Team performance needed to lift innovation score

15 September 2011

New Zealand’s score in the Global Competitiveness Index continues to slip - now placed 25th out of 142 countries.

Despite efforts New Zealand is falling further behind other innovation-driven economies.

“Our ranking has fallen five places in two years and it’s because our innovation system is too fragmented,” says NZVCA Executive Director Colin McKinnon. “We are a long way from playing as a team. New Zealand is a small village but we still suffer a No 8 wire mentality of doing it ourselves on limited resources.”

He says collaboration that produces benefits of scale is the goal of the InnoVest Summit being held in Auckland this October.

”I’m impressed with the willingness of science and business organisations to support InnoVest,” he says. “From Business New Zealand to Science New Zealand the message has been that we need to find a shared vision and put greater emphasis on building a New Zealand Inc team.”

He believes New Zealand’s competitors, such as Australia and Asia have well-formulated strategies that deliver much more investment and support.

“We need to understand how doing things differently can affect our performance or our competitive position will continue to slide,” says Mr McKinnon.

InnoVest 2011 - the Australasian Innovation and Investment Summit is a thought leadership summit being held at SKYCITY Convention Centre, Auckland on 26 October 2011.

ENDS

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