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Tips from the experts – who’s saying what at Go Global…
Tips from the experts – who’s saying what at Go Global…
Dr Chris Hartshorn - Chief Technology Officer, Callaghan Innovation
“Manufacturers need to re-think the way they do things to prevent Darwinism hitting them in the face in the future.
“New Zealand companies need to get better at looking for digital opportunities outside of their traditional customer and/or supply chain. There is a reluctance amongst some to move into this century with their thinking. A lot of NZ companies are in the digital dark ages. There is a lack of awareness about how much technology has advanced globally, and they are falling further and further behind what is state of the art in the rest of the world. Some don’t even recognise how far behind they are.
“Now more than ever, there’s got to be a willingness and a capability to talk to areas of digital expertise and types of companies that you would never have thought about talking to before. Because there’s so much technical convergence, and value chain convergence, and market convergence going on now, that eventually someone who you never thought would be relevant to you, is probably going to become either a potential collaborator or a potential competitor.”
Antje Fiedler – Senior Lecturer, Auckland University Business School
“There are some common pitfalls that NZ businesses experience in China and we have solutions to mitigate these challenges that we’ll be sharing at Go Global.
"NZ businesses often have a specific customer in mind that works well in NZ and they try to transfer that overseas, but things work differently in China.
"There are two steps – the first to identify the right target customer in China (which is a whole story in itself). Step 2 is selecting the distributor or business partner in the market.
"If NZ businesses don’t do this they will stay completely disconnected from the market. You may achieve some sales but you will never achieve a good understanding of the market and create more value for customers. There are strategies and mechanisms that can help exporters understand how to select good business partners and how to maintain that relationship.
"We have developed a tool for selecting partners that helps exporters to become aware of the process and the potential pitfalls. I will be sharing this at Go Global."
Elinor Swery, PhD - Digital Strategy, IBM
"If 40% of NZ’s GDP is going to be from exports by 2025, as part of that we need to manufacture high quality good to export overseas, so we need to be competitive on ensuring there are no defects.
"We can use AI (artificial intelligence) to detect defects in real time in a manufacturing line as part of a relatively low cost quality assurance process.
"The technology is available now and is accessible to anyone, you don’t need to be an expert. You just need either a simple camera or office scanner as a way to capture images for inspection. We can then train Watson (the AI platform) to look for anomalies in the images.
"Using AI to produce guaranteed higher quality goods can help differentiate us in overseas markets. Ultimately, it will ensure that higher quality parts are produced at a lower cost.”
Michael Whitehead - Founder & President, WhereScape
“Breaking into overseas markets can be hard. But it’s a challenge that you have to face.
"One mistake New Zealand tech companies often make is to underprice themselves, but then try and market their product as the best in the world. It doesn’t equate.
At Go Global I'll be sharing some tips from our experience - such as how to build momentum in the US, the role of partners and networking –
• how do you put
yourself at the centre of an ecosystem when you’re half a
world away?”
•
• how do you break into a market
while maintaining your margins?
•
• how fast is
fast?
•
• how do you benchmark success? Do you
benchmark against New Zealand standards, unicorn standards,
global standards? For example, especiallly in the tech
industry, you can be going well against your peers in New
Zealand, then you look across at a hyper-growth unicorn
company and you get depressed. You’re not growing as fast
as Uber, you’re not growing as fast as Facebook. What do
you aim at, what are you actually going
for?"
•
Learn more at Go
Global...
Charles Finny - Partner, Saunders Unsworth
“Right now, the global trade policy world is hugely confused. There are two major sources of that confusion.
“In Europe, it’s the Brexit process – no one’s quite sure where that’s going to land and what that’s going to mean.
“And in the United States, we have the new Trump administration. It’s already pulled out of TPP, there’s a major re-negotiation of the North America Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico underway, and they’ve also tried to re-negotiate the recently signed US-Korea Free Trade Agreement. None of those negotiations are making any progress. So we’re still not sure what Trump trade policy is going to look like, but it may not be good for New Zealand.
“At Go Global we’re going to discuss the various possibilities, the various scenarios, and by being at Go Global you’re going to be right up-to-date with the latest developments. It’s an incredibly dynamic world that’s changing day by day. I don’t know what I’ll be saying at Go Global, but I assure you that what I’ll be saying will be the latest information on what is going on in these very interesting and very complex negotiations.”
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