Leading a multi-national company takes guts, hard work and determination but without good governance, structure, and processes there is risk for shareholders – no matter how hard you work.
New Zealand’s leaders are shrinking their own ambitions in isolation. Revved Co-founder Rochelle Moffitt wants to put them in a room together instead.
Taupō’s The Cozy Corner isn’t just a café, it’s a community hub where inclusivity, wellness, and sustainability meet. With a menu that caters to every dietary need, a great team culture, and a commitment to values-driven business, owner Camilla Baker has built an eco-friendly café that sets the standard for hospitality with heart.
New Zealand small businesses are facing one of the biggest shifts in customer discovery since the rise of Google Search, as AI-powered tools change how consumers find, compare and choose who to hire.
More than 80 percent of people don’t independently verify AI-generated information. As AI becomes the first place customers go for answers, that trust is creating a new challenge for New Zealand businesses.
We’re told the economy and the environment are locked in a trade-off. Autex’s Jonathan Mountfort says that’s a false choice, and shows how circular thinking is already building a healthier version of both.
New Zealand research into scientist-entrepreneurs has identified an “IP paradox”: Intellectual property is seen as essential to start-up success, yet often experienced as a costly, complex barrier. Here’s what the findings mean for founders, investors and the wider SME community.
AI is having its “peak hype” moment, but beneath the noise there is a very practical question most New Zealand business owners are asking: Will this actually help my business run better, or is it just another shiny tech distraction?
Most of the AI conversation right now is about what the technology will eventually do for everyone. Not much of it covers what you should actually start doing, this week, to make sure your business can use any of it. Let’s change that.
Keynote speaker, educator, author, recording artist and Solo Meo Award winner Julia Grace, has turned her mental health journey into inspiring talks, workshops, and performances across New Zealand and beyond. She’s also made a success of being an entrepreneur in the process.
Setting a big, bold goal feels like strategy. It isn’t. Ryan Sproull explains why picturing success can actually work against you, and what to do instead.
After a punishing economic cycle Kiwi businesses are emerging into something of a stabilisation period. Cautiously optimistic, past the worst, but with operating costs still biting and reinvestment held back. Why the next six months will define the recovery, and what business owners need to be doing in that period.
New data from Employment Hero shows New Zealand’s small and medium business sector continuing to add headcount in May, even as wage growth stalled completely on an annual basis, highlighting a labour market where businesses are growing cautiously rather than competing hard for talent on pay.
Turning a dreaded parenting challenge into a science-powered solution, ISpy Nits is making head lice detection accurate, stigma-free, and even fun for kids, and in the process earning Kate Ricketts a well-deserved David Award.
After burnout and a corporate career, Nikki Taylor started her own business at 44, and discovered that midlife isn’t a crisis, but a chance for clarity, on what kind of work, and life, actually fits.
New Zealand’s productivity gap with countries like Finland isn’t about effort, it’s about clarity. Elliot Royce argues that as businesses grow, complexity quietly crowds out a shared understanding of what actually creates value, turning productivity into a symptom rather than the real problem.
A pilot programme’s runaway demand has exposed just how many promising New Zealand startups are being turned away by traditional bank lending.
New Zealand’s sustainable innovators remain confident about growth, but a new report shows many are struggling to access the capital and conditions needed to actually scale.
New Zealand’s small business productivity has flatlined, with the country continuing to trail Australia and the UK, even as Deloitte’s latest CFO survey shows finance leaders remain confident about growing their businesses despite economic uncertainty.
Solar retailer Lodestone Energy is opening up its “virtual rooftop” solar product to residential and small business customers for the first time, choosing Hawke’s Bay as the launch region for its new EASY Plan.
New Zealand tourism businesses are committed to becoming more sustainable, but new research shows the journey from good intentions to genuine change is anything but straightforward.
Spacebar Design won Most Innovative Business at The David Awards 2025, also taking out the Supreme Award, recognition that cements its role as a trailblazer in sustainable interior design.
New Zealand’s longest-running sustainability awards programme is calling for entries, with expanded categories and a direct pathway to a global million-pound prize.
Kiwibank has become the first New Zealand bank to roll out open banking across all its digital channels for both individual and business customers, delivering most of the data‑sharing capability required by regulators six months ahead of its statutory deadline.
Christchurch’s Tait Communications has been named PwC Hi-Tech Company of the Year at the 2026 NZ Hi-Tech Awards, capping a record-breaking night for New Zealand’s third-largest export sector.
