly for trust and accuracy will do well.

What influenced your decision to return to Aotearoa?

I came back for a family funeral and then the first lockdown happened. I normally live in the UK and there has been very little good reason to go “home” and every reason to re-embrace Aotearoa. I have also been very fortunate – after so many years away – to have some fascinating work projects here. I’m grateful.

What has your work looked like since returning home? What differences are there between NZ media and outlets you’ve worked for around the globe?

Peter with his beloved Renault near his home in Spain

I recently judged some investigative news nominees for the Voyager Awards and was deeply impressed by the quality of the work and the commitment of news proprietors to funding it. It’s great to see start-ups like Newsroom, Business Desk, and The Spinoff doing so well. I have written the odd thing for all three. I did a wonderful project with New Zealand On Air related to public interest journalism, and I’ve consulted to Sinead Boucher since she bought Stuff – which is one of the most interesting media projects anywhere in the world. New Zealand is well served by public and commercial media and I suspect a renewed emphasis on quality and a focus on trust will help raise standards. Personally, I’d like a little less “New Zealand exceptionalism” which I’d hope we abandoned since the days of cultural cringe when we asked visitors if they liked New Zealand on the tarmac at Mangere.

What has your experience been of resettling here after living so many years abroad?

I’m grateful to have been accepted back in a professional sense. On a personal level it has been quite discombobulating, but I have a wide whānau to reconnect with more deeply than you do on holidays. I am well aware how fortunate I have been to be in New Zealand during the pandemic and I respect how the government, citizenry, and media have handled the science and the rebound.

What would your advice be to Kiwis looking to do the same?

This period of  a diaspora returning is remarkable. I’ve met – often through Kea – great talents in all sorts of fields. It means having or reactivating networks and I think in some industries that can be more difficult. You absolutely can’t swagger in with a “don’t you know who I am attitude”. You have to respect those who made different choices and made a contribution to New Zealand by staying.

What do you believe the opportunities are for New Zealand in 2021 and beyond?

I sometimes worry that there is an anti-growth climate in New Zealand and yet there is a vibrant start up culture and some world-leading innovation as well as established world-class companies. It would be great to see returnees creating new businesses and adding talent to existing firms to create a burst of activity and growth. The opportunity to capitalise on that returning talent (and I don’t mean me) is immense and I hope investors, employers, and colleagues can embrace that stimulus.

CONTRIBUTOR

Peter Bale

Principal

Peter Bale Media

Kea member

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WHAT ROLE IS THE MIND LAB PLAYING WITHIN THE DIGITAL BOOST PROGRAMME? 

The Mind Lab has partnered with MBIE to deliver the learning platform that enables businesses to jump on to DigitalBoost.co.nz  to learn how to digitise their business. This includes a range of key categories including Websites – eg. design, search engine optimisation, eCommerce, autoresponders, Digital Marketing, Social Media and Digital tools that make business easier. The learning journey is self-paced and video based, which means businesses can start their learning focused on the topics they are interested in and at the level of understanding they already have. These videos are either ‘How-to’ instructional videos or real-life case studies that showcase how other businesses have adopted digital tools and channels to grow their business.

The Mind Lab’s Digital Boost team also hosts daily Q&A sessions with experts from organisations including Xero, Google and Shopify, as well as local providers who provide expertise on everything from developing brands, integrating booking systems or optimising email marketing databases. Twice weekly we host live online ‘Fireside Chats’ with small businesses owners who have adopted new digital processes in response to Covid-19, even in lockdown. 

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES/BARRIERS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO DIGITISE?

There are plenty of common challenges between the thousands of New Zealand businesses using DigitalBoost.co.nz. The first barrier is the very real fear of not understanding what to do first (or second) or being out of their comfort zone. This can include an unfamiliarity of language or concepts. It has to be said that digitalisation has a lot of acronyms which can have a high intimidation factor for someone starting out.

Another common fear is the perceived high cost of ‘going digital’. Many businesses we talked to have previously been burned by spending a lot of money on technology, systems or advice only to see little business growth. We have found it is really important to explain how low cost digital has become and how many of the tools are free or only have a low monthly subscription cost.

We also have a 7-day a week support team who can help demystify any of the areas where a business owner has questions or needs more help. Often this can be around what order they should do things? eg. should they start with a Facebook page and then create a website or vice-versa? What we have discovered is the process of learning is often a family affair. We see plenty of children (of all ages) helping their parents to digitalise.

WHAT EFFECT DID COVID-19 AND SUBSEQUENT LOCKDOWNS HAVE ON SMALL BUSINESSES WILLINGNESS TO DIGITISE?

The rate of digitalisation has been super-charged in a way we could never have predicted. Globally the rate of digitalisation sits between two and five times faster than pre Covid-19 and the advancement of digital tools to support online shopping, banking and collaboration has advanced (according to McKinsey) by five years in a period of eight weeks in 2020. It’s hard to imagine that in December 2019 there were just 10 million daily Zoom users that increased to 300 million users each day by the end of March 2020.

