Failure an occupational hazard
It was sad to see Wynyard Group’s troubles in the news this week. The intelligence software company has been a high-profile, high-speed growth story ever since it was spun out of Jade Software in 2012.
Wynyard attracted considerable investment over the years as it sought to commercialise and export its crime-fighting software package.
As a nation, we tend to revel in others’ failures – the tall poppy syndrome is alive and well in New Zealand.
Yet in other cultures (notably the United States) failure does not have the same stigma attached to it, there is a culture of recognising that taking a big risk does not come with a guaranteed result and that sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.
Better to try and fail, than not to try at all.
As a city, we need enterprises and people to be prepared to take risks and to try new things, to be bold and be prepared to accept that at times, things will not always go as we’d like.
Wynyard had a bold vision of building a global software business around a cutting-edge platform that was based here in Christchurch and it employs hundreds of highly skilled staff.
We could do with a lot more of those.
The tech sector in New Zealand grew by more than $1 billion in the past year (at the same time as the dairy sector shrank by roughly the same amount).
As we head into an increasingly hi-tech future, technology will be more and more important to our economy. Yet it is notoriously difficult to pick winners in this sector; it moves incredibly fast and today’s poster child can be tomorrow’s hasbeen.
If Christchurch wants a buoyant economy then it needs to attract people who are prepared to take risks.
The best way to ensure success is to have an eco-system that helps nurture ideas and start-ups, that provides access to knowledgeable venture capital, that understands the risks and lets the strong survive and thrive.
For various reasons it is more difficult to create a successful international scale start-up in New Zealand than most other places in the world.
Despite this we have an amazing community of entrepreneurs and investors, many of whom have been previously successful on the international stage, who help support and develop a growing number of firms that are on this international growth path.
It’s hard work, it’s risky and failure is always just a mis-step away.
The reality is that success is far harder to achieve than failure and we should treasure those businesses and individuals who deliver long-term sustainable, profitable enterprises.
If Christchurch wants to have a vibrant, thriving buoyant economy then it needs to attract people and businesses who are prepared to take risks.
It also needs those who are prepared to try different things and who do not fear failure.
To do that we also should accept that not everything will succeed all the time.
Wynyard will have specific reasons for the challenges it faces and it’s important to understand these and do what we can to avoid repeating them.
That’s another reason for connecting the eco-system – to learn from mistakes and do it better next time.
And we will have a next time, and a time after that.
Our economy needs vibrant, growing young businesses that become the long-term employers of the future and the only way to achieve this is to successfully grow them.
Tom Hooper is chief executive of the Canterbury Development Corporation.