Kiwi hi-tech companies are staying in the start-up stage for too long, the recently released Market Measures study shows.
Conducted by marketing advisory firms Concentrate and Swaytech, and sponsored by New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the annual Market Measures survey drew data from over 300 New Zealand-based technology companies on their approach to marketing and selling their products overseas.
“Tech is New Zealand’s most exciting industry, but commentators often underestimate the huge challenge of marketing and selling our innovations offshore”, says Owen Scott, Managing Director of Concentrate.
“Our tech companies are developing world class innovations, but too few of them realise their potential as they struggle to cost-effectively scale their sales activity,” says Scott.
Sharon-May McCrostie, Customer Manager at NZTE, says: “We’re seeing more Kiwi hi-tech companies executing competitive and truly innovative strategies and achieving game-changing results. But as the Market Measures study suggests, we still see companies staying in start-up mode for too long. We urge companies going offshore to relentlessly focus and invest in execution to really bring benefits to themselves and to New Zealand and grow bigger, better and faster.”
The Market Measures 2016 report found that while 60% of the companies in the survey were over 10 years old, 35% had annual revenues of less than $1 million and only 2% generated more than $50 million in turnover.
“New Zealand’s hi-tech industry is a few large companies and a long tail of small businesses. The challenge for the small firms is extracting themselves from the long tail of hi-tech exporters by finding cost-effective ways to achieve substantial growth,” says Bob Pinchin, Director of Swaytech.
According to Scott, if hi-tech companies are to mature faster, they need to take a more strategic approach to marketing and sales.
“To break out of the long tail trap, companies need to follow a three step approach. First they have to . . .
Picture this: The products you work so hard to sell online have "sell by" dates that are enforced by law. After this date, you have to throw them out. What would that scenario do to your supply chain and your efforts to manage inventory, not to mention your sales?
While common items like clothing, electronics and jewelry can sit around for weeks or months before someone purchases them, you, too, might have your own internal "sell by" benchmarks - dates by which you want to get them off the shelf and out the door so you can sell newer or different items.
For those who grow, manufacture, or distribute food products, time is of the essence and "sell by" dates are very real. They face other challenges as well:
Regulation. Food has to be traced and tracked by regulatory agencies. The producer has to know where an item or "batch" of items is at any given moment so they can be recalled if required.Unleashed, an inventory management software product developed in New Zealand, helps food producers keep track of what they sell and how much it costs to produce. It's specially tailored for the unique challenges facing merchants who supply restaurants, other food producers, and the general public, and who sell both online and off.
Tetra Pak have released a new 100% juice index report which states that the market should return to growth despite global economic slowdown and the recent debate around sugar.
According to the company, the combination of emerging growth hotspots and slowing decline in established markets is stabilising 100% juice and bringing it back to growth going forward to 2018.
Insights from the report show that 100% juice remains a significant part of the average consumer diet, with more than 40% of people drinking it every day.
Furthermore, consumers say that they are willing to pay a premium for juices that they associate with healthy choices.
Nineteen bulls emerged from rugged Upper Hutt bush, bedraggled and bewildered, into the heart of suburbia.
Fresh from a night which some had spent hanging in trees or tangled in fences, they were herded from the bush about 9.30am on Wednesday but the drama – especially for startled Pinehaven residents – was far from over.
The flock were headed for the meat works when the trailer they were in tipped in Blue Mountains Rd in Upper Hutt on Tuesday night.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242