Photograph by Sabrina Hyde

THE silence is eerie. Iain Jerrett has just turned the key in his electric motorcycle, but there is no revving, no sputtering exhaust – no sound at all. In place of the usual petrol gauge and rev-counter on the dashboard is an LCD screen monitoring the 27 batteries under the bike’s seat.

This sleek black machine, a retrofitted Triumph, is a working example of lithium battery power. It is also the fruit of two years of tool-shed tinkering by clean energy consultant and minor petrolhead Jerrett, director of Astara Technologies.

Onlookers always wonder at the silence of the Astara Triumph, Jerrett says. “When you listen to it, it just keeps winding up. People always say ‘we’re waiting for the gear change’, but there’s just no gear change.”

In fact, the bike fascinates people full stop. From grizzled Harley-Davidson riders to energy company CEOs, as soon as someone sees the word “electric” written on its flank, they come closer and start asking questions. How is it charged? You can plug it into a regular socket – a full charge takes eight hours and costs $1.30. How long will a charge last? Depends how fast you ride – you can travel 150 kilometres if you’re going 50 km/h, less at the bike’s top speed, 160km/h.

How much does it cost? Well, that depends. Jerrett isn’t primarily in the business of selling electric motorcycles, although commissions are coming thick and fast. The core of his business is a battery management system, a piece of hardware that ensures the lithium batteries are working safely, never over- charged or under-charged. The system can be used to supply electric power to a range of vehicles. “It doesn’t have to be pushing a bike, it could be pushing a car, a helicopter, a boat,” Jerrett says. He has already been approached to work on a powered underwater camera.

However, using a hulking great motorcycle as the showpiece for his battery management system has proved the ideal way of getting people interested in green power. “Electric vehicles don’t have to be boring, they don’t have to be slow, you know. They can be fun and they can be interesting, and not pollute. That’s really important, and that’s something I strongly believe in.”

Jerrett is quick to admit that electric motorcycles are not rare these days, and different types of battery management systems exist elsewhere too. “No it’s not unique, and in fact a lot of these guys are probably a little bit ahead of what I’m doing, because the American government is biffing a lot of funds at a lot of these technologies,” he says. “However, I think ours is going to be good and robust, and there are a lot of issues with battery management where the systems aren’t working so well – that’s our competitive advantage.”

Thinking creatively about applications for electric motors will define his customer base, he says. There is also demand, especially from Asia, for the next step up from electric scooters – “aspirational machines”, Jerrett calls them.  “It’s early days, and the market will be big enough for a lot of different players.”

In answer to the question of what an electric motorcycle costs, Jerrett spent $25,000 on the Astara Triumph in parts alone – he doesn’t like to think what he’d charge for his hundreds of hours of labour. If he made the bike today he would spend 20 to 30 per cent less, as the price of batteries is constantly coming down. In any case, the bike may have paid for itself by now, with all the attention it has attracted from sponsors, potential customers, and most importantly from business support services.

Funding and assistance has been crucial in getting the fledgling business off the ground. After building the Triumph in less than ideal conditions at home, Jerrett read in a local newspaper about Otaki’s new Clean Tech Centre of Excellence. A few phone calls in mid-2010 led to him setting up in the centre, which offers cheap rent, business mentoring and networking opportunities. Once installed, Jerrett was able to build 10 battery management units thanks to funding from TechNZ, a government business investment programme.

Another source of help has been institute of technology WelTec’s industry development arm, the Centre for Smart Product. The centre organised for students to reverse-engineer and model an improved battery case for his new electric bike, a racing model. “WelTec students – some of those guys are so enthusiastic and extremely good at what they did,” Jerrett says.

“The students were all over it,” laughs Paul Mather, the Centre for Smart Product’s director of technology development. “We’re all petrolheads.”

Jerrett is typical of the entrepreneurs Mather sees at the centre, he says – people with a reasonable level of experience in their field who have a new product to develop. “He’s a guy who’s been in the electronics industry for a long time, and so comes from that background. He’s doing something as a hobby almost but it’s developing into a business.”

Mather works differently with each business his centre assists. Some businesses make use of WelTec’s specialist equipment, such as its rapid prototyper, which they could never afford to purchase themselves. The centre can also help secure funding for joint projects from agencies like Grow Wellington and the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Firms that need assistance with staff training or business certification can work with WelTec’s other industry development agency, the Centre for Smart Business. Companies might use this service to gain environmental accreditation, which is crucial for exporting to environmentally strict countries, or competing with products from those countries here in New Zealand. “You’re globally competitive whether you’re exporting or not,” Mather says.

Often WelTec’s association with a business will start with a student project, and will then develop into a financial relationship. “It’s about building relationships where you become part of their resource. And there are advantages, obviously, for us in doing that.” Aside from the potential revenue for parent WelTec from any formal partnerships, the centre gains knowledge and skills from the businesses it helps. “We get advantages by having access to their skilled staff who can maybe put inputs into our teaching, or some of our equipment.”

