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.
D-Link has launched its new EAGLE PRO AI M32 range, the company’s newest and fastest Wi-Fi 6 AI Mesh Systems with the option of a 2-pack (M32-2PK) or 3-pack (M32-3PK) system. Featuring the latest Wi-Fi 6 technology, the D-Link EAGLE PRO AI M32 solution provides the next generation of network speeds and capacity that are essential for modern day applications such as high-quality multi-player gaming, Virtual Reality and 4K Ultra High-definition video streaming. Users of the new D-Link M32 Mesh Systems can experience dual-band AX3200 802.11AX combined wireless speeds of up to 3.2Gbps, while 1024-QAM boosts throughput to devices by up to 25% and 160MHz contiguous channel width gives even more bandwidth to individual devices. In addition to better coverage, higher performance, and
Over the past decade, there’s been a social push across Aotearoa New Zealand towards normalising the everyday use of Te Reo Māori, and with good reason. It’s an integral part of our cultural heritage, our national history, and, right now, it is in real danger of being lost. Significant, focused measures must be undertaken to keep it alive. For businesses, this means going beyond ‘tokenism’ or ‘window dressing’ and embracing the use of Te Reo Māori in everyday activities, transactions with customers and interactions between staff. For years, we’ve been greeted on Te Araraurangi-Air New Zealand flights in both English and Te Reo Māori. In recent times, many other NZ-based businesses and government organisations, too, have begun incorporating Te Reo
Darren Smith explains how eInvoicing saves businesses time, improves billing accuracy, and boosts both efficiency and security. When most business owners think of invoicing – extra admin, paperwork, and additional use of the team’s time may be the first points to mind. Add to this the chance of human error, the increasing prevalence of email scams, and having to chase late payments, and invoicing can be a major headache. While the process can be time-consuming – with MYOB’s research showing that one-in-five SMEs spend six hours or more on invoicing – billing for services or goods delivered is ultimately what brings in the revenue that keeps local businesses running. According to MBIE, around 280 million business-to-business invoices are exchanged on
Excellent, the New Zealand-founded platform spearheading the employee experience movement through learning, community and accreditation, has raised $2 million in its pre-seed round to further its expansion. Led by venture capital investor Blackbird the raise also included notable support from Icehouse Ventures, K1W1 (owned by Sir Stephen Tindall), and a number of leading founders and business leaders including Brooke and Leighton Roberts, co-founders and co-CEOs of Sharesies, and Justine Smyth CNZM, Chair at Spark NZ. Excellent’s purpose is to help business leaders and people managers come together with their employees to redefine what a modern workplace looks like — through the emerging discipline of Employee Experience (EX) Design. The Kiwi company is making it easy for organisations and leaders to co-design
New Zealand’s SMEs are primed to exercise their democratic rights over the coming weeks, with more than nine-in-10 surveyed saying they plan to vote in the upcoming local elections. While overall voter turnout in the 2019 local elections reached 42 percent, MYOB’s latest SME Snapshot – a survey of more than 570 SMEs across the country – found that 93 percent of SME owners and decision-makers plan to vote this year, with many recognising the influence local government has over the future of their community. More than a quarter of SMEs surveyed said they feel local government has significant decision-making power when it comes to ‘making big decisions and executing plans’ in their local area, while 41 percent agreed they had some power
The most significant and most exploited cybersecurity vulnerability of any New Zealand organisation is its people, usually, due to human error, apathy, ignorance or garden-variety laziness, a leading Auckland IT security expert is warning. Author of the book ‘She’ll Be Right (Not!)—a cybersecurity guide for Kiwi business owners and SMB cybersecurity expert Daniel Watson said fixing the human side of cybersecurity will require a bit more effort than buying a new software package. “However, the return on investment generated by training staff to be more observant, for example, can be much higher than even the best software. The most important lesson is that cybersecurity must be a team effort—for companies, industries and sectors. “Industry bodies and professional associations in New Zealand
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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