Kiwis on the March

Friday evening I attended a mixer at the Kiwi Landing Pad on Harrison, in San Francisco. It’s a home base of sorts for New Zealand tech businesses to enter the U.S. market.

I arrived 30 minutes late, only to find that the 70 or so gathered already had either a bottle of beer or glass of wine on the go - typical Kiwi style.

The Right Honorable Mike Moore, New Zealand’s Ambassador to the U.S. gave an interesting 20-minute talk.  A few takeaways stuck out for me:

• At a population of only 4 million - less than the Bay Area - New Zealand does not have a loud commercial voice.  But they know this, and very cleverly have spent the past 50 years both aligning themselves with larger APAC countries, and strengthening ties with the U.S.
• Where, only a couple of decades ago, perhaps 4 U.S. business leaders would attend a major NZ-sponsored commercial briefing event, that number now reaches 50.
• The government brings serious funding to support export of its technology base, and to help its domestic firms enter foreign markets - especially the U.S.
• With the increase of American travel to New Zealand, coupled (until recently) with a very favorable exchange rate, many thousands of Americans have purchased vacation properties in New Zealand, and expanded commercial networks as a result.
• New Zealand has a strong international association with mountains (where Lord of the Rings was filmed), sailing, and sheep.  It has tended to live in the shadow of Australia.  The country’s politicians (a pragmatic lot) are quite determined to shift that perception, and will likely sponsor an extensive marketing effort along the lines of ‘the NZ you probably don’t know.”

New Zealand is a wonderful little country that I’ve visited several times.  Though small, it has progressed substantially in the almost 25 years since I first visited it.  Kiwis very much have this “little engine that could” feistiness, and a very optimistic outlook on their affairs.

My betting is that the NZ dollar will continue its appreciation against the U.S. dollar during the next 6 - 10 years.  Small and feisty make for an interesting combination.