Kea Community Insights

When Adrian left New Zealand in 2006 it was to work in an industry that hadn’t yet reached Kiwi shores.

Kiwi returnee Adrian

A Hamilton boy born and bred, he studied at Waikato University, where he completed his Masters in Marketing Strategy and Information systems. Adrian says he was ready to “change the world via digital transformation” the only problem was New Zealand wasn’t quite in that space.

“I was mad for digital, it was all I was interested in, so in 2002 I started looking for jobs with a digital lens. However I quickly realised those didn’t exist. I ended up working in marketing and volunteered for any project that was even remotely digital focused, if someone needed a website built or an email newsletter created I put up my hand. When some friends said they were heading over to the UK in 2006 and I realised I could specialise in digital transformation over there I didn’t need to think it over.”

Following his move to London, Adrian spent the next 15 years working in the Financial Services sector for some of the UK’s biggest banks. Then in late 2020 he learned his parents’ health was deteriorating and realised it was time to come home.

Returning to his family home in Hamilton Adrian says one of the things that’s surprised him the most is how far Aotearoa has come in embracing biculturalism.

“I’m a Māori boy, and I was very enthusiastic to see what was going on through the Māori lens, and to see how far New Zealand has come. It’s very heartening. I love how much more the culture has been integrated into mainstream society, Māori just seems like a normal part of New Zealand now, which I love.”

Adrian’s keen to see New Zealand continue to move forward in this space and would love to see more young Māori take up roles in the technology sector.

“We need to find ways to encourage Māori students into STEM subjects in school, especially those who are naturally numerate, we also need more Māori in Senior technology roles so that the next generation have someone to look up to. I would also like to see our schooling system embrace the principles of tikanga – what we do, and kawa – how we do it. That would allow us to foster an environment that gives Māori students the greatest chance to succeed, and one that is better suited to supporting natural Māori learning styles for example group discussions.”

He’d also like to see Maori have better access to capital to enable them to start their own businesses and in time be able to create wealth for themselves and their Whānau.

“If I had the money, I’d collar all of my very talented Māori friends and cousins, and build a Māori bank, with a specific emphasis on building educational tools and financial solutions that better meet the needs of Māori. I feel that this could go a long way to improving financial outcomes for Māori, and start to close the inequality gap we see today.”

Reunited with his family, Adrian is now looking for the right role and says he’s pleased to see more digital focused roles, although he still feels New Zealand has a lot of untapped potential when it comes to true digital transformation.

“I think we need to recognise that New Zealand is a relative latecomer to the digital transformation party, and our lived experience in this area is a bit light. New Zealand businesses have an opportunity to get the maximum benefit from returning Kiwi with this kind of background. They simply need to give them the space to share their experience. Ask questions. Learn. Not all of it will be applicable, but a lot will be, and this knowledge could save your organisation an awful lot of time and money.”

Vanessa, Business Owner – Mexico

Vanessa, based in Mexico

I run my own business working as a virtual assistant, doing social media marketing and creating websites. I also do some English teaching online so in terms of work the pandemic didn’t disrupt things too much, that is until I caught the virus. I live on a ranch on the outskirts of Mexico City and COVID-19 left me unable to work or really do anything for just over a month. Being single and bed ridden in an isolated area was incredibly difficult as it was hard to access food and medicine. Luckily a couple of friends drove out to me a few times and dropped off supplies and I never got so sick that I required emergency medical care.

Because I am outside of the city, sometimes the pandemic seems far away. The locals here don’t really wear masks or practise social distancing even though the country is currently in a third wave of COVID-19 infections. We are seeing hundreds of new cases and hundreds of deaths each day, however the Government has rejected another lockdown because of the damage it will do to the economy, so it’s hard to say how things will play out over here.

For me the pandemic has highlighted the importance of good friends and staying connected. When I was unable to work due to COVID-19 a few friends did a whip round and collected some money to help me get by, for which I am incredibly grateful. Following the news back in New Zealand I have also had time to appreciate New Zealand’s willingness in general to ‘work together and do it’ for the greater good.

