By Keith Newman, Nov 30th

So we’re being told again that New Zealand is one of the most innovative nations in the world - will we rally this time or yawn and roll over waiting for the tall poppy combine harvester to thresh the next crop of faith and hope into doubt and despair?

Those who misinterpret visionary thinking as arrogance and reject national pride as uncool undermine our fragile sense of identity. Rather than fuelling the ‘Kiwi cringe’ that everyone, everywhere else does it better, it’s time encourage each other to ‘go for it’

Who we think we are has a great bearing on what we achieve. While the statistics tell us how many sheep and trees we have there’s little official evidence that we have a vibrant community of smart business people, intelligent and innovative software developers, hi-tech engineers, inventors, scientists, film makers, designers, authors, artists and songwriters.

New Zealanders typically have a rare combination of talent, skill and innovation. Our creative people are technically aware and our technical people are creative. If the off-the-shelf solution doesn’t work we’ll adapt it or make our own. If someone says it can’t be done we find a way. We’re full of ideas but often lack the funding, marketing or business skills to turn them into profitable ventures.

When Wired magazine publisher Kevin Kelly visited a few years back he suggested our high levels of creativity were due to being a nation literally on the edge. While the centre typically represents stability and comfort ‘the edge’ is usually an exhilarating, active place where change and innovation occurs.

That assertion is reinforced by the newly released Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2001 report, rating us the second most entrepreneurial nation (18.2 per cent of us) in the world. In the ‘opportunity’ entrepreneurs category we’re number one (82 per cent) when it comes to acting on a hot business opportunity – the world average is 55 per cent. We also have the world’s highest rate of female entrepreneurs (44 per cent).

The study shows 6.2 per cent of Kiwis had made some informal investment to help capital businesses get off the ground compared with the world average of 2.9 per cent. Generally though the level of official venture was low.

Ironically our entrepreneurs are inwardly focussed with low aspirations - only a small percentage are considered dynamic and export oriented. The GEM report recommends entrepreneurship teaching, research and education be strengthened at all levels and greater effort made to encourage women and Maori.

There is no shortage of examples that New Zealand punches above its weight in the entrepreneurial stakes. Wellington’s Weta Workshop is winning global accolades for its work on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Virtual Spectator, internet-based animation software for viewing the America’s Cup, is now sought after for coverage of motorsports, golf, cricket and live concerts.

Research and development firm Powerbeat has harnessed light to deliver data at 160Mbit/sec over 4Km distance. Researcher and AUT lecturer Vishwa Shukla came up with a digital anthrax detection unit which was all but ignored until September 11. Tiny Auckland firm Domain Numbers has a winning application for mobile phones and handheld devices enabling people to use numbers to access complex web addresses.

Then there’s last year’s chemistry Nobel prize winner Alan MacDiarmid, who discovered plastics could conduct electricity, opening the way for major technology innovation including flexible plastic transistors, electrodes and electroluminescent polymer displays.

Whether it’s Ernest Rutherford a founder of modern atomic physics, Richard Pearce our own pioneer of powered flight or Beatrice Tinsley a world leader in modern cosmology, you’ll find a growing archive on our heroes of innovation at the NZEdge web site (www.nzedge.com ).

This nation at the edge of the world, where the sun and entrepreneurs first rise, is truly blessed but we’ve done little to promote innovation, encourage risk taking or promote ourselves as a nation of achievers and knowledge economy leaders. Our national budget for marketing and branding ourselves offshore - around $150 million – is pitifully inadequate.

Research and development incentives and lowering the company tax rate to 25 per cent would have an immediate and lasting effect on the emergence and survival of new economy businesses.

Instead such wise counsel is rejected in favour of the heavy handed efforts of the tax department, and the growing mountain of compliance forms and procedures which increase stress, waste time and force many entrepreneurs to give up in despair.

As it is the survival rate of new ventures is very low – after four years only 40 per cent of start-up companies are still operating – and less than 3 per cent of all companies are exporting.

While the government needs to be told in as many ways as possible to pull finger and remove impediments to entrepreneurial success, the Kiwi can do attitude will continue to play a pivotal role in the long term plan. Like the sign above the desk of New Plymouth-born Nobel prize winner Alan MacDiarmid says, "I feel like I’m a lucky man – the harder I work the luckier I get."