Aside from any material gain, WelTec has a genuine desire to grow business in Wellington, if only to ensure plentiful employment opportunities for its students. “That’s part of being a vocational institution instead of a university which is more research-focused. Our whole reason of being is to frame people to be work-ready.” Keeping connected to industry is the key to staying relevant in today’s workforce, Mather says. “Industry changes. It’s a live thing, it doesn’t stay still. So we have to move too.”

It’s all too easy for small business owners to bury their heads in work and ignore the many types of support available to them, Jerrett says. But it’s well worth applying for assistance. Jerrett’s link with WelTec has so far cost him nothing – students gained academic credit for their work on the Astara Triumph, so the Centre for Smart Product wrote off the assistance as a value swap.

Jerrett says the deal was an effective incentive to work with WelTec again. “I don’t think it will continue to be free. But, I’ve seen some of the facilities they’ve got, so I believe that there’s certainly opportunities there for further assistance.” He already has a job in mind: once he finishes the electric racing bike, he will use WelTec’s paint shop to spray it bright orange – electric orange.

Photograph supplied by Macaulay Metals

A handful of professions would lay claim to being ‘the world’s second oldest’. Among them: espionage, philosophy and politics.

Among the dirty and unpopular jobs, the hard graft, is one that was surely up there with the early vocations. In Caesar’s day they melted down and recycled arrow heads, shaped and re-shaped iron.

That’s the beautiful thing about scrap metal: it is useful again and again – reformed and re-used.

As a modern industry, scrap metal traders tend to lag behind the innovations or progress of wider industry. In New Zealand it’s a “blokey” and practical kind of trade. Most scrap metal businesses in this country would rather buy a digger than a procurement system, Phil Springford, CFO of Wellington’s Macaulay Metals says.

Macaulay Metals is one of the largest players in the New Zealand market, second only to the Auckland-based multinational Sims Pacific Metals. The company has been operational since 1959 and is Kiwi owned and run.

In addition to their scrap yard and hub in Seaview, Lower Hutt, the business has four other spoke yards around the country employing a total of 101 staff: Kawerau, Whakatane, Rotorua and Palmerston North.

Visiting their Seaview yard is like calling on a particularly diligent hoarder hard at work on a grand scale. They send a mass export around every three months when they simply run out of space.

As well as their aforementioned February 2010 mass export – 19,200 tonnes in one go – labelled Wellington’s largest-ever volume export by a single supplier, Macaulay Metals also won the export award at the 2010 Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.

Their scrap metal comes from far and wide and in a wide variety of shapes and sizes: “We’ve got de-registered cars and roofing iron out there; I just scrapped my old toaster yesterday,” Springford says.

“On the ‘heavy’ side we’ve got railway iron, the beams that go into your house, there’s an old plough out there . . . I’ve seen a helicopter, a plane, buses, ambulances. We buy old copper pipes out of houses; we will buy the lead off roofs, aluminium flashings, aluminium extrusion off windows and car batteries.”

Their main export markets are South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Holland and China. About 20 per cent of their product stays in New Zealand.

The mammoth mass export a year ago was destined for South Korea’s Dongkuk steel mill, which is a good example of the global scrap metal industry’s circular nature. Some of the steel parts for Makara’s wind turbines were imported from the Dongkuk mill – it’s entirely possible they were made from the scrap metal exported by Macaulay Metals.

The industry is traditionally a down-to-earth one. Springford says he thinks part of its appeal lies in its physicality.

“It is actually a physical product as opposed to an Enron share, so people can actually touch it and feel it,” he says. “There’s a value in that and people can actually understand it. It’s quite a simple business.”

While it is a relatively simple business model – primarily about cash-in-bank as opposed to leveraged debt – scrap metal traders overseas are taking some big steps in product and process innovation, and it is to these sorts of examples that Macaulay Metals looks to further its own innovation.

Two ATM-type systems implemented in their Wellington yard were the result of collaboration with a Canadian software company. Macaulay Metals had the only two in Australasia, before the Australians decided to follow suit.

The system has turned what used to be primarily a cash-based business into something more secure, with all barcode, personal and photographic details being kept digitally. Naturally, Springford says it took a while for suppliers to adjust.

“The online thing, how long’s Telecom and Contact Energy been doing that for? Years. It’s not exactly rocket science, but when we introduced it into our industry [suppliers] were like, ‘oh – just send me a paper one’.”

Macaulay Metals was also one of the first companies to use container tippers to speed up the process of loading scrap into shipping containers safely and quickly.

On the large-scale, high-tech side of innovation, Macaulay Metals are in the early phases of talks with Wellington institution WelTec, who have specialisation in high-power water cutting. The application for Macaulay Metals would be in cutting long, heavy metals like railway track which need to be in smaller pieces to be saleable, and for which the current methods for cutting fall short.

