So what are we doing to adjust? And what could we be doing better to enhance our collective economic prospects?

Again, many of the CEOs praised the steady hand of the government — the averting of a Standard and Poor’s credit downgrade, investment in infrastructure such as broadband and renewable energy and the Don Brash-chaired productivity taskforce were among initiatives mentioned.

But much more needs to be done and our CEOs had a mountain of ideas about how we can boost our nation into the top half of the OECD (see below).

Dr Helen Anderson, chief executive of the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, says our reliance on the bioeconomy leaves us exposed. It’s well accepted we need to move into higher-value-added products in that sector, she says, but “we also need to complement that with a much stronger and more-focused high-tech sector so there are a number of companies doing well globally”.

The CEOs we spoke with are passionate about New Zealand as a place to live and work. But they want us to embrace a more positive attitude, to back ourselves more, to unite behind a collective vision to better compete on the world stage.

“One of our greatest strengths, our biggest blessings,” says Contact Energy’s David Baldwin, “is arguably one of our biggest challenges — that the life we have here is beyond measure one of the highest in
the world in terms of living standards and quality of life. The question is ‘how do we not take that for granted to a point where we overplay the notion of balance and get left behind by economies moving faster than
New Zealand is?’”

WE ASKED: “What’s one thing New Zealand can do to get into the top half of the OECD?”

• “New Zealand needs to believe in itself. We all need to be positive about our country and our future, to save and invest in it and collectively work to make it the greatest country in the world!”
  — Tony Carter, Foodstuffs (NZ)
  
• “It’s about lifting the level of business focus on R&D. In New Zealand we have a third of the OECD average of expenditure by business on R&D. That is really dismal, compared to other successful economies of a similar size to ours such as the Nordics.”
  — Dr Helen Anderson, Ministry of Research, Science and Technology
  
• “Work smarter not necessarily harder — education, ideas, IP management, then be commercial.”
  — Charlotte Walshe, Dynamic Controls
  
• “We need to focus on education and get our younger generation better educated and then from there provide better career opportunities and also better work experience and training.”
  — Hayley Buttimore, Artz on Show
  
• “There is a behavioural shift that needs to happen. But also we need to want to be there in order to change our behaviour … it’s more about not seeing it as a bad thing being out there, being creative, being innovative, designing something, building something, celebrating our business people for what they do.”
  — Lesley Kennedy, Maven
  
• “We need to recognise that we have an ageing society, with the baby-boomer generation growing older — by 2050 we will have 25% of our population aged over 65 — and learn to respect age as a valued part of our society.”
  — Norah Barlow, Summerset
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