This truly shows how quickly people created workarounds to combat the lockdown effect that made millions of businesses move fully online almost overnight. In Aotearoa our digital adoption rate has been much lower than other countries.  Oddly this is a negative in the overall scheme of keeping our economy going and bouncing back stronger. Our shorter lockdowns deflected the significant turmoil that was experienced in countries where 2020 was almost a continuous series of lockdowns. As a result, our initial wave of digital adoption slowed down very quickly once we got back to a more ‘business as usual’ environment. 

WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DO YOU BELIEVE THIS RESURGENCE IN INTEREST IN DIGITISATION WILL HAVE FOR NEW ZEALAND?

There is plenty of excitement and progress by the Kiwi businesses who used 2020 to learn and to adopt new business practices –  but we have a long way to go to come even close to the digitalisation adoption rates of other countries. The high percentage of small businesses in Aotearoa has somewhat buffered our business owners from the massive technological advances that other larger markets have made over the past year.

While some local businesses might celebrate our ability to go back to old ways faster, the reality is the new rules of online engagement have been rewritten through the chaos of Covid-19 and there is no going back to the ways of the past. The very minimum requirement for a business today is a highly functional website – designed to be viewed on a mobile phone – and daily engagement with customers via social media eg. Facebook and Instagram.

WHAT WOULD LONG TERM SUCCESS LOOK LIKE FOR YOU?

I am the biggest champion of the New Zealand small business economy. As a small business owner I know all too well the pressures and time constraints that come from growing a business from the ground up. However, having oversight of how businesses have changed over many years has provided me with first-hand experience of how beneficial digitalisation is. Even low levels of digitalisation can immediately improve business processes,  and remove risks and time challenges of having people manually processing sales data, invoices and payroll. 

It doesn’t take long before you realise how much unnecessary time you can spend doing things that software does faster and more cost effectively. My dream would be for business owners to start with baby steps and see how quickly digital pays off in terms of money and time. The global digital adoption curve is already well ahead of where New Zealand is and soon it will be very hard to catch-up as that boat will have sailed.

IF YOU COULD GIVE ONE CHALLENGE TO NEW ZEALAND, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

I would love Aotearoa to become a learning nation. Right now, as it stands, we spend a very small amounts of our time actively involved in formal learning. In a given year the vast majority of adults in New Zealand commit no real time to the development of new skills and knowledge. Compared with other small advanced economies we have become complacent about learning and to staying in-the-know about the technologies and tools that have changed the business world. This is truly a case of ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’.

My challenge to business owners is to jump in and start the journey of learning as there is nothing more rewarding than the feeling of success that comes from knowing how to grow your business and what is possible, even on the smallest of operational budgets. I would love to see 2021 as the year we all commit to deploying new ways of working, selling and connecting through digital adoption. It may be a year or more until life starts to feel a little more familiar but I know that even if outwardly the world looks the same after vaccines have been widely administered the way we buy, sell, share, work and trade has changed forever.

CONTRIBUTOR

Peter Bale

Principal

Peter Bale Media

Kea member

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Hannah Churchill, founder, hcreates

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your business? 

I grew up in Dunedin and moved to Wellington to complete a degree in Architecture at Victoria University. After graduating and working for a few years in Wellington, I had the opportunity to move to Shanghai. While there I helped a group of friends design their first bar which led to some more restaurants and hcreates was born.  It’s been a busy ten years or so designing and completing over a 100 restaurants and bars, workspaces, gyms and retail spaces. I have been fortunate to be included in the Architectural Digest top 100 Designers in China since 2017.

What was 2020 like for H Creates? I imagine a design studio would have been affected in different ways than other companies. 

The weeks in February after Chinese New Year are our most active time of the year, as clients begin new projects they hope to open by summer. The situation evolved rapidly at our most important time of the year. Almost every project in our pipeline vanished, all new projects went on hold, and leases were extended as people just tried keep their doors open let alone consider new ones.  

Given the challenge what did you did you do?

We realised there was no easy way out, and there were a mountain of factors completely out of our control. We made a conscious decision to just focus on what we could do. Initially, we got to spend a lot of time on internal tidy-up and planning. By May, Shanghai started to feel slightly more familiar again. So, we just got out there and had coffees with anyone and everyone to chat about our business. It was an anxious 4-5 months as we kept paying bills and worked towards rebuilding our pipeline.  

Tell us about your most memorable experience in 2020? Any particular keywords or phrases that come to mind?

Whilst we were back in NZ over CNY (pre-lockdown), we caught up with an artist friend Anna Leyland whom we had collaborated on a Shanghai project before. When she was telling us all the plans she had over the next few months, she paused and said, “you know, you just got to keep hustling”. When we got back to China and things were looking pretty grim, we remembered that conversation and “keep hustling” kind of developed into a mindset for us that we were going to need to do be prepared to think and do things differently to make it through the year. 

Finally, in the last quarter of the year, a coffee catch-up turned into an opportunity to work with an international entertainment company that is launching their brand in China. We are looking forward to seeing this project open its doors in 2021.