Macaulay Metals has a powerful shear attached to a Caterpillar digger, but it is not strong enough to cut railway line. It takes one man a long, hot day to cut a 15 metre-long piece of old railway track into the necessary one metre square pieces using a gas torch similar to a welding torch. The use of extremely high pressure water to cut steel would cut out many of the problems associated with using those methods.

“If we get it working right then it will be more environmentally friendly and will cut just as well as the gas, and you will need less training and you can actually recycle that water around and around and around,” Springford says.

With the steel cut efficiently into the correct lengths, Macaulay Metals can sell it at a higher price, thus continuing to maximise the export earnings from their lucrative trash-to-treasure business model.

Photograph by Sabrina Hyde

WITH a population of 6000 people, Otaki looks no different from all the other rural New Zealand towns dotted along State Highway One. But this humble little community, nestled 75 kilometres north of Wellington, is sitting on a very promising nest egg. Otaki is looking to become a world-leading hub in today’s hottest field – clean technology.

Clean tech is a rapidly growing global industry, defined by products, processes or services that use energy and resources more efficiently and have a lower environmental footprint.

Otaki’s Clean Tech Centre of Excellence was officially opened last November, with 240 key business shapers gathering to check out the facility and its early residents. The centre is a joint venture between Kapiti Coast District Council and business development agency Grow Wellington, and aims to bridge the gap between clean technology ideas and international commercialisation. It is the first of three centres of excellence planned by Grow Wellington, with a health education hub and a screen and digital centre still to follow.

Otaki’s two-storied, 560 square metre facility will be a collaborative environment where researchers and businesses can physically trial new ideas and develop them into a commercial reality. Grow Wellington’s centres of excellence manager Steven Finlay says businesses get high value for low cost at the centre – residents are offered low rent, business mentoring, networking opportunities and connections to relevant government departments, investors, and research institutions.

It is hoped that a recent collaboration with the Stephen Tindall-led Kiwi Expatriates Association (KEA) will expose the centre’s products to a global network of wealthy investors. “For clean technology businesses it’s a fantastic opportunity to get out of their garage and come into our purpose-built facility,” Finlay says.

Finlay, a fast-talking Scotsman, has big aspirations for any business looking to join the centre. “Our goal collectively is to make fantastic, inspirational, world changing businesses.” The economic aspirations of the centre are not to be overlooked either. “We have an aspirational goal for each centre of excellence to reach one billion dollars in economic benefit over 10 years.”

While the centre will attract businesses at all levels of maturity, their common goal will be looking for a globally relevant field to innovate in. “We take ideas and we build companies. We take companies and we build global businesses,” Finlay says. By joining the centre’s cluster, clean tech start-ups can overcome the challenges they face together by sharing ideas and knowledge – and can help attract investors. Mike Henare, chief executive of centre member SpectioNZ, says: “Whenever you get entrepreneurial people together things happen and ideas are formed.”

Finlay admits it will not be easy for clean tech centre residents to succeed in hotly-contested international markets. Other countries are already spending the equivalent of New Zealand’s gross domestic product on clean tech research alone. This means a “fast fail” approach will be essential in achieving international commercialisation. “What we have to do is demonstrate commercial applications quickly. If that means it is a fast fail then we can learn from that and try another approach.”

But he remains confident the centre can leverage New Zealand’s global reputation for innovation, low corruption and the close relationships between business and research. Wellington, in particular, is recognised as a technology leader, he says. “I’ve occasionally been criticised for being a little bit too passionate in my selling of what we’ve got in the Wellington region, but we have to do that. We have to keep showing, and showcasing the real science and business and education smarts that we’ve got here.”

And, he says, taking Wellington’s clean tech products to the world will only get easier as the centre’s reputation grows – and the aspirations of its member companies along with it.

A clean start

SpectionZ technologies is one example of a truly innovative clean tech business. the company joined the clean tech centre two years ago, when both were in early development. “At that stage it was no more than an idea that looked promising,” chief executive mike Henare says.

SpectionZ technology combines two well-proven technologies: pyrolysis and microwave heating. Pyrolysis breaks down organic matter in the absence of oxygen, much like a landfill, however SpectionZ have managed to speed up the process to occur in seconds rather than years. All by-products of the process – gas, char and liquids – have commercial value.

The Otaki clean tech centre helped SpectionZ formulate a business plan, engage with investors and develop their technology. “they helped prove the need but also provided expert advice and resource such as business planning and access to intellectual property advice.”

Henare recommends that anyone with a good clean tech idea should make contact with the centre early to determine whether or not the concept has commercial viability. “many good ideas never come to light because the process looks daunting and many average ideas go too far and financially impact people when the idea should really never have been developed,” he says.

Photograph by Sabrina Hyde

GRANT Marris, Hutt Valley’s new business growth manager, is so animated when he talks about his job that several times during our conversation he trips over his fast-fired words.