Kevin, Television Producer, Qatar

It’s been a really challenging 18 months. Initially, I felt a lot of frustration with how Qatar handled the pandemic – it never completely shut down so the virus spread much more per capita than it should have. Having said that, most of the clusters were on the outskirts of Doha away from the city. Al Jazeera handled it pretty well, and I was one of the “lucky ones” I had to go into the office to do my job so I was spending four days in the office, four days in my hotel room in those early months. I enjoy the social contact of an office so I think I would’ve struggled much more if I’d “worked from home”. Towards the end of 2020 I came back to New Zealand for a visit and I found it much harder when I returned to Doha after nearly five months back in NZ practically living a “normal life”. For the first time I questioned whether I was doing the right thing. But I love what I do and what Al Jazeera does. And I think our coverage of the pandemic – and other big news stories like Afghanistan right now – is world-leading. And as a newsman it would be very difficult to give that up. Plus we’re edging closer to another big reason for coming here – next year’s Football World Cup.

To stay connected I’ve organised quiz Zoom sessions with family back home and initiated sessions with colleagues from around the world where we got together online for a few hours, had a few drinks and just talked about various issues we were facing, what was happening in different parts of the world or just simply caught up. I got a lot of positive feedback from people who really appreciated those sessions and looked forward to them. And in a way, they’ve laid a benchmark. A few months ago, I organised something similar after one of our American colleagues died of cancer. We had members of his family and other friends from outside Al Jazeera on the call too, everyone seemed to appreciate it.

I think the pandemic is changing how we live and work. More flexible working arrangements – like working from home – are hopefully here to stay. Wearing masks is becoming a part of life and I think it’ll stay that way in many parts of the world. And of course, the big question, how long before we can travel the world like we used to? I don’t think I or anyone else can answer that accurately but I think it’ll be months, if not years, away.

Matt, Project Manager, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

I was in Japan at the start of the pandemic and the country went into a State of Emergency. There were no strict lockdowns, but businesses were encouraged to close early or not open at all. Sports were played without crowds, but trains still ran, etc. The theme park I was working on closed but my other project work kept going. From memory there was about a four-week period that we worked from home, but that was because management encouraged it and we are owned by an American company.

A few months ago I moved to Saudi Arabia for work, there was an extensive lockdown period here but I didn’t arrive here until after it ended. Right now schools are still doing classes remotely but are due to reopen soon. It’s compulsory to wear masks in public, plus you must use a tracing app to get into shopping centres, supermarkets, etc. And there are heavy penalties (circa $550 USD) if you don’t conform. A colleague was fined for not wearing a mask, while driving, in the car by himself, when he went past a checkpoint.

The pandemic has taught me to be a bit more conservative. There is no such thing as a safe industry to work in. I know people working in Construction that have survived better than people in Primary Industries. And I have been disappointed by cash rich companies furloughing employees while small businesses have still found a way to keep people employed.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised that people generally have behaved better than I had expected. I suspect after years of social media, and the media in general, I had begun to expect the worst from people. Most people have conformed to whatever their governments have expected from them. On a personal level, I’m just looking forward to being able to travel again. Skype and Zoom can scratch the itch for talking to family when you miss them, but there is no substitute for a vacation.

Kate, Teacher – Netherlands

Kate a Kea member — Kate, based in The Netherlands

Life took some adjusting when we had the first lockdown over 18 months ago. I remember being scared to do groceries, but living in the Netherlands, the variety of online shops meant we could easily get deliveries and not have to go out unless we wanted to. I work as a teacher and the schools closed, but I enjoyed teaching online and it was fun helping to set up the program for the school. I enjoyed the challenge!

What has been really hard is not being able to see our family in New Zealand for two years, they haven’t been able to meet my son who was born in April and we have no idea when that meeting will happen. It’s been great to see people reach out and connect with others. Over here there have been plenty of community initiatives, for example, you could sign up to drive an elderly person to the doctor or collect medicine, buy groceries and drop them off on their door step etc. There were plenty of ways to reach out and help others in lockdown who were not able to care for themselves. I’ve been able to keep in touch with other Kiwi via online forums and have taken comfort in chatting to them. We mostly talk about our frustrations at not being able to easily travel home.

The pandemic has definitely taught me to appreciate the small things, and to never take for granted the precious time you spend with family. All of a sudden when you aren’t able to see them no matter how desperate you are, it really changes your perspective. It’s also made me realise that we should grab every opportunity to travel or seek adventure but also take time out to prioritize self-care through exercise and mindfulness.

For some people the idea of relocating to the USA in the middle of COVID would be enough to make them reconsider their job. But for TVNZ foreign correspondent Anna Burns-Francis, not even a global pandemic was going to stop her from covering one of America’s biggest elections.

Covering Joe Biden rally — Covering a Trump rally.

