Editors Letter – May 2019
I am considered in the workplace to be optimistically inclined. I know this because my colleagues take great pleasure in mimicking me by yelling out one of my common catch phrases “It’s going to be great!”. I have a suspicion that they are mocking me, but this is soon overridden by a wave of optimism and I figure that they actually do think it’s going to be great. Of course, the world isn’t all candyfloss and rainbows all day long everyday, but I think that a lot of media coverage particularly, in an economic sense, tends to be negatively biased and this does influence market sentiment which in turn can create a self fulfilling prophecy.
There have been countless stories over the last few years about another recession on the way and I do accept the fact that a period of unprecedented growth and a shift away from quantitative easing has to result in a slow down and correction, but I still think that there is a lot to be really optimistic about in terms of the New Zealand economy particularly. We have created a brand as country that adds value to any product that we produce, we have some of the hottest entrepreneurial minds in the world creating products across multiple industries from retail point of sale, to accounting, to shoes, to commercial space launches that is changing the way the world is doing business.
A good friend of mine, Sam Stubbs, founder of Simplicity (and also an optimist), is very outspoken in terms of the rising pool of local capital that is giving us more autonomy than ever before in terms of capital for business growth. Simplicity has also teamed with Stephen Tindall and The Icehouse to create a $100 million start-up fund which in itself is very exciting and will create a pathway for some cool new industries here. On page 108, you will notice that we have another live event coming up on the 24th of July which features some of these aforementioned incredible entrepreneurs that are driving growth here. Read this, or even better come along and I promise you that you won’t be able to help but feel a sense of optimism. If not, let me know and I’ll buy you a large candyfloss. Actually make that a medium, still maybe a bit of credit tightening to come, don’t forget.