His positivity rubs off on his clients, Hutt businesses of all sizes needing advice and direction. “I like to think they go away feeling all pumped up and fired up and raring to go,” Marris says.

Don’t let his high spirits fool you though – Marris is a highly organised planning enthusiast. He started with his employer, Grow Wellington, after outgrowing a series of business ventures, including nearly a decade at the helm of Porirua Motor Body Repairs.

“What happened is, I made my panel shop so efficient, it actually made me redundant,” he laughs.

His can-do attitude and business background made Marris a natural for the Hutt role, created by Grow Wellington in November last year. Marris’ mechanical background is also an easy fit for a region whose strengths lie in manufacturing and technology. And, in turn, technical businesses fit with Marris’ key objective: preparing companies for export.

The conventional wisdom that manufacturing is best done in China is “a joke”, he says. “When you’re talking about a lower volume or high-quality product, I certainly believe New Zealanders can produce a better product.”

Marris can help businesses in a variety of ways, from advice about market validation to arranging meetings with government officials, connecting with niche experts and demystifying funding schemes. His services are free of charge –“the payoff for us is watching businesses grow” – though some services he recommends do come with a price tag.

Often, the first assistance Marris gives to his clients is helping to create a business plan, even one as simple as a list scribbled on a piece of paper.  A common problem is clients who avoid the financial side of their business, which is a particularly Kiwi attitude, Marris says.

Others are “almost too scared to say ‘I’m successful’.” He tells it to these clients straight: “If you’re not making money, it’s a hobby. It’s not a business.”

He’s not afraid to tell clients how tough it can be. “Out of 10 brand-new companies that start up today, seven will fail within two to three years, two will probably make no money, will plod along, and one will be successful.”

You might say Marris is out to change that statistic.

Photograph by Sabrina Hyde

VENTURE capitalists normally aren’t too interested in the fashion industry. You can understand their reluctance. In which part of its mercurial mayhem can you make a scalable play? Besides which, venture capitalists typically don’t have networks among such beautiful people.

Wellingtonian Sebastian Marino has been gaining lots of venture capitalist interest however, though as this article goes to press he continues to decline to comment officially on 77 Pieces’ early stage funding status.

The market in this case is fashion design. 77 Pieces can take a 2D pattern and blow it up to a virtual 3D image and back again. Does the seat of a pair of pants look too baggy? No problem, trim it on the model and the 2D pattern is automatically reconfigured. He’s also cracked the grading issue, with patterns and models able to be adjusted proportionally and correctly while getting larger or smaller.

All that sounds simple, but there’s a mass of mathematics and algorithms sitting behind what happens on screen. In fact, from Marino’s point of view the maths is comparatively speaking the easy part.  But then again both he and his business partner are mathematicians. Marino is an American who arrived in the capital a couple of years ago for a gig at Weta Digital, and co-founder Joseph Teran is a world-leading maths professor from University of California, Los Angeles.

Marino picked up an Academy Award for clothing simulations in 1999 Star Wars movie The Phantom Menace. Together, the 77 Pieces founders have published more than 30 academic papers on solid and fluid dynamics, which have been cited over 600 times. The maths component of the company is also the part that’s IP protected by a “wall of lawyers”.

“We’re not concerned about our ability to execute the technology, that’s our job and we do it well,” Marino says. “We simply want to help fashion designers do amazing work, faster. Our ideology is to be the magician’s assistant, and our goal is to make a revolutionary tool for designers that’s simple and easy to use.”

He’s recently been carrying out business modelling such as market positioning and costing frameworks (when he’s not pulling all nighters writing computer code), and is slightly relieved to have this side of launching his business behind him. He says the assistance he has received from Barbara Grieve at Grow Wellington’s Creative HQ around this planning is invaluable.

Marino is now concentrating on an onscreen computer interface that has a super high polish, is refined and easy to use, and is slick enough to appeal to designers. “We’re working with a virtual, live piece of cloth,” he says. “We want to move past just a mouse to explore new ways to manipulate something onscreen. There’s interesting new interface challenges. How do you create this type of system with the physics always on? It’s never been done before.

“We also want designers to know how to use it in five minutes,” he says. “And with no instruction manuals . . . something that’s really obvious. I just counted the number of user interface components in a competitor’s product; there are over 1000 menu items, and over 500 toolbar buttons. We’re not getting paid to paint icons. We’re getting paid to make useful software. We won’t waste anyone’s time with that kind of nonsense.”

In fact, Marino envisages that the next major part of the work, for which probably three Wellington-based software engineers will be required, is to get this part of the experience dead right. “It has to work more like a game than a CAD (computer-aided design) program,” he says. Down the track, the user interface will need to be developed for iPads and multi touch screen technologies.

Marino says that the United States, with its US$317 billion fashion market, is the obvious first market to crack, though the beta version is currently being tested in New Zealand by a select few. By the time it hits the market in late 2011, probably in November, he expects the program to be bug free and ready to rock.