Do you see any new opportunities or positives for the interior design industry in 2021?

China is still a place of rapid change so generally there is a lot going on. We are already seeing a promising pattern in 2021. This is due to three main things, the delayed projects restarting, travel restrictions leading to increased domestic spending in hospitality and retail. Slower recovery in other global markets encouraging brands to speed up their China projects.

Andy Huang, owner, BLEND

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your business?

My name is Andy, I was born and raised in Shenzhen and went to New Zealand for my undergraduate studies in 2000. After I graduated, I started working for ASB bank and ended up spending ten amazing years in Auckland before I made a move to London, where I stayed until 2015. I decided to move back to Shenzhen to be closer to my parents, and I started my coffee business with my two business partners in 2016.

My business is an independent cafe brand named BLEND. Currently, BLEND has three branches in Shenzhen, and we were one of the very first cafes in Shenzhen to serve specialty coffees and provide all-day brunch daily.

What was 2020 like for Cafe Blend? I heard that you even opened up a new store during the lockdown period – which would seem like a bold move to the rest of us.

It was definitely a difficult start of the year for 2020. We were basically shut for the month of February, and then allowed to open only for takeaway and delivery at the beginning of March. It was only towards the end of March when we could finally operate with full service. Luckily, we saw business pick up fairly quickly. By May, we were pretty much back to our normal level of sales, something which we know was quite unusual in the food and beverage industry at that time.
Opening a third cafe in 2020 had always been in our plans, but we didn’t dream to be able to continue do it when the pandemic broke out. We watched our business and the market very closely. In May, when we saw that sales numbers were getting back to normal and, more importantly, the pandemic seemed to be getting under control in China, we made the decision to carry on with our plans and start looking for the right location for the third cafe. We acted fast — there were quite a few businesses closing down around that time, so we thought it might be in our favour to negotiate a rental deal. We managed to seal the deal for a site in Nanshan we really liked in June, and from there we were able to open our cafe in August!

Can you share with us some of the key strategies you used to increase customer orders and expand your business at a time like last year?

Firstly, I think we have always known what we want to achieve for the business and we stick to our plans all the way. BLEND was created to show people in Shenzhen what a cafe is like in New Zealand. We want to provide not only good coffee but also amazing all-day brunch dishes. Since we started the business in 2016, we made all of our business decisions with this goal in our minds. 

Secondly, we worked very hard to really understand our business, inside-out and outside- in. In the past few years we have improved so much in every aspect of our business, including products, customer service, the management system, training, etc. We understand what our customers like about BLEND and we never stop enhancing that experience, and more importantly, we built a very strong customer relationship with our clients. And we believe that’s how we were able to recover so quickly from the initial couple of months of the pandemic.

Thirdly, we have never stopped building a better team and a stronger brand. The competition in China is intense and things can happen at a much faster pace than elsewhere. That’s means if we stop thinking about what we can do next or planning ahead, we could soon fall behind and lose our place in the market. So it is important to build a company culture in which everyone has a drive for continuous improvement, and in which everyone see such changes and improvements in a very positive way.

Tell us about your most memorable experience in 2020? Any particular keywords or phrases that come to mind?

It was definitely when we were first allowed to reopen during the early stages of the pandemic. Customers even from far parts of the city ordered their food online and came to the cafe to collect it and support us. Some regulars visited, but because we had to maintain social distancing, we could only just wave our hands to say “hi”, or show a hug or kiss though the air, or sometimes we just stood there and smiled at each other. In those moments, we realised how much we miss the personal contact and interactions we have in normal times. Keywords and phrases like, “stay healthy” and “don’t take everything for granted”.

Do you see any new opportunities or positives for the specialty coffee industry in 2021?

I do think the specialty coffee industry will continue to grow not only in China but also around the world. The coffee drinking population is growing dramatically in China and that offers great opportunities. While coffee has an established place in people’s day-to- day life in the West, customers here in China have their own understanding about coffee with further potential to develop. And the varied understanding and knowledge about coffee means there are a lot of hidden opportunities to find and explore.

Augusta Xu-Holland, Actress

Tell us a little bit about your background and your experiences in China?

I was born in Auckland but my father is originally from Beijing so I had a bicultural upbringing. I went to Otumoetai College in Tauranga and then went on to complete a BSc in Biology and BA in Asian studies at Vic Uni in Wellington. After finishing university, OE was the next step, naturally and I made what was in retrospect the life-changing decision to travel a bit around China and see what was happening in this big country of my father’s ancestors. It turns out a lot was happening in China.

I immediately started working in public relations and also in bioenergy, and then was given a chance to move into acting. There was strong growth in the China film industry around that time in 2015 and, for some reason, I fitted right in, scoring my first role (romantic) as a nurse in a Hollywood China co-production. Since that first opening, I have played a wide range of novel characters including a teenage gang leader on the border between Russia and China, a sci-fi werewolf, a Michelin Star restaurant owner and a Malaysian Paris Hilton…

What was 2020 like for you? Did the pandemic cause any significant changes to your personal and professional life?

