On 22 May an expert panel comprising Deloitte Chief Executive Mike Horne, Darsel Keane Director – Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland, and 2 degrees Chief Business Officer Andrew Fairgray came together for a discussion concerning Auckland’s innovation future, expertly facilitated by Pam Ford, Director of Economic Development at Tātaki Auckland Unlimited.   The well-attended session was convened at GridAKL in the Wynyard Quarter Innovation Precinct.

The current situation was characterised as follows:

• We have a well-regulated marketplace, first-class IT infrastructure, a well-educated population and respected universities with world-class research facilities.  Moreover, our oft-quoted “only two degrees of separation” means someone adjacent will be able to plug a technology gap.
• In addition to losing key talent to major international cities, Auckland is losing talent to smaller, more affordable centres.  We don’t want to be the talent factory for the rest of the world!
• NZ entrepreneurs are tending to focus in Agri Tech, Blue Tech, Med Tech, with greater growth options in Fin Tech or AI.
• It transpires only 8% of Auckland Uni grads have an ambition to start a business.  This is somewhat below international averages.
• NZ lacks depth in our capital markets.  Good companies can access money, but there is a strong bias towards tech firms.  New Zealand is generally well served by angel investment.  However, at the next seed investment levels is where capital is constrained.
• We need to think about greater commercial outcomes in our research activity.  In the UK, knowledge mobilisation and transfer is now embedded in the KPIs used to rate the performance of academic staff.
• Our education system is quite discipline-focused with students forced to choose at a comparatively young age.  There is a need to facilitate more cross-pollination to foster second careers.
• Our innovation ecosystem is currently too complicated to navigate.  There is a gap around supporting people with early-stage ideas in respect of the provision of education and economic development.

Recommendations from the panel:

• Storytelling is telling incredibly important to inspire, including a belief that it is OK to fail.
• We need to turn on entrepreneur “lightbulbs” much earlier.  We also need positive images for 7-8 year old girls to grow the number of women in tech careers.
• NZ needs both a national and a regional innovation strategy.
• We need more seamless pathways for entrepreneurs.  Ideally corporates should create the ability for staff to spend time in a start-up environment and spend time in “city corridors”.
• We also need stronger connections to the international cities we can learn from.
• New Zealand has to continue to increase public (and private) R&D spending. Observations from overseas indicate private spending follows public. 
• Bipartisan agreements are important for long-term programmes to work.  There is simply too much waste otherwise.
• Gen Z are seeking better measures of productivity than current settings which tend to focus on input rather than outcomes.  Give them major project opportunities to either succeed or fail (with appropriate safeguards).  In most businesses, current settings are too risk adverse.