Full-scale loyalty programmes are expensive, complex and slow to roll out, but a gift card programme can deliver many of the same benefits in a fraction of the time, and customers pay you upfront for the privilege.
Inside MOXX Brands, the Kiwi FMCG company growing at 512 percent and rewriting the export playbook in the process.
Hawke’s Bay’s Rockit has landed one of China’s most bankable celebrities as its brand ambassador.
Demand for Tapuwae Roa’s Tupu Accelerator keeps climbing, with a new cohort of ten high-growth Māori-founded ventures welcomed for the programme’s third consecutive year.
A new Christchurch start-up wants to turn the security cameras already watching your warehouse into a real-time safety system that spots risk before it becomes an incident.
The winners have been chosen and Hamilton’s renowned CBD Awards have delivered another hugely successful year. “The night of October 12th was a fantastic evening packed with celebration and recognition of our fantastic central city businesses and what they have achieved,” reports Vanessa Williams, GM of the Hamilton Central Business Association. By all accounts the evening was a stunner – kicking off at the Ferrybank Park band rotunda with live jazz by the Trenwith brothers, Good George cocktails and canapes from River Kitchen, before heading across the road to The Meteor for the awards ceremony where guests arrived to a beautifully dressed venue created by Royal Lab and a delicious banquet of food provided by SkyCity Hamilton. “The entertainment mid-ceremony
The shortage in hospitality staff may be more a symptom of unwillingness to work in a sector suffering unprecedented levels of rude and intolerant customers. Former bar owner and now personal transformation strategist and CEO of Genius You, Simone-Ellen Keller (pictured below), said it is unlikely that unfavourable working conditions like low pay, demanding working conditions, and even a drop in immigration, are solely to blame for growing staff shortages in the hospitality sector because those conditions have always existed and did not deter people in the past. “Hospitality staff shortages is a global issue and even countries that pay well or don’t rely on immigrants are struggling. In my experience, people who work in hospitality are often gregarious and
Commercial law specialist and author Joanna Oakey shares three ways to lock value into your business. Every business faces unexpected landmines that threaten to erode the value in a business. A strongly fortified business is the best way to protect the assets you have built. Laying the right foundations will lock in and maximise the value you will be able to extract. To lock this value in, you must identify that value and protect it. Here are some areas to consider: Customer base and business relationships The customer base drives revenue – it is the most common area of key value. The value of the customer base is intertwined with branding, key staff, technology and location, and it can vary
From Covid life-raft to thriving business: how one start-up is disrupting NZ’s gift market. A business that began as a life-raft for tourism operators during the height of Covid-19 has, within two short years, grown into a thriving start-up that’s uprooting New Zealand’s multibillion-dollar gift market. Chuffed Gifts, created by Tauranga’s James Fitzgerald (co-founder of Rotorua Canopy Tours) is a unique concept that’s reinventing the way Kiwis give and receive tourism experiences in New Zealand. With Chuffed, gift recipients still experience the pleasure of receiving a gift in the mail when they receive their Chuffed voucher and booklet, but the beauty is, they then get to choose the experience that suits them. “Gifting someone a voucher is not a new
Our November Quarterly has success written all over it. Success is mirrored in a wide variety of inspiring articles in our November issue – from two outstanding small business case studies, to our lead story on business succession, and our annual MBA feature. Look for our star-studded Success Issue cover and get ready to be informed, educated and inspired.
Julie Treanor grows flowers and grows leaders. The Upper Hutt-based floral entrepreneur, leadership developer and business coach lives a remarkably fulfilling life. When Julie Treanor emigrated to New Zealand from the UK in 2006 she brought with her 20 years’ experience in leading and managing communications and marketing teams. Here she took up a role as GM, communications for the Ministry of Social Development before working as a leadership coach and consultant in Wellington. A desire to work with smaller businesses and startups led her to launch Just Lead, a consultancy that focuses on leadership for all humans. But there was one real passion Julie could not ignore – her passion for growing and supplying flowers. So she started up
Upcoming event
Thursday 24 September 2026 | 5:00pm – 7:00pm
📍 The Icehouse, Textile Centre, Level 4, 117 Saint Georges Bay Road, Auckland
If you’re looking to unlock capital to help your business grow then our Funding that Accelerates Your Business networking event and panel discussion on September 24 is for you.
Latest issue
Practical AI insights, Kiwi tech innovators, and the tools helping Kiwi SMEs compete on a global stage. It’s all packed into this special tech issue of NZBusiness.
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