Made From New Zealand chatted with Corin Dann bright and early this morning on TVOne’s NZI Business show about building a global business community thats connected and gets noticed internationally. We see Made From New Zealand as as a key piece of infrastructure for growing a sustainable global New Zealand business community. Check out the video on the TVNZ site or Below. Thanks Corin.
In January this year Wellington Based Web Development Company SilverStripe was thrust into the international spot light by being awarded the contract to build the Official U.S. Democratic Convention website.
To give you some idea of the scale, recent released traffic statistics of the site measured 2.6 Billion Hits and 3.2 Million visitors during the four day convention and more than 350,000 hours of video had been viewed.
With thousands of CMS applications around the world, what was it about the SilverStripe platform that cemented the deal?
CEO of SilverStripe Brian Calhoun says that it ticked all the right boxes with the ability to integrate with third parties, the ability to scale and a high level of support throughout the convention.
“Being awarded the Convention site was validation that the Silverstripe CMS rates as one of the best in the world” say Calhoun. Ten months on from being awarded the Democratic site, international sales now account for 30 percent of their revenue, staff numbers have increase by 30 percent and they have just recently shifted into new premises.
SilverStripe’s international profile has also gone through the roof with Ohio State University carrying out a one year research program to find out which CMS they would use for their libraries. After using comparison techniques and going through a rigorous selection process the Silverstripe CMS came out on top. This was a nice surprise as Calhoun attended Ohio State University back in the 80s.
SilverStripe was also awarded the California Women’s Convention site which is spear- headed by Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver. The convention is the largest Women’s event in America with 14,000 women in one arena.
The focus has strongly shifted for SilverStripe to international markets; with co-founder Tim Copeland based out of the United Kingdom, SilverStripe is now looking for opportunities to grow the business further.
When it comes to flying high, Glenn Martin seems to have mastered the concept in more ways than one.
Glenn is an innovative inventor from Christchurch who has proven that it isn’t just the big multi national companies that can introduce amazing technology to the every day man. Glenn’s company has developed a product that is now known all over the World, even though the first one won’t be delivered until next year.
So what is this piece of technology that has wowed thousands of people? No, not software, not a new electric fence, in fact it is a personal Jetpack. Yes, a jetpack, or the Martin Jetpack to be precise. Unlike the last personal jetpack that flew for less than thirty seconds at a time, the Martin Jetpack can fly for up to 30 minutes, and the Martin Aircraft Company Ltd is now the talk of the aviation industry around the World.
Glenn believes the way to break into the World market is to “Go overseas, and have a look at the opportunities yourself, it is often very different from how you would think it is when sitting here in New Zealand”. Glenn advises those with a business to promote, send the principals of the company, “the hierarchy”, to market the business rather than just the Marketing Manager. This is just what Glenn did, when he publicly launched the Martin Jetpack at the huge USA based OshKosh Air Show on the 29th July this year.
“We had one of our Directors out there at the air show selling T Shirts; he learnt a huge amount about the type of customers interested in our product a whole lot better than he would from a bunch of written reports.”
Using the people most passionate about the business is also a must, “If you aren’t confident in presenting to people, just practice, and each time you do it you will learn something and improve for the next time”.
The biggest challenge the Martin Aircraft Company has faced is the same one many others face, financing the project. So what does Glenn advise to those many other business people struggling to get their business financed?
“Develop your products are far as you can, spending money on only what you absolutely must. Once you have a working prototype, take this to the financers and show them what you have.” Glenn spent over 25 years developing his product “In the garage, I didn’t have a fancy office and laser printer”.
So where to now for the Martin Aircraft Company? Since the hugely successful launch at the OshKosh Airshow, Glenn has had numerous applications for distributorships of the Martin Jetpack all around the World, as well as several orders. The first JetPack is due to be delivered in July 2009, with many more to follow.
Glenn Martin has proven that with a passion, and developing your business as far as you can before launching it to the market, NZ businesses can succeed overseas and wow the international business community with our innovation and motivation.
In line with New Zealand trying to build the nation’s strategy around it’s position as a leader in sustainability, sustainable transport company Challenge for Change has just secured its first deal with UK councils to run a cycling program that was developed and run here in New Zealand over the last 5 years.
Social entrepreneur Tom Stokell says “We’ve got a model that works, and in the end the aim is simple - we just want to get as many people in the world cycling as possible.”
The first two active communities are the Swindon Cycle Community and the Colchester Cycle Community, and in just 9 weeks over 1400 people and 80 organisations have jumped on a bike for some 7,000 trips and cycled almost 100,000 kilometres. Thats over twice around the world and equates to 10,000 litres of petrol saved. Proof of small things making a big difference!
The Current Approach is all buzz and little action
While most governing bodies have some sort of policy and funding to get more people cycling, most are still treating it solely as a marketing effort and while marketing is an important component in raising awareness, its only the first step to delivering results - people cycling regularly and for transport. Challenge for Change combines more conventional marketing efforts like getting PR in local newspapers and radio shows. The whole effort is focused around a live online community where everyone involved can log their trips, tracking their progress and that of their peers and organisation.
