Latest / Best of Business / Olivia Blaylock: Icehouse CEO on the Ignite Growth Summit, small and medium businesses in New Zealand

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Olivia Blaylock: Icehouse CEO on the Ignite Growth Summit, small and medium businesses in New Zealand · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Ice House is celebrating twenty five years of powering key
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  Speaker 2: we business growth. Ice House is a nonprofit dedicated to
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  Speaker 2: training and mentoring our small to medium enterprises that make
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  Speaker 2: up ninety seven percent of New Zealand's economy. Ice House
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  Speaker 2: is a night Growth Summit is taking place today, bringing
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  Speaker 2: together legendary founders who have gone from the garage to
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  Speaker 2: the global stage to inspire the next wave of SME talent.
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  Speaker 2: Icehouse CEO Olivia Blaylock joins me now and a very
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  Speaker 2: very good morning to you. Hi there, Sorry it was
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  Speaker 2: a bit of a click on the line. I just
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  Speaker 2: think this is so exciting. But do we hear of
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  Speaker 2: the hero brands and not enough of those who are
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  Speaker 2: doing a nice job, Thank you very much, but not
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  Speaker 2: just not on a global stage.
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  Speaker 3: And there are so many of those, you know, great
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand SMI businesses around the country, and you're right,
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  Speaker 3: we just don't hear enough about them. And that's part
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  Speaker 3: of the reason why we have events like we've got today.
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  Speaker 3: Right now, We've got pack from Packs Peanut peanut butter
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  Speaker 3: on stage. We're making some peanut butter on toast. And
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  Speaker 3: you know, he's one that we have heard of, but
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  Speaker 3: we also have you know, hundreds and thousands of other
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  Speaker 3: business owners out there doing just as well that we
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  Speaker 3: need to tell more of those stories and created a
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  Speaker 3: create a culture where it's okay to put your hand
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  Speaker 3: up and say, you know what, actually I'm doing bloody well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, the Henry's and the Halters
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  Speaker 2: and the Shears's, we've all heard of those. But as
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  Speaker 2: ice House also and with its investors also providing you know,
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  Speaker 2: thousands of kiwis with employment and creating new space with
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  Speaker 2: new ideas.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so ice House Ventures as the VC part of
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  Speaker 3: the bigger ice House group that looks us to Halter
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  Speaker 3: and all the like. But we work with business owners
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  Speaker 3: out there that are doing the real hard mahi keeping
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  Speaker 3: the country going, and we upscale the leadership capability of
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  Speaker 3: their owners because you know, if we have better leaders
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  Speaker 3: and better owners, we have better businesses and then we
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  Speaker 3: have a better New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, why why do people still in this climate? You
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  Speaker 2: have got the brave, the foolhardy.
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  Speaker 1: The.
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  Speaker 2: Determined, the stubborn, who will set up their own business
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  Speaker 2: and the wake of like the world is going to
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  Speaker 2: helen a handcart and you've still got these people going,
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  Speaker 2: you know what, I'm going to open a business.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, but good on them, right. I've been a
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  Speaker 3: business owner myself. In fact, for fourteen years, I owned
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  Speaker 3: a business with my husband and I am an ice
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  Speaker 3: House alumni. I did our Owner Manager program myself. And
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  Speaker 3: you know, these other heroes, they create eight jobs, They
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  Speaker 3: you know, support their communities, et cetera. Why do they
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  Speaker 3: do it? I guess you know, many of New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: business owners never started out to be a business owner.
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  Speaker 3: Often we call them accidental business owners. You know that
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  Speaker 3: they've got it their craft and then suddenly they're employing
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  Speaker 3: people and they're employing more, but they never really learned
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  Speaker 3: how to be a business owner or run a business.
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  Speaker 3: And that's where the ice House comes in and just
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  Speaker 3: helps them work on the business and not just in
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  Speaker 3: the business.
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  Speaker 2: I've heard from a number of people who have said
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  Speaker 2: that their parents were business owners and they got it
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  Speaker 2: from them. That it's passed down through the generations. Is
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  Speaker 2: that what you see as well?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we do see that, and you know, it's sort
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  Speaker 3: of in your blood. You know, my kids grew up
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  Speaker 3: with grew up with business owner pearance, and then they've
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  Speaker 3: both got aspirations of doing it themselves too. And sometimes
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  Speaker 3: I think, shit, you know, what would you? But because
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  Speaker 3: it's not easy, but you know, and hence again why
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  Speaker 3: I think we need to just pat them, pat them
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  Speaker 3: on the back, these people that are keeping the country going.
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  Speaker 2: When it comes to mistakes that business owners make, what
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  Speaker 2: are the most common ones, you see?
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  Speaker 3: I think, well, a lot of it is not backing
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  Speaker 3: themselves to be braver and and part of and you know,
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  Speaker 3: not getting good advisors and support around them. You know,
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  Speaker 3: often the bank is they'll go to the bank too
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  Speaker 3: far down the track name needed to go to them earlier,
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  Speaker 3: and the bank will generally, you know, try and help
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  Speaker 3: them out. I think just not not being able to
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  Speaker 3: really articulate why you and what you were, what your differences,
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  Speaker 3: and those are the sort of things that we can
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  Speaker 3: help them with. Cash Flow is obviously, you know, king
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  Speaker 3: and and so again that's why you need to surround
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  Speaker 3: yourself with good advice and support.
