Launch Of BIZinfo Centre - "information That Works"

As any business person knows, the environment we work in has changed beyond recognition in not much more than a decade.

Customers operating in a freer global environment have driven a lot of the change.

They have seized their freedom of choice with relish. They demand quality products at lower prices. They demand world-class service. And they want it yesterday. That's the reality of business today.

The customer doesn't care whether their supplier is from Hamilton or Hokitika, Auckland or Ashburton. They just want the best product or service at the right price.

And if they can't get it here, they'll log onto the Internet and buy it somewhere else in the world.

The challenge for businesses today is to keep ahead of change like that.

Yesterday's platitudes about business success are not relevant any more.

Today, the difference between a successful business and a mediocre one is not capital, or plant, or location.

It's people and attitude. Smart businesses need to know what is happening in their markets today and, more importantly, anticipate what is likely to happen tomorrow.

They need to have the right information, the right attitude and apply themselves accordingly. That's where the Government's new business programme called BIZ comes in.

BIZ is a network of fresh ideas and information, providing hands-on experience and practical advice. The BIZ programme consists of two parts:

1. Free management training and upskilling for small and medium size enterprises; and

2. A chain of BIZinfo centres to provide one-stop access to information and help for businesses.

Over the next month we will open 33 BIZinfo centres around the country such as this one in Wellington.

Each site will have trained staff and resources to provide business people with information and advice. There will also be an 0800 BIZinfo number (0800 424 946) and an Internet BIZinfo site (www.bizinfo.co.nz) providing similar help.

The free management training and upskilling will be provided by 46 private sector organisations throughout the country.

We are getting local private sector groups to drive the BIZ programme because they are able to assess local needs more accurately than bureaucrats in Wellington.

The BIZ programme reflects the old adage: give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he will eat for life.

The BIZ teaching programme shows businesses how to improve management, especially within small and medium-sized organisations.

Our focus is on small and medium enterprises for an obvious reason. They are the real workshop of New Zealand business. They make up more than 80 percent of the business sector and employ by far the majority of our workers.

And the SME sector is growing. In the last reported figures, the number of small businesses in New Zealand grew by more than 7 percent, to over 260,000.

Small businesses are the growth point that we must nurture. And the best way to nurture it is through knowledge.

Call it what you like - better management, smarter decision-making or increased intellectual capital.

Successful businesses know that these tools pay off. And the improvement flows through not just to business owners, but to workers, customers and the whole community.

We want BIZ to encourage a hunger for information and good ideas.

We see BIZ launching a change of culture among New Zealand businesses. This approach really is the next phase of the revolution we have been through in New Zealand.

If we genuinely want to increase New Zealanders' prosperity, we have to get better at generating wealth.

That is the function of business. The BIZ approach really does offer the avenue to lift our performance.

The Government has made a strong commitment through the Ministry of Commerce to the BIZ programme. We've put aside more than $12 million a year to support BIZ.

At the same time, Max Bradford is on a parallel stream, looking at ways to foster better co-operation between business, the tertiary education sector and Crown Research Institutes.

Over the next few weeks he will be holding forums around the country to foster the ground-breaking ideas that will help business move forward.

Both these strands are major government investments in New Zealand's intellectual drive.

I am offering all businesses a challenge: get on board with us and make these programmes work for you. They will be as successful and innovative as you care to make them.

Just as we've encouraged an open marketplace for goods and services, I want to see an open marketplace for ideas.

If we are bold enough, it will happen ? and New Zealand will be far more prosperous for it.