Much has been made of New Zealand’s tyranny of distance. But when the proverbial is hitting the fan in the world’s financial centres, being further from the action might not be such a bad thing.

The recession was top of mind for our chief executives when asked to comment on the current state of New Zealand. Although New Zealand went into recession relatively early (officially, in the June 2008 quarter), most thought our dip had been shallow relative to the lows experienced in the US, Europe and Japan.

“New Zealand has been one of the best places in the world to be over the last couple of years,” says Cisco New Zealand country manager Geoff Lawrie (pictured), echoing a number of responses. “It hasn’t been pretty here, but there are a lot of places in the world that are significantly worse off … where this has had a much more traumatic impact than it has in New Zealand.”

And light appears to be at the end of the tunnel. Westpac New Zealand chief executive George Frazis says there is evidence of real, sustainable green shoots in the economy. “The disaster scenarios of financial markets collapsing, which were still around as possibilities [recently], have abated now. We’ve gone through the worst of it and this is probably our worst quarter.”

Many expressed confidence in the National-led government and are encouraged by policy developments in their particular sectors.

“This country needed John Key at this time in history,” says Jim Moser, an American who arrived in New Zealand to become CEO of Clemenger Group New Zealand late last year (and who, incidentally, voted for Obama). “He is a business person but he’s also a politician and he brings some of the principles of running a business into how he’s running New Zealand.”

Keith Palmer is CEO of Nelson-based Wakatu Incorporation, spanning mussel, horticulture, wine and property operations. Palmer says his organisation experienced a barrier of bureaucrats under the previous administration, when dealing with issues such as aquaculture reform. “You feel like the hard realities of doing business are [now] being considered by the people that are governing the country, and, even more important, that they’re fully informed.”

David Yu, the 30-year-old whose gaming business Games R Us has become the foundation for an increasingly diverse empire, says sales in his retail operations are up.

“A lot of people say they are hurting, but a lot of people are actually doing really well. This year will probably be one of our better years simply because we picked up so many good opportunities. In times like this, if you have a good strategy you can gain a lot of market share by people losing it or exiting.”

But our CEOs aren’t uncorking the champagne just yet. When asked what was keeping them awake at night, a significant number and variety of issues were raised. Among them the spectre of unemployment potentially rising further, the fluctuating Kiwi dollar and the domestic focus of too many of our businesses.

And there’s no doubting some industries have been hit harder than others in the downturn. The recession has only fuelled “the perfect storm” that has been brewing in the communications business, which has been rocked by rapid changes in technology and the way people consume media, says Clemenger Group’s Moser.

More broadly, there’s a feeling among the CEOs that we’ll be facing a brave new world post-recession — and New Zealand companies need to adapt.

“Most people have come to the realisation that that whole era of consumer-led economic growth is coming to a significant end, or has come to an end,” says Cisco’s Lawrie, “and people have to remake their businesses to prosper in a different type of economic environment going forward.”