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  Speaker 2: What do smeez need to do to drive the next
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  Speaker 2: era of growth? What do what does any government need
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  Speaker 2: to do to just get out of the way to
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  Speaker 2: allow Smeethe to do what they do.
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  Speaker 3: Well, yeah, look I think you know, I just this
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  Speaker 3: is really topicl I just yesterday I got back from
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  Speaker 3: I was lucky enough to be with the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 3: on an all bural leadership forum over in Singapore with
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  Speaker 3: thirty other cegos and senior leaders, and you know, it
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  Speaker 3: was a pretty remarkable group with Fronterra in New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: and Becker and then there was me representing the voice
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  Speaker 3: of Smeths which you do make up ninety seven decent
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  Speaker 3: of our economy and the same stats over in Singapore.
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  Speaker 3: So it was really interesting to see what they're doing
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  Speaker 3: over there. Totally different structural environment clearly, but one of
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  Speaker 3: their things is AI. You know, we hear all about it,
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  Speaker 3: but we are so far behind in New Zealand. The
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  Speaker 3: Singaporean government is just one hundred percent behind it. In
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand. We've got a small pilot going with a
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  Speaker 3: small amount of money, but you know, we have to.
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  Speaker 3: It's the way that we can scale these businesses is
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  Speaker 3: nationally and also internationally. The younger generation, you know, I
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  Speaker 3: think that's what they're going to bring but for those
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  Speaker 3: of us that are not not so young anymore, we
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  Speaker 3: still have to get on get on that train too.
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  Speaker 2: Oh totally. And I'm like, I don't think age gets
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  Speaker 2: in the way. You either, you know, are enthusiastic about
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  Speaker 2: new things or you're not. And there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: older people that have really been excited by AI and
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  Speaker 2: its potential. When it comes to what sort of businesses
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  Speaker 2: there are, what's changed over the twenty five years of
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  Speaker 2: the ice House.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the I supports all businesses across all sectors. We're
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  Speaker 3: deliberately industry agnostic. So what's changed really nothing in terms
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  Speaker 3: of the day to day type stuff. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: new technology, digitalization, et cetera is definitely changing. We are
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  Speaker 3: seeing younger business owners coming through generation coming through now,
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  Speaker 3: which is great because New Zealand's got a real problem
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  Speaker 3: around an aging population of owners. So you know, I
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  Speaker 3: think some recent research that came out shows that we
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  Speaker 3: have the oldest ownership demographic in the world. And so,
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  Speaker 3: you know, if we don't work on succession plans and
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  Speaker 3: those businesses, many of them are just going to shut down.
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  Speaker 3: We're going to lose all of that knowledge and productivity
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  Speaker 3: and so forth. So Yeah, that's something that we've we've
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  Speaker 3: got to do, so we've got some work to do on.
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  Speaker 2: And should you know, like farmers feel a bit aggrieved
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  Speaker 2: at times that people well they tend to get on
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  Speaker 2: with it, but I know that that's on occasion they
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  Speaker 2: feel a bit aggrieved that they're constantly being hammered despite
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  Speaker 2: the fact that they are providing us well, they've kept
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  Speaker 2: us going. Basically, is that the same kind of sentiments
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  Speaker 2: that you get occasionally from smeth that it's like, we
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  Speaker 2: do a lot in this country and yet people just
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  Speaker 2: make it hard for us.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you're right. And you know, farmers are ultimately
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  Speaker 3: smeathe too, right if they're running businesses and yeah, thank
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  Speaker 3: goodness for farmers. Yeah, and you know, I don't think
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  Speaker 3: that they're necessarily wanting a handout from the government, but
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  Speaker 3: I think at times they're looking for a bit more
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  Speaker 3: of a hand up, in a bit of a break.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, we saw that with the Investment Boast
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  Speaker 3: initiatives that came out that made a real difference to
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  Speaker 3: enable people to buy some new equipment or assets and things.
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  Speaker 3: And I think if we could see more of that,
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  Speaker 3: some more incentives to encourage people to upskill and come
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  Speaker 3: along and do the ice House programs and stuff. Because
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  Speaker 3: businesses that work through our program, and we've just done
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  Speaker 3: some research, had some independent research done to assess the
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  Speaker 3: impact of twenty five years of supporting them, and seventy
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  Speaker 3: nine percent of businesses that work with us increase their
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  Speaker 3: turnover and forty five percent group by more than fifty percent,
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  Speaker 3: and nearly one and three doubled their revenue or better.
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  Speaker 3: But we only put through between sixty to eighty a year.
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  Speaker 3: Imagine what New Zealand would be like if we could
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  Speaker 3: make that two hundred or five hundred. So how can
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  Speaker 3: you know? I guess that's that's my question is how
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  Speaker 3: does the government help fill our pipeline and get more
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  Speaker 3: SNEE owners coming along?
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, O, Lavia, Lead you back to work. Olivia Blaylock,
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  Speaker 2: CEO of Icehouse. The Ignite twenty six Growth Summit is
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  Speaker 2: on today at the Auckland Viaduct Events Center, celebrating twenty
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  Speaker 2: five years of smeeze for.
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