The New Zealand Edge : Kevin Roberts : The Design of Cultural Identity: www.nzedge.com



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Article from NZX OPEN
Giving New Zealand the Edge
Issue Two 05
By Kevin Roberts

The New Zealand Stock Exchange invited a number of New Zealanders with significant international business experience to contribute their ideas on what it takes for New Zealand to be relevant to, and compete within, global markets.

Mark Weldon, Chief Executive of NZX said:

"To be very clear: New Zealand is in competition with the rest of the world for people (talent) and capital (investment). How well we do in this competition with the rest of the world will determine our future".

Other notable contributors included Helen Clark, Don Brash, Chris Liddell, Stephen Tindall and Eion Edgar.

Kevin Roberts discusses the plan for how the edge can take on the world and win.

Every world needs an edge. This is New Zealand's position on our planet. The edge is the most innovative and generative place in any system. The action is at the margins, where there is freedom to create away from the orthodoxy of the centre.

Ideas from New Zealand have advanced the world in many profound ways, but until now we have not had the metaphor and language to harness our unique global position. We've been stuck in a distant/isolated/small mindset and we need to turn these factors into leverage.

The world needs us precisely because we are its edge. This is our role. We need to be emotionally compelling - edgy - because there are few functional advantages we can credibly advance. Our edge is the ace of hearts, and we must play this card in order to lift ourselves, to inform our risk-taking, to be our best.

We need to embrace our edge positioning and revel in it. In 1998 Brian Sweeney and I started a website www.nzedge.com to advance the edge metaphor, to tell great stories of New Zealand achievement internationally, to embroider new myths (our current ones are pretty thin) and to kickstart a global sense of community.

This last element is crucial for our ambition. A large number of New Zealanders, including many of our most ambitious, qualified, literate, talented and influential, have left our economy to test their ambition in others. We need to bring them back emotionally and work together as a global New Zealand family.

How can we win the hearts of export markets when we ignore the contribution of our biggest export product - our people - to transforming our underperforming economic effort. Love starts with family. Love will create Aotearoa whanau whanui ki te Aonui - the global community of New Zealanders. Five million of us to take on the world and win.

The steps we need to take to get there are:

Breed an edgier attitude. Our greatest successes are a result of outlandish talent combined with the grit of process. Ask Graham Henry.
My hope from the 2005 election is that the politicians who are entrusted with $47 billion of our tax contributions get serious about the teamwork that is required for us to win in the world.
Market the country. There's one sure way of getting global attention and sales, and that is to advertise. Ask any retailer. We can't just network, PR and event market our way to glory. There is a reason why advertising is a NZ$800b industry - it works! Apart from tourism, New Zealand's global advertising effort is non-existent.
Open New Zealand stores in a dozen of the world's leading cities showcasing (and selling) the best of what we create. Marketing is about touchpoints, and the world needs to experience New Zealand magic in their own local environments.
Ferment creativity in every sector of the economy. The great advances in our society have come not from institutional incrementalism but from people with extreme ideas. Time to unleash and inspire.

There is not a second to waste. We need a 100 day plan, not another 10 year excuse for doing nothing. The consequences of action will be:

An inspirational national attitude rooted in local uniqueness and high international achievement.
Clearly understood ways by which New Zealanders are needed to contribute to improving our international performance.
A dynamic economic and social flow between New Zealand's offshore and onshore populations that will create global opportunities.
An irresistible global reputation for originality, beauty and spirit.
Exciting careers for young people who can be global without having to export themselves.
Increased self-esteem, less dysfunction, more excitement, greater opportunity.
Full-blown participation in the world - as its edge.
The Rugby World Cup returning home!