Needless to say it’s been hard to be away from friends and family, knowing that its not easy to get home. I came back to China right before borders were closed to foreigners and there was a time of uncertainty; everything was on hold while everyone tried to work out what was going to happen. The entertainment industry has somewhat rebounded and I was lucky to get

some good film work in a tv series towards the end of the year. It almost felt like normal conditions, just some nucleic acid tests and the crew were wearing masks.

Can you share with us one of your most memorable moments or achievements from 2020?

It would have to be the relief of the The Eight Hundred coming out, and my being in Beijing to be part of the excitement. Fortunately COVID was under control in China, so people could enjoy it on the cinema big screen. The movie raked in about 360 million USD in box office revenue so, interestingly, it was actually the top grossing film in the world for 2020, -which may be a little like  ‘low hanging fruit’,  I know, but we have to celebrate what we can! It was especially nice to have friends and family watch it back home in New Zealand cinemas too.

Any plans or aspirations for 2021?

I’ve been fortunate already to spend all of January working in Sanya, Hainan, shooting a TV series, with scene locations across various luxury resorts, by and even on the ocean as well as  in very iconic Hainan coconut groves, so I have had my luck for the year already in a way. But, of course, like others, I really hope that the worldwide pandemic is able to be finally got under control, so China’s and the world’s film industry can flourish, and the great directing, acting and technical talent that I have appreciated working with in China so much, get to continue to use their wonderful skills. And hopefully we will also see some more filmmaking ventures between China and New Zealand.

In the meantime, with this change of pace,  I have got to know other cities and regions of  China better.  For example, I’ve started a business with a friend which is based between Jinan in Shandong and Melbourne and I have also become more familiar with the Hainan provincial  government business policies, and can see opportunities there for the future.

Gary Bradshaw, the Head of School for 3e International School (Beijing)

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND YOUR EXPERIENCES IN CHINA?

I came to China back in January 2007 for a classroom teaching role at a small international school in Wuxi, Jiangsu. I am now in my 15th year in China and can say I have lived here much longer than I have lived anywhere else in my life. My childhood was spent as an ‘expat’, living in Zambia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, with periods of time in the UK, Australia and also in New Zealand. 

Though born just outside Liverpool in the UK, our family moved to Zambia when I was 2 years old. My father worked as a mechanic in the copper belt mining area and wanted to provide opportunities for the family. From Zambia we moved to Indonesia, then to Australia and then to the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea as a teenager. My senior schooling at this time was by correspondence as there were no international schools. 

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I finished my schooling at a boarding school in Nelson and remained there for a few years and became a New Zealand citizen. Over the years my career has taken a couple of turns as I moved from nursing to teaching and then to school leadership. It took me to the UK, Australia, back to New Zealand,  Singapore, South Korea and finally here to China. Teaching and leadership roles in Wuxi, Chengdu and Beijing have left me feeling very comfortable and contented here in China, but I also know that at some stage I will return home to live in Wellington. 

WHAT WAS 2020 LIKE FOR YOU? DID THE PANDEMIC CAUSE ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO YOUR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE?

2020 was without a doubt one of my most challenging years professionally. At the time of the outbreak, my wife and I were enjoying Chinese New Year in Wellington. As news started to come in, with the very real prospect of school closure beyond the spring festival holiday, I had little choice but to come back. While other colleagues and friends in Beijing and China were doing all they could to get out of the country, I was desperate to get back in. I knew China was most probably the safest place to be and the school, families and teachers needed me back in Beijing. 

It was a challenging year. Exacerbated by a series of unknowns and a school community demanding answers to questions we simply didn’t have answers to. This was compounded by governmental demands of data, information and time. For weeks on end I was unable to sleep, but little by little things became clearer, some questions answered and the reality of what was happening kicked in. A family health scare over in Australia in May had me worried that if something went wrong I would be unable to travel and be available if needed. I think it is the helplessness that is the most challenging. Not having the ability or the power to do or manage what you need to in a time of crisis can be debilitating. 

We are not out of the woods yet in terms of this pandemic, but I am certainly better equipped now to deal with what comes my way.

CAN YOU SHARE WITH US ONE OF YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENTS OR ACHIEVEMENTS FROM 2020?

Without a doubt getting our school back up and running and having children fill corridors and classrooms once again is one of the most memorable things from 2020. It was such a big break for children and families and so hard on them as they attempted to home school their children while juggling work and family commitments. We had amazing support from the best of our families. 

There was so much appreciation and understanding about what were we’re trying to do, both with our home learning and with reopening. The teachers worked very hard throughout school closure and as a school we did all we could to support and nurture them. We knew we would be unable to please everyone along the way and we did lose some families. 

All schools struggled, particularly private ones and some are still struggling. Our enrollment took a bit of a dive when the new year started. Uncertainty, pandemic restrictions and processes, along with continued fear kept some families away, but we are so happy we remain open and continue to be a viable learning option for families. 

ANY PLANS OR ASPIRATIONS FOR 2021?