There’s an interplay going on between how easy it is to use and how inexpensively it can be sold. “We want to find a way to have a volume of adoption, but, with selective distribution,” he says. “It’s not a toy for someone to download and trial. We will have to have personal contact and be a company that’s there for designers and we want to be alongside those who are doing interesting work. We want feedback and to know how it is working for you.”

77 Pieces will be launched as a SaaS (software as a service) model with an annual subscription. “This enables us to have a significantly lower cost of entry, constant contact and constant updates and new features without bundling things under new charges,” he says. One of the main targets is designers used to Adobe-type design software, with the goal of not pricing 77 Pieces out of the market. “We want to be as cost competitive as possible, and looking to have a high adoption rate,” Marino says.

As such it doesn’t matter physically where the business is located, “as every- thing is virtual”, he says. “We can execute from anywhere, but we’re dedicated to 77 Pieces being a New Zealand technology company. We’ll work hard to develop the R&D organisation needed to sustain 77 Pieces here.” Marino himself will be “where I have to be, though I envisage I’ll be up in the States a fair bit this year”.

Already the news of his software and its application to the fashion industry has generated a tonne of interest, he says. As new, enabling technology, Marino says they’re really looking to “cook gas”.

NEW Zealand companies are hot for Hong Kong right now – and the love affair runs both ways. Cyberport, the Hong Kong government’s HK$15.8 billion (NZ$2.7b) landmark information technology project, has signed a series of collaboration deals with the Wellington City Council, New Zealand Institute of Screen Innovation, Kapiti cloud computing company InterGrid and, most recently, WelTec.

This latest deal will give WelTec staff and students access to Cyberport’s weighty resources. In exchange, Cyberport – which aims to become an international ICT hub – hopes to increase its chances of coming across the “next big thing” in the flourishing digital entertainment sector.

Dr David Chung is the head of information technology operations (ITO) at Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company. Picking up the phone with a cheery “kia ora”, he explains that the company has targeted a relationship with Wellington for several years. Cyberport has been working to identify entrepreneurial hotspots around the world and, he says, “we find entrepreneurs and creativity, definitely, in Wellington”.

LOCATED on 24 hectares in the south of Hong Kong Island, the Cyberport complex includes four office buildings, a luxury hotel, a retail entertainment complex and a deluxe residential development. The vision: an ICT hub, home to a strategic cluster of commercial tenants, with project funding boosted by the ancillary property development. To this end, Cyberport provides digital media and wireless development centres, top-notch broadband facilities and an on-site ICT training institute.

Most importantly, Cyberport runs a digital entertainment incubation and training programme (IncuTrain) to provide financial, technical and business support to start-up companies. Successful alumni include social network game developer Emagist and PlayMotion Limited, a start-up digital publishing company recently acquired by global printing company Leo Paper Group.

Over 100 companies work at Cyberport at any given time, ranging from start-ups and incubatees (currently numbering about 60) to giants like Microsoft and FedEx.

Cyberport’s office occupancy rate has grown significantly over the last four or five years and is now considered stable, at a range of between 80 and 90 per cent.

Some of the profits generated by the Cyberport project are “poured back” into the community, Dr Chung explains. For example, in December last year, Cyberport announced spending of HK$100m (NZ$17.4m) over the next three years to help develop the ICT sector in Hong Kong.

Looking beyond Hong Kong, Dr Chung believes that there is potential for Cyberport to facilitate an international network for creative ICT companies. Thanks in large part to the reputation of Weta Digital, New Zealand is considered a key international relationship. Mainland China is also a priority and Cyberport is working to establish a “collaboration centre” from its office in Shanghai.

“We want to create a so-called hub and we can help companies grow into the China market, by leveraging our partner in Shanghai,” Dr Chung says. “This is like a reciprocal network. For example, in China, we are helping some of the Chinese companies come out of China, leveraging on our Hong Kong facilities.”

In December last year, during a delegation by WelTec staff to Hong Kong, WelTec and Cyberport signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in the field of creative technologies. As a starting point, WelTec will run a series of short courses in Hong Kong in June. Future collaboration is envisioned to include staff and student exchanges and joint development of training and facilities. WelTec is also working to develop relationships with Cyberport incubatee and tenant companies, starting with web content innovator SmoothWeb and 3D motion capture company XD Productions.

TERIULemon, head of WelTec’s school of creative technologies, acknowledges the role played by the “Weta empire” in building Wellington’s reputation as a centre for digital creativity and innovation. “Park Road Post and Weta Digital have established a very strong name here and it’s not only drawing people like James Cameron and other directors and the expertise; it’s created a huge interest around the world, including Cyberport in Hong Kong.”

Cyberport has “amazing” facilities and access to top technical expertise but, in Lemon’s personal opinion, the project is still looking for the kind of creativity displayed by people like Sir Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor. “They’re still looking for what it is that we do here that is so unique . . . what is so unique about such a small country and their creative process.”

