Style: March 01, 2018

STYLE | report 15
SKY’S NO LIMIT
FOR OUR NEW BUSINESS THINKERS
Gaynor Stanley spoke with some thought-leaders around town as to why Christchurch is
soaring towards the stratosphere when it comes to tech industries and entrepreneurs.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, a new
business scene has been quietly emerging in the
resurgent Christchurch and making noise loud enough
for the world to hear. Gone are the days when the old
boys’ network, or your school or suburb were paramount
influences to succeed in business; today, it is more about
what you can contribute to a new breed of industries and
social enterprises putting Christchurch, representing New
Zealand, in the global spotlight.
The city is now New Zealand’s second largest tech
centre, after Auckland. “Canterbury tech industries
contribute $2.4 billion to the GDP and employ over
15,000 people,” says Canterbury Tech chair David Carter.
A hallmark, he says, is that this region has relatively few
companies generating massive revenues, like the Xeros
of the world. Instead the local tech sector is made up of
a large number of small- to mid-size companies across a
wide variety of business domains. “This gives us resilience;
we don’t have all our eggs in one basket.”
As well, a large number of foreign companies have
development centres in Christchurch, partly a legacy of
local companies exiting and selling to foreign entities.
“Reassuringly, they haven’t subsequently moved the
development back to the US or offshore to China or
ABOVE: The International Space Station