2021 is a new year and I am so excited to be able to welcome my first child, born just before Chinese New Year. There is little doubt my 2021 will be dedicated to ensuring that he is cared for,  nurtured and gets all the love he deserves. On the professional front, I am looking forward to getting the school operating normally again. Many things have fallen by the wayside and opportunities for our school and professional communities to connect together in meaningful ways once again will be very welcome. 

HAS YOUR COMMUNITY COME TOGETHER DURING THE PANDEMIC? WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THIS?

Given the physical distance between myself and my wider family, technology has always played a part in how we have keep in touch. Never more so than during the pandemic. WeChat calling and messaging has been our go-to method for a couple of years and has helped us to be available for each other regardless of the time differences. 

Reading and writing poetry has always been a big part of my life and being so far away has meant I had lost touch with what’s been going on. Many NZ poetry groups moved to online meetings and readings during the lockdown, so this enabled me to join and reconnect with the poetry world. I am now also a committee member and secretary for the New Zealand Poetry Society (NZPS), which allows me to keep up to date on poetry, writing and the arts scene back home. 

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HAPPENING IN CHINA’S KIWI COMMUNITY IN 2021?

There are loads of Kiwis all over China. Finding ways to connect them together and to connect them with home is so valuable. In reality many, like myself, will return to NZ at some stage and I know that fitting back in and building community will not be easy. 

Expatriate life here in China is a cushy one. Returning home will be a challenge for us all and finding ways to reconnect through art, stories, literature, poetry, culture and sport while we are here would be so beneficial. 

Some things I would love to see here include: 

  • The All Blacks in China
  • a New Zealand book or literature festival
  • Arts or Cultural festivals
  • visiting artists in collaboration with Chinese artists
  • more educational connections and opportunities that reflect both Chinese and New Zealand similarities & perspectives

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Can you tell us briefly about your professional background?

My professional background has been a journey that was initially anchored in accounting and finance, a skill I learned from my parents who managed our personal and whānau affairs, not through a love of learning math or accounting at school (my High School experience in South Auckland is another story!). When I arrived in NYC in my mid-twenties I discovered a global community, quickly drawn to places like the United Nations where a friend invited me to a staff party and I was brushing shoulders with Kofi Annan – I guess I realised that I had this immediate access to this global arena and from that point on it shaped my tertiary studies in NYC and where I wanted to work. I had the option to decide on an entry role either at the UN or with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and I ended up showing my allegiance to NZ, spending around ten years working for both MFAT and then NZTE. A decade in with a NY degree and growing family, I started my own company managing events and projects in the US for New Zealand and US non-profits. Ultimately this directed me to the well-oiled machine of philanthropy in the US which is both a fascinating and challenging space to work in.

What influenced your decision to return to Aotearoa?

It has always been the dream to return to Aotearoa one day and I made a personal commitment to myself and my whānau to be able to set my feet on home soil every year I spent away, which means I’ve flown across the Pacific at least 22 times in each direction, the last 12 of those journeys with children in tow. In February 2020 we had committed our twins to fabulous schools in NYC after a gruesome application process, and declared to our whānau that we’ll be moving permanently to Aotearoa in 2033 to finally settle after the kids had graduated… Covid changed all of that!

We were on one of the last flights out of Houston a month later, arriving in NZ one day before the country went into level 4 lockdown in March. We found a place to quarantine in Auckland through the kindness of friends “stuck” in Chicago, which ended up being our interim rental here. Beds were left unmade in our small NY apartment which is now almost packed in boxes awaiting our next move…

As a Māori woman business leader who has recently come home, what have you noticed about the culture and society in New Zealand and how they respond to female ambition?

I’m not sure what female ambition is, other than to speak from the perspective of being a mother who will always fearlessly advocate for my children’s needs and rights to the very best standards this world can offer. Being a Māori woman who has had to navigate a dominant white patriarchal society, education, corporate, business structures and systems all of my life, that have persisted over the generations due to colonialism in Aotearoa, it has been a life-long journey that requires resistance, grit, fortitude and the need for space to reflect, recover and heal.

As a business woman returning to a corporate New Zealand environment after being in the US so long, I’m inspired to see the many thriving fellow Māori women – and men – business owners, executives and community leaders and it feels great to be in affinity with other Māori entrepreneurs after being one of a small few in the US. [The “Offshore” view of Māori is an entirely different range of tensions which is another article in itself.] Outside of the Māori business landscape however, I am also appalled at the lack of infrastructure in NZ to champion equity for Māori and other marginalised people in Aotearoa and have noticed a disconnect or delayed response between mainstream New Zealand and movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter compared to other parts of the world. The intersection of gender and race is an important space for me to interrogate and I don’t think that NZ is as progressive as we might like to think we are. All we need to do is to look at just a few of the terrible statistics out there such as the 63% of incarcerated women in NZ being Māori when the Māori population sits around 15%; that outstrips all in the OECD and is systemic. And that is in a country that’s had legal prostitution since 2003 so to me it suggests that being Māori has worse outcomes than merely being a woman in NZ, so being a Māori woman? Good luck!

