Following our "Garage to Global" events during Tech Week 2023, we wanted to take a quick pulse check of the business community. We surveyed 34 founders, leaders, and managers to get a snapshot of the goals and challenges they were focused on for the year ahead. While not large-scale research, this litmus test provides a fascinating insight into the pressures and ambitions that shaped our industry.
The Economic Climate of 2023
The survey was conducted against a challenging economic backdrop. New Zealand had entered a technical recession in the first half of the year, with high inflation and rising interest rates putting significant pressure on businesses.¹ This environment of uncertainty was reflected in business confidence, which remained low for much of 2023, with firms reporting tight credit conditions and cost pressures as major concerns.² It is within this climate that the following goals and challenges were identified.
The Goals: A Drive for Efficient Growth
When asked about their primary goals, a clear theme emerged: a dual focus on growth and efficiency. The ambition to increase revenue (68%) was the most common objective. However, this wasn't growth at all costs. It was closely followed by the need to increase productivity (47%), improve customer experiences (44%), and reduce manual or inefficient processes (41%). This tells a story of businesses looking to grow smarter, using digital transformation to build a more resilient and profitable foundation.
The Challenges: Finding Growth in a Tough Market
Unsurprisingly, the biggest challenges were a direct reflection of the economic environment. The most pressing issue by far was finding new customers (62%). This was coupled with the related challenges of weathering economic downturns (29%) and maintaining a competitive advantage (29%). Internally, the difficulty of automating processes (35%) was also a key theme, directly linking back to the goal of reducing inefficient manual work.
The 2024 Outlook: A Focus on Productivity
Looking ahead, the same pressures remain, but with a cautious sense of optimism returning. As the New Zealand Productivity Commission has noted, lifting our poor productivity performance is crucial, and digital technology adoption is a key lever for achieving this.³ The challenges and goals identified in our 2023 survey highlight the core imperative for 2024: businesses must find ways to do more with less. The focus has sharpened from pure survival to strategic efficiency.
In this environment, having a clear plan is more critical than ever. Strategic exercises like an IT Environment Security Review can help leaders identify inefficiencies and find opportunities to automate, secure, and scale their operations. By making sound, evidence-based plans, businesses can transform economic challenges into a catalyst for innovation.