Based on his experiences overseas, particularly in the United States, Lemon says that New Zealand’s relative lack of resources probably leads to an aptitude for creativity and innovation. “We don’t struggle but we are challenged every day to work with what we have. It’s enough – but we still only have limited, we don’t have excess.”

Lemon sees plenty of potential in the Wellington-Hong Kong relationship.

“What’s happening over there in education is fantastic. I’m actually really excited about where they’re going and how easily we’ll be able to collaborate because we all seem to be moving in the same direction in the creative and digital areas.”

New media channels like the iPhone and Facebook are one emerging trend and have helped drive the continued growth of the digital entertainment sector despite a sluggish global economy. Cyberport’s

Dr Chung points out that social network media allows companies to take advantage of the global market. He gives IncuTrain graduate and game developer Emagist as an example: “They can have a lot of players on [new social networking channels] like Facebook . . . I would say over 95 per cent of the users are actually outside of Hong Kong. We didn’t see this happening before.” Dr Chung says that Android, iPhone and other new platforms have created tremendous opportunities for young entrepreneurs. “They can create little ’apps’ . . . then they can maintain very profitable and very healthy growth.”

Looking forward, Dr Chung predicts that the continued growth of broadband internet will spur on a more intelligent and interactive “Web 3.0” era over the next five years. “We will see the net itself getting more intelligent, so a lot of profiling to help you to get a lot of information easier,” he says, citing Tauranga- based Pingar as an example of a company already working in this space. “This is the kind of company we want to incubate.”

The rise of 3D internet will be another key trend. “You’ll be able to see a lot of the virtual world in 3D . . . your computer will be able to generate scopic 3D images very easily. It’s all happening.”

Dr Chung says that the top challenge for Cyberport will be to attract creative talent to turn these new technologies into fresh innovation and business opportunities. “That’s why I think, by the partnership with WelTec, we want to make sure that we can get the world-class partner to help us to help those creative talents, to flush through the projects that form from ideas, and then we’re able to generate the next big thing. That’s the challenge.”

After all, all the funding and facilities in the world are worth little without bright ideas.

SCIENCE, business and innovation. It’s a powerful trifecta. If we can get the connections right, we can unleash huge potential for New Zealand. Our less than satisfactory economic performance has been high on the political agenda for some years but it is only recently that the government has started to believe that the high growth and manufacturing sector can make a significant contribution to the economy. As a result, the government has put greater focus on connecting science with business and encouraging more research and development (R&D) and business innovation.

So what does this mean for business?

There is significant new funding for R&D for businesses of all sizes, whether you are a small start-up or a large established exporter—our funding ranges from $1000 to $1 million plus.

If you have the aspiration, the opportunity and the ability to grow, we want to hear from you. Funding for R&D investments is available through the TechNZ fund run by the new Ministry of Science and Innovation and previously by the Foundation for Science, Research and Technology. Since April 2010, TechNZ has made 75 investments in the Wellington region, worth more than $8m in total. We’re investing in world-class businesses based in our own back yard, such as Pertronic Industries, Wedgelock Equipment, Kaynemaile, Windsor Engineering Group, 4RF, Formway Furniture and Sidhe Interactive.

For businesses relatively new to R&D, we have the simpler Technology Transfer Voucher. The voucher will fund up to 50 per cent of the costs towards working with one of our accredited R&D partners to investigate or develop a brilliant business idea. Wellington is well served by two accredited research partners – WelTec and Industrial Research Limited (IRL).

Grow Wellington is the first point of contact for businesses new to R&D. As our regional business partner in the region, they can provide advice, support and funding for you to test your ideas.

To anyone not convinced of the merits of investing in R&D: our clients tell us that through their R&D investments and our TechNZ support, they think bigger, get their products to market faster and develop a competitive edge through innovation. And here is a hard fact: the businesses we invest in are found to make, on average, four times return on their TechNZ investments.

I have only touched on a few of the many opportunities for businesses out there.

It is my view that for a business to fully realise its growth potential, good quality R&D needs to sit at the heart of the business. The most successful companies are those that invest regularly in R&D and learn how to translate it into business advantage. I encourage all Wellington businesses to consider making 2011 their year for R&D and innovation.

Photo credit: Flickr user HeroicLife

THE opportunities often seem boundless in the honeymoon period after businesses first start investigating China, says Pat English – trade commissioner, consul general, and a veteran observer of doing business with New Zealand’s second largest trading partner. “But you inevitably get past those dazzling figures and numbers and down to the reality of what’s required, which is a lot of time, resources, patience and hard work.”

Despite the challenges, some Kiwi ICT companies are capturing work in the market while others are doing the due diligence necessary to decide if market entry stacks up. New Zealand’s ICT trade mission to China last October included nine companies, New Zealand ICT (NZICT) CEO Brett O’Riley, and NZTE staff including Richard Laverty, operations director for ICT.