I feel there is so much more emphasis in NZ on the concept of “equality” which is not as targeted nor as transformative as an equity lens offers, which also requires us to address the past wrongs that can bring about a level playing ground in order for Māori, Pasifika and other marginalised communities an ability to compete and thrive in “Corporate NZ”. Just look at the introduction of a Māori procurement policy for the $42B goods and services with the NZ government – I could not believe that in 2020 NZ still did not allocate a portion of it’s governmental contracts specifically for Māori suppliers, especially when I have been able to access government contracts in NY for years as an Indigenous woman business owner. Australia has had an Indigenous Procurement Policy in place for years as well. Here in NZ we are supposed to be in partnership under Te Tiriti and this is not at all reflective of a partnership in the economic development sense. How has this been ignored for so long when NZ’s CANZ partners are performing better on this particular measure?

You’ve recently joined the Courageous Conversation Aotearoa Foundation as the Executive Director. Can you talk to the work that the Foundation does? Why is it so important?

I have long admired the Courageous Conversation™ framework which I came across in New York as I navigated the independent school system for my children. The founder Glenn Singleton who hails from Baltimore presented to my daughter’s NY school around 2015 and it was the first time I felt as though someone was able to harness a room full of people from different races and disparate life experiences to engage in a conversation about difficult and often uncomfortable topics on race and racism and how it impacts our lives, families, schools and workplaces and systems. I joined the US board of the Courageous Conversation Global Foundation in 2017 and after returning to NZ in 2020, followed by the killing of George Floyd that saw protests all over Aotearoa while also acknowledging issues Māori had been voicing for generations, the time was right to establish the Courageous Conversation Aotearoa Foundation. The work speaks for itself and has been self-sufficiently growing in the private and governmental sectors here in NZ for six years already so the Foundation is built on a proven method and deliverables thanks to an incredible team that understands the importance of authentic Treaty-based partnerships.

Grounded in Te Tiriti we offer a protocol for healthy and productive conversations about race and racism, deepening our collective understanding of racial equity. The aim of the Foundation is to offer this protocol and learning to the community for free. This work is important not just for those who need additional support, but for all in our community so we can collectively address these issues and live to our fullest potential in this world. It can’t be built on the backs of the already marginalised few. It’s also evident that when diversity, inclusion and equity policies are prioritised within corporate entities, that economic outcomes improve – just ask one of the global companies headquartered in the US. If the backlash from #BLM didn’t highlight that I don’t know what will. We’re still interconnected economically, otherwise we wouldn’t care what is happening with foreign trade, in the stock market or with exchange rates.

Courageous Conversations works to elevate racial consciousness in Aotearoa. After being away from New Zealand for so long, have you noticed any change in racial consciousness since you’ve returned?

I can’t say I’ve noticed much change in racial consciousness in mainstream New Zealand upon return, but 2020 was a big year shifting perspectives I think. The attempts that Stuff made to acknowledge the prevalence of racism in NZ media / society was encouraging, but I always go back to those who are at the decision-making table. Who is on your executive leadership team, your board of directors, or the stakeholders who hold economic power that are able to both financially and spiritually champion these efforts? It is uncommon to think of the spiritual sense within a corporate entity but there is more demand for an integrated work-life-environmental balance so I believe it’s important to speak to this aspect. This is not an overnight fix but an ongoing commitment that requires a type of unrelenting perseverance and non-negotiables to really reverse the many negative statistics we have in NZ. Ultimately it requires buy-in from the most senior in leadership. It requires courageous leadership which is why the Foundation will also be developing a Courageous CEO and Governance Leadership programme for both for profit and nonprofit (philanthropic) leaders.

I have to remain hopeful and it is encouraging to see the many change makers in the existing corporate NZ landscape – particularly in Diversity-Inclusion roles although in NZ these roles often forget to include the “Equity” piece, or they isolate the role so it’s not integrated across the organisation and ends up being tokenistic and not transformative. I do worry that this gives us a false sense of progress. Interests often default to the majority white patriarchal influencers that dominate our economic and political landscapes. This is why representation at the very top, matters.

The theme of International Women’s Day this year is #ChooseToChallenge. What is your challenge to New Zealand?

I guess my challenge to New Zealand would be to view the negative statistics as if they are impacting your own family, and then to interrogate why you wouldn’t do anything to make whatever changes you can make in your own lives, your community, your workplace or schools to address societal inequities. Imagine if that was your own mother or sister or daughter in prison – I bet anyone would fight tooth and nail to reverse that reality. We can each take a small step to look in the mirror, reflect and acknowledge how we can be part of the solution, to not just reimagine a better future for our mokopuna, future generations, but to actually use our positions of privilege, access and influence to help drive that change. March is not only International Women’s Month but it is also when we have International Race Relations Day and the tensions that have long existed around women’s movements, whether they be in the US or NZ, is that white women have often dominated the narrative which will always be contentious for women of colour. I know there are white/pākeha allies out there – I challenge them to come forward and to work in allyship with people of colour. The first step is to understand what an ally looks and feels like.