“Covid-19 became the theme of my life, my ability to get to New York and start my job was all about what level Covid-19 was at, setting myself up in New York was harder because the Government departments were closed, I had to report on the pandemic, and then, most importantly there was this huge election, and the overarching theme was, how do I cover it and not catch Covid-19?”

Not long after landing in New York, Anna hit the road following Joe Biden and Donald Trump as they made their final campaign pushes. Despite being immersed in the election she says it was impossible to know the outcome.

“It was so hard to call, the race just kept changing and changing. It wasn’t until five days after the election that we even got a result. The early postal vote swung it like no one had ever seen before, then we had an incumbent President calling the results illegitimate before they were even fully in. There were so many emotions from people and there was this incredible wave of anger that seemed to just keep building, leading to the riots on Capitol Hill, and then really all the way through until President Biden’s inauguration.”

For many people the job looks exciting. The US correspondent covers everything from elections, to awards shows to wild weather, to terror attacks and everything in between. But there is also the flip side, long days, tight deadlines, and constantly juggling time zones,

Anna Burns-Francis preparing to live cross to TVNZ 6pm news — Preparing for a live cross into the TVNZ 6pm news.

“I basically work from my living room a lot of the time, especially in a pandemic era. World news comes to you from my lounge! It’s definitely not always as glamorous as it seems. When we were on the road for the election we picked our hotels based on how close they were to a wholefoods supermarket, we knew we could buy pre packed salads and cheese sticks wrapped in plastic from there, we didn’t want to risk eating out in case we got Covid-19, so five weeks eating cheese sticks seemed a safer bet.”

While the pandemic certainly presented some challenges, Anna says the hardest thing about moving was negotiating her way through American red tape.

“I use my cellphone to cross live into the New Zealand news, and one night right before the 6pm broadcast my phone was inexplicably cut off, turns out I had been calling home so much they assumed I was up to something illegal and had disabled my number. It took two days to get reconnected. Setting up a social security number and a bank account was also very difficult. If you can afford to move over here and set yourself up you can solve anything. They could give any immigrant the calculations to fire the next space rocket and they would solve it because they have managed to work out how to get a bank account and a social security number in America.”

Working as a reporter in a new place Anna has to connect with people on a daily basis and says she’s also been lucky enough to meet other really interesting Kiwi.

“My job is about connections, it requires me to touch base with people. There are some really interesting Kiwi over here doing some really cool innovative stuff. The best thing about New York is that you are free to be whomever you want to be, and do whatever you want to do and everyone accepts that. However, that’s also the worst thing about New York, everyone is in their own bubble, blinkers on. So the nice thing about connecting with other New Zealanders is that they also like to make those bonds and it’s a great connection to home.”

Some of those Kiwi she met in the early days have returned home or moved on, Anna says the pandemic has had a huge effect on businesses, but where opportunities have closed for some they are starting to open up for others.

“A lot of Kiwi businesses in New York were based around tourism, hospitality or entertainment, and it’s been really hard for them. But at the same time there are Kiwi coming here now that are able to take advantage of a post pandemic world. Rents are cheaper and people are used to doing things over zoom. There is a chance for Kiwi businesses to really get their feet under the table and be part of a city that is opening up again.”

A year into her contract and Anna says she’s excited about what lies ahead and she’s not just talking about the stories she will have the opportunity to cover.

“I would like to think some of us offshore Kiwi can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, especially in areas that are vaccinated. For those of us who can’t get home at the moment, the world is a great place to travel right now, to find new experiences and see some beautiful places that aren’t jam packed with tourists. I think if you are overseas then it’s a great time to get out and explore after a pretty closed year and a half.”

HOW KEA CAN HELP

Join

Join the Kea community, and stay connected to New Zealand, its people and businesses wherever you are in the world.

READ MORE

Jobs

Post job opportunities and attract internationally experienced Kiwi talent.

READ MORE

Kea Connect

Help Kiwi businesses explore their global potential through our worldwide community.

READ MORE

Shift in consumer behaviour

The borders may be closed, but people’s minds don’t seem to be wandering when it comes to where they are purchasing. This is reflected in the decrease in demand for commercial property. As observed by KPMG the preference to stay home, and the reduced desire to travel to physical retail outlets, means retailers who rely on traditional bricks and mortar have been significantly impacted, with a number likely to close. KPMG also notes that reduced revenue resulting from the pandemic has seen most retailers look at physical store footprint as a lever of cost reduction. Many are looking either to close or right-size underperforming stores. In terms of office space, Rachel Carrell, founder of British childcare service Koru Kids, says she is watching as every start-up founder she knows looks at fractional office space, rather than a permanent presence.