Laverty came away confident that if businesses prepare and approach the market in a structured way, opportunities do exist. “China is not a whole lot more difficult than many other markets, it’s just different.”

In addition, Laverty says, China is having such an impact on global supply chains that businesses can’t afford to ignore it. “It really is becoming a global hub for business.”

He sees a two-fold opportunity in China. “China provides New Zealand companies with an opportunity to access components and services at competitive prices. You can find any level of quality you want.” And, given its large size, China is also attractive as a market for sales. “They are really interested in our innovation and our management approach. We are good at applying technology and making it work in a no-nonsense way. We definitely have solutions to problems they face, particularly in the telecommunications and geo-spatial space.”

Laverty says one of the things that impressed him during his visit to China last year was the level of “New Zealand Inc” support available. “The New Zealand government, through NZTE and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has made a significant investment in China in the last five years. There is a strong team of people on the ground who really live and breathe China” – and have effective networks to support new entrants.

In a country where seniority is a sign of respect and commitment, having Minister Joyce lead last year’s mission and spend time with participants opened doors for New Zealand ICT companies. Seminars on New Zealand’s ICT capability attracted top executives from some of China’s – and the world’s – leading telecommunications companies. Six months on, a number of the participant companies have been back for another visit and others, like OpenCloud, have committed to entering the market.

Wellington-founded OpenCloud already had a taste of doing business in China when Bob Drummond, vice president and general manager for Asia, joined the trade mission. Through one of its global partners, Nokia Siemens Networks, OpenCloud’s software was already being used by mobile company China Unicom (China’s second largest mobile operator and the world’s third largest) to implement an application that lets its mobile users see the location and status of their contacts’ phones in real time.

Drummond has visited China twice since the mission and OpenCloud recently engaged a local agency to project-manage the company’s entry into the country.  This model, which OpenCloud has used in other emerging markets, allows it to hit the ground running. “They have people who speak the language, have existing relationships we can leverage, know the employment and tax rules and can help us recruit the right staff.” The first three months will be run as a market assessment to make sure OpenCloud has the right model to succeed in China.

China’s size makes it “very attractive” for a company that licenses its software and sells based on the number of transactions processed – but Drummond doesn’t underestimate the competition. “We’ve got 10 years’ investment in our software, which is undoubtedly a world leader in its niche, and a reference base of some of the world’s top mobile telco groups, including Vodafone, T-Mobile, BT, Telefonica and Orange.”

But they know the Chinese are chasing them. Huawei, a Chinese telecoms equipment vendor vying with Ericsson for the global top spot, is now number one in the world in terms of registering patents and has around 200 in-house patent attorneys. “It’s quite daunting when you hear that, but we have a lot of faith in our technology and our ability to innovate ahead of the pack.”

OpenCloud has opted to base itself in Shanghai, partly because it can use the facilities at New Zealand Central (www.nzte.govt.nz/nzcentral), NZTE’s business centre for Kiwi companies.

“It gives us a base for meeting people and for training sessions but it’s also a chance to rub shoulders with other New Zealand companies. Everyone is taking a slightly different route in China and it’s helpful to share information about what works and what doesn’t.”

Overall, Drummond says, OpenCloud’s approach to China is ambitious but cautious. “We are growing fast in a number of markets and have to be careful about where we focus our limited resources. China is a huge and growing market nobody can afford to ignore but there are also significant, unique challenges and, worldwide, there are also other opportunities.”

Pat English has seen a lot of businesses enter the market over more than a decade of working in China for NZTE. “Some companies that criticise China have never worked here or have sown the seeds of their own failures by not doing their homework. You have to go there, research what the market needs, find out everything you can from other New Zealand companies and then work out whether your product or service fits the market.

“Researching IP issues should be part of that process. Think about your source code, brand name, website, your name in Chinese.”

English says a rule of thumb for companies is to estimate the time and resources that will be needed to enter the market and then triple it. It is not a low-cost market.

“Being committed means something different in China than in some other markets,” he says, and senior management will need to put the time in. “If you send a technician, even a senior one, to meetings in China expecting to meet with senior leadership or management then you will probably send the message that you are not serious and don’t understand the environment.”

Photo credit: Flickr.com user Ada Be

COLUMNIST Rosemary McLeod once accused me of radical chic behaviour for my qualified support of a new trial for David Bain. In fact I share her condemnation of such conduct but where, as in the Bain case, there are solid grounds for concern I’m perhaps more open-minded than many other folk. Here’s why.

Had it not been for an enormously lucky piece of fate in my mid 20s, I, unknown outside of Lower Hutt commercial real estate circles and also the boxing world, would have gone to prison for a few years. My life would have been ruined and I would have lived it out meagrely and deeply embittered.

Here’s what happened.

Complaining at the lack of fresh investment opportunities, I was persuaded by the late Lawrie Miller, at the time Lower Hutt’s leading commercial property agent (cricket fans will remember him as L S M Miller, opening the batting for New Zealand in the John Reid era), to purchase a couple of adjacent inner city houses, now rezoned for warehousing.