Is there a particular connection that you’ve made in your life that has amplified your career in some way?

I’ve had several connections who have amplified my career and often it’s been other women. There are at least five older Māori women in NZ who come to mind right now who I have admired and learned from. Those who helped me recognise what I needed to do to get up from the floor after being drop-kicked by a monocultural workplace, and stood by me along the way. It is also the two US-based NZ women of a similar age as me, who help me identify pathways forward when in oppressive environments. And it is has also been two incredible women, Bess Pruitt who sadly passed in September 2020, and her sister Harriett McFeeters, who are African American and have lived through segregation and the Civil Rights movement; they gave me a room to board in their family home in the Bronx and acted as ‘sponsors’ for my student visa so I could see out my BA in NYC, and then guided me through nearly every career turn that happened since. That’s the concept we understand as whakawhanaungatanga.

What’s a piece of advice that you would give to young women early in their career?

Identify your passion in life as early as possible and start working in that area as soon as you can. Sometimes accessing those spaces might not be in the form you imagined such as starting at an entry level, but gaining access is important so you can get a sense of the environment and internal practices. Challenge systems. Build relationships. Don’t be afraid to question things. Approach with trust that everyone is coming from the best intentions and be ready to stand your ground because one day you will need to.

What are your hopes for 2021?

I hope that in 2021 the world can eradicate the threat of Covid-19 which is impacting communities of colour at greater numbers than others, so that children around the world can return to in-person learning. And I hope that we never forget the impact of 2020 around the globe, that saw the simultaneous crises in both the pandemic and racial injustice. That needs to remain a turning point in this lifetime for the entire world to spur systemic change.

CONTRIBUTOR

Peter Bale

Principal

Peter Bale Media

Kea member

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Recently, Kea CEO Toni Truslove spoke at the NEXT Foundation Outlook Breakfast discussing the Covid-19 brain gain and the philanthropic opportunities this presents for New Zealand.

Last year, our Kea Welcome Home survey indicated that 63% of Kiwis returning home wanted to give back to the community in some way. The NEXT Foundation Outlook Breakfast amplified this sentiment, with a focus on collaborative philanthropy and a move towards ‘giving while growing’.

A huge thank you to Goodworld CEO Dale Pfeifer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Kent Gardner and NEXT CEO Bill Kermode for joining the conversation!

Check out some of the many the highlights below.

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Can you talk a bit about what the innovation centre does. How does this fit into the work of the UNDP and the UN as a whole?

The Innovation centre is a unique and special part of the UN Development Programme. It is funded specifically to develop new products and services to support innovation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in countries and also to support innovation within the UN Development Programme itself.  On a day to day basis the centre currently does many things to support innovation, but the main role is supporting governments across the Asia/Pacific region to innovate for social and environmental good. This is done through practical support, capability building, providing inspiration, funding etc. We have colleagues across the globe who are also working to support innovation and the Secretary General of the UNDP has innovation as a priority so it’s a great time to be joining and be leading this agenda. 

How are the innovations you champion prototyped and tested. Can you explain the process from idea to implementation?

The innovation process is partly science and partly art and generally the process is pretty easy, but what you can’t control is the outputs and outcomes of that process! Finding innovations can happen in many ways. Many readers will be familiar with the idea that an innovator comes up with an idea and then “pitches” that idea to funders or people who can help execute that idea. This is a process we use in development but we also use others like co-design (where people work together to design new solutions), and various competitions and prizes (where people compete to solve problems). There are many ways of bringing together teams to generate new ideas etc. Once those ideas have been generated we develop a prototype which is generally a small and inexpensive version of an innovation and then give it a go, try it in place, see what we learn and what sticks. My focus however is on strategic innovation so seeding the frameworks, protocols etc that are needed to change the very systems that we currently live and work in. 

How do you diffuse and scale innovations across countries when each country is so unique?

When thinking about scaling innovation you need to think both bottom up and top down. Top down includes sharing what works in other places and a bottom up approach is adapting those solutions. This sounds easier writing it down than in practise! One of the biggest barriers to scaling innovations (besides money and people) are our own mental models and culture and how we feel about innovation that comes from other places. The key is to look for the elements within any innovation that can be contextualised or can be replicable and be really open to where good ideas come from. For example moving goods such as blood around via drones, in Malawi, Africa we did this with ease because there are few obstructions in the airspace and air controls are still evolving. In London it requires a new level of thinking about airspace and managing obstructions etc but the principle use of the innovation, moving blood via drones is the same.

How do you think the private sector can work within the development space to create better outcomes for people?

It’s very old fashioned thinking to think that only civil society or government can solve social challenges and quite frankly the power we have given to private enterprise means that we are the private sector that needs to help solve our biggest challenges anyway. It’s also very naive of the private sector to think they have all the answers to problems and know the right way to embed sustainable change. Most problems that the private sector are very good at solving are technical ones but the big challenges we are trying to solve are adaptive ones so what this means is that we need the power of the private sector, its resources, skills, expertise etc but we also need the skills, expertise and resources of those who understand social change such as citizens, civil society and governments. Fortunately there are many many world class CEOs and boards who are willing to invest time and energy into understanding what leaver they can best pull to create sustainable change.