Bayleys National Director of Retail Sales and Leasing, Chris Beasleigh, says two key things they are hearing in the retail sector are authenticity and buy local. As observed by John Alderman of Brand Buddy Ltd, lockdowns around the world have seen an increase in self-reliance, where people have become more locally minded, situated and oriented, supporting local businesses and opting for staycations. Craig Hudson of Xero stressed the importance of buying local for our New Zealand economy, urging those who can to spend with locally-owned small businesses.

In China, Mark Tanner of China Skinny has particularly noticed a marked shift in behaviour with consumers choosing to stay home instead of dining out, learning new recipes and cooking at home, as they see it as a safer alternative to public spaces. This compares to the traditional culture of dining out or food delivery. People have invested in cooking appliances, furniture, and art, indicating this homebody trend is here to stay for some time yet. Bella Katz, an advisor on consumer retail for NZTE expects there will be a further uptake of online shopping, particularly for home and interior related luxuries as people create sanctuaries in their own homes. She also notes that in apparel, there’s a shift to more casual clothing. Since many people are working from home, the need to dress up has diminished. On this shift, NZTE refers to a March 2020 Neilsen study that found 62% of consumers in South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam intend to continue eating at home more often than before. Shane Grant, CEO of leading US food company Danone has noted what he predicts to be a lasting shift in digital grocery shopping in all forms.

Importance of trust and safety

When making purchasing decisions, the pandemic has increased the level of importance placed by consumers on trust and safety. Sharon Fraser, General Manager at the Intercontinental Hotels Group in China has observed that consumers want to be reassured that steps have been taken to ensure their health and safety, which she believes will last well beyond the pandemic. Adam Wills of Crosstown Doughnuts noted that during times of national stress, consumers seek products that make them happy, and tend to spend their money with brands they trust.

This trend is prevalent across East Asia, says NZTE, as consumers’ emphasis placed on safety has led to retailers investing heavily to ensure they meet government requirements and exceed consumers’ expectations for hygiene and safety. Fresh food and produce are among the categories for which suppliers and retailers may need to invest in packaging to counter food safety concerns.

Beyond this, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the supply chain of their purchases, and often moving to subscriptions rather than leaving it to chance. Mark West of the Stanley Gibbons Group believes that the subscription model will continue to grow as consumers look to automate the replenishment of key commodities, and focus on what they need as opposed to what they desire.

Shifting experiences online

With restrictions still being imposed all over the world, industries that typically rely on face-to-face engagement have been hugely impacted by Covid-19.

In a recent interview with Professor Paula Morris, conducted by The University of Auckland, Paula comments that lockdown has made people much more open to having arts experiences online. For the artist however, adapting to this shift has its challenges. Milly Olykan of the Country Music Association based in the US has observed an accelerated willingness for musicians to give away their live music online for free. She notes that the trend became a necessity as musicians looked to reach and remain engaged with their fans, and broaden their fan base. This more intimate and less produced method of engagement has led to increased interactions between artists and their fans, giving them more access to their personal lives. This has been used instead of the typically monetised meet and greets, personal appearances and corporate events, and may have a long term impact on the way artists interact with their fans in a post-Covid environment.

The world of sport is seeing necessary innovation also, with crowded in-person games feeling like a lifetime ago for many. As most events this year have been cancelled, there has been a huge knock on effect to both athletes in training, and the support systems and event industries that are involved. Jon Doig, CEO of Commonwealth Games Scotland, observed that the increasing regulations around mass gatherings has triggered an acceleration in the development and acceptance of online training, events, and e-sports as a legitimate part of the sporting system, both as an alternative and adjunct to traditional sports infrastructure.

Around the world, Covid-19 has amplified innovation across the consumer goods and services sector. This is reflected in the innovation we’ve seen, shifting consumer behaviours, the push to support local, the emphasis placed on safety and trust in the supply chain.

The next installment of this series will be on Tourism. At Kea, we pride ourselves on aggregating the thought leadership of Kiwis making waves around the world. If you would like to hear more from us, please join us as a member here.

Sign into My Kea

Don't have an account?

Kea Community Insights

HOW KEA CAN HELP

Join

Jobs

Kea Connect

Shift in consumer behaviour

Importance of trust and safety

Shifting experiences online

Our Partners