While John Key and Alan Bollard lock horns over whether NZ can or can’t catch up with Aust by 2025, business performance specialist John Haylock says the gap won’t be narrowed by tinkering with the tax system, changing macroeconomic policy or setting new educational standards. He says the real opportunity lies with improving the performance of every NZ business.

Haylock believes NZ’s top companies vastly outperform all the others in their sectors, but they are a bit of a rarity. He says most business owners work really hard, but they’re not making much money for themselves and they’re only paying modest wages to their staff, so their contribution to the economy is fairly low. In his view targeting these second tier companies for improvement is the only way to close the gap. He warns NZ is full of talented people who don’t know how to run a business. To begin with they need to get over the belief being a good plumber or accountant is enough - it’s not. To achieve outstanding performance, business owners also need to provide what their customers really want - which is outstanding service. “It’s not WHAT you do, it’s HOW you do it that makes the difference.” Business owners and CEOs need to set their sights higher - they and their companies CAN earn more money - not by working harder, but by focusing on what really matters to their customers.

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