Have you noticed a shift in your career in the private sector moving more into assisting with social initiatives and greater world problems e.g. climate change. How does innovation tie into this?

World leading businesses now invest in social change. It’s no longer just good enough for businesses to think about how they can make money while working within the law of their given country. Consumers, governments, the public all expect more and a new social contract is being woven between the private sector and citizens.  You will often see businesses working out their “purpose” beyond “selling X thing” which is good but many struggle when they get to the next step which is asking the question “How will my business play a positive role in the change we want to see?” as often Key Performance Indicators and Board expectations are not aligned with the purpose.  Innovation is required to make this change and for businesses to be able to see where they can contribute to the systems change required. The climate crisis is a very good example here as we all contribute to the crisis. All businesses must now assess, “what contribution are we making to this world scale crisis and how can I eliminate this impact.” The climate crisis opens up many opportunities for businesses to grow but most will require some form of pivot. Having the agility and capabilities to change is essential for the future growth of business in this context and at the heart of this is innovation.

Where do you believe the future of innovation is heading?

The future of innovation is definitely moving towards more open and collaborative innovation. More strategic and what some call “mission oriented innovation”. For business, the future is open which means that innovation happens both inside and outside of a company and the inputs of innovation can happen outside the boundaries of a company. It’s now more common to collaborate with other organisations, to develop new products and services through joint ventures and alliances etc. All organisations should be thinking this way about the process of innovation – how it can be open and shared.  For governments the thinking is much more about strategic innovation and how innovation incentives can be focussed on the things a country needs and the things the world needs. An example of this is, most governments are moving away from providing innovation funding for random products and focussing on supporting missions like fighting the climate crisis. There is also a change in who solves problems. So much of the innovation system has been set up thinking universities or the private sector solve problems, however innovation is everywhere and new capabilities are needed to find, test and scale those innovations. 

In your experience, what are the top three things that hinder innovation?

Lack of ambition/vision, lack of openness and lack of diversity for me are the biggest factors. There are lots of competing views about what’s important when it comes to innovation but these are the three things that stand out for me. Having the right size and scale of ambition is vital to really shoot for solving a problem. It’s easy to get bogged down into small and technical solutions.  Lack of openness is such a big barrier I still hear people saying to me – “I don’t want to share my business idea in case someone steals it”. This is very old fashioned thinking and not very often true. Collaboration and openness lead to better solutions and I am sad to see so much closed thinking in the world. An example of this is where innovations come from for so many people. They look to people with a certain level of power and privilege and feel that they have the solutions, where the answers are often with the people who hold the problems.  Diversity of thought and experience is very important in innovation, without this it’s unlikely the best solutions will be surfaced. 

Also I think it’s important to acknowledge that innovation and change is really hard. I am just about to head off in the middle of a pandemic to a new job in a new country and my body reacts accordingly – I am full of nervous energy, my system is thinking – why change? Unfortunately this feeling also happens at an individual, team, company, organisation, government level, when people or organisations feel uncomfortable they want to stop that feeling. It’s easier not to do anything or to protect the status quo and this is a killer for innovation.

In the years that you’ve been away, have you noticed a difference in the way that New Zealand companies approach innovation?

New Zealand companies in general really struggle with innovation. We are pretty creative and we often have inventive ideas, but we struggle as a nation to turn good ideas into reality and then scale those ideas into either large and successful businesses or world changing solutions. There are exceptions of course, but this is the general trend.  Due to our size and geography we need to be much more innovative rather than less and it’s a really big challenge for us to crack as to why we can’t be more competitive in innovation. 

We do know why we struggle, some is structural and some is cultural. Structurally we have issues about how innovation is funded, it’s very research and science focussed and we don’t do a good job connecting true commercial talent with that science. We also fund innovation in a very controlled way with a very strong view about who and what leads to innovation which is a shame because we are missing many opportunities.  We do not invest in societal fabric, our civil society is very eroded, our public sector capacity for innovation is limited and we haven’t really thought about how to support individuals, teams and organisations to be innovative, we just continue to invest in programmes and hope a different result happens. It would be great in New Zealand to see more questioning the fundamental premise of how we do things because we are very lucky to be quite agile and I suspect we could make amazing things happen but we are limited by our ambition and our closed and inward thinking.

Culturally we are desperately afraid of failure as people and as a country. I found it took leaving New Zealand to be more free with my ideas and to be okay with failure. This shows up in our business culture and how we make decisions. There is very little collaboration in NZ culture, I don’t know why we can’t see that the pie can grow and be big enough for all of us if we work together; more collaboration, openness and celebration of ideas would lead to a more innovative culture I think.

CONTRIBUTOR

Peter Bale

Principal

Peter Bale Media

Kea member

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