So I bought them and in the interim Lawrie rented them to a local retailer for storage purchases while he set about finding a warehouse tenant to build for.

He soon came up with Gillette, lengthy negotiations followed, an engineer designed the building and it was all on, pending Gillette’s confirmation due on a particular Friday midday.

Now consider this.

A month earlier I had been persuaded by a then-new premium-undercutting company to switch all my insurances. “Are you sure you’ve covered everything?” the agent pressed, whereupon I suddenly remembered the two houses.

But, I pointed out, they weren’t worth bothering about as I expected to demolish them inside the next two months.

“Treat it as a lottery,” he said. You just never know; they might burn down and the premium will be miniscule and he duly issued a two-month policy for a premium of 30 shillings.

A few days before Gillette’s decision I was at a drinks party at the then Hutt News newspaper editor’s home. Standing in a group of prominent citizens which included a well-known developer who was sitting on a similar pair of rezoned houses and was also awaiting a prospective lessee’s decision, in front of half a dozen people we joked about burning down one another’s houses.

Two days after that party on Friday, Gillette duly confirmed. That night I drove to Days Bay to my married sister’s home for dinner. I was on my own as my wife was in hospital having just given birth to my eldest daughter.

In those days there was little traffic and later I drove home alone through the dark city after midnight. Whichever route I took I would have passed within 100 metres of the two houses.

Only a few hours later, on Saturday morning, quite early, my wife telephoned from the hospital. “Don’t you own a couple of houses rented to X?” (the prominent retailer) she asked and proceeded to tell me she’d heard on the news they had burnt down. Elated because of the insurance windfall I leapt into the car and drove down to the houses. Oh what joy as I confronted two smouldering wrecks. But that ecstasy was to be short-lived.

On Monday morning in the office I was called by the developer I had joked with in front of lots of folk about burning the houses down. “God man, I was only kidding,” he said. “I didn’t think you would actually do it.” I protested my innocence vehemently but it was plain he didn’t believe me. Then someone else called to tell me that the retailer tenant was telling everyone I had burned the houses down and suddenly it dawned on me, I was in big, big trouble.

Add it all up. Gillette had gone unconditional at noon, I had publicly joked a few days earlier about burning the houses down. I had bought the insurance policy a month earlier and I had driven past in the silent streets presumably about the time of the fire. All of that added to overwhelming circumstantial evidence which any reasonable jury would convict on.

I became enraged at my misfortune whereupon the telephone rang again, this time from a police detective wanting to come over and discuss the fire.

“Don’t waste both our times,” I shouted. “I can tell you who did it.” “Really!” he said, sounding genuinely believing and I named the prominent retailer who was telling everyone I had done it.

I later learnt the detective had promptly shot round to the retailer and taken him to the police station where he had been grilled for several hours. The bugger deserved it.

Nevertheless for two weeks I sweated with anxiety. In the interim I made my insurance claim. The highly suspicious manager told me they weren’t paying, explaining to me the principles of indemnity, namely that I’d suffered no loss.

I threatened to sue on the “treat it as a lottery” inducement and they eventually backed down, having first obtained their agent’s confirmation that he had said that. In hindsight this was very foolish as it provided the motive to go with the circumstantial evidence. But irate at the rumour-mongering I was determined to not yield on any front.

But it was small comfort as I waited like a condemned man for the police to come and arrest me.

A fortnight after the fire the detective rang my office again. “Can I come and see you?” he asked. “Certainly not,” I snapped and began protesting my innocence whereupon he interrupted to tell me they had caught the arsonist. “Get over here,” I said. “I’ll have the wine waiting.”

It transpired that after his grilling of the retailer – who he admitted had kept insisting that I was the guilty party – on a punt, he went to the “crime scene” and knocked on doors, and lo and behold, salvation.

For an old boy in a house opposite my two told him that he couldn’t sleep on that Saturday morning so had got up and, in his dressing gown, gone outside at dawn to see if the newspaper had arrived. More importantly, he admitted to seeing a chap lurking about and had had a clear view of his face.

Down to the police station and handed the photo book he quickly picked out the bloke he had seen. As it transpired this fellow had only been released from prison a week earlier and, you guessed it, he’d been inside for arson. The police picked him up and he promptly confessed – as the police said, arsonists always do once nabbed.

But think about it. What if the old bloke had not risen early and gone outside for the newspaper? I was a goner and my life would have been ruined. In all of the overwhelming circumstances the police would have been right to charge me and a jury to have convicted me.

Having said that, I don’t knock circumstantial evidence, a valid prosecution argument. David Bain was initially convicted solely on circumstantial evidence as are hundreds of people, usually rightly, every year. But as readers will now understand, I have no difficulty accepting that with the best will in the world, no matter how compelling, such evidence can sometimes just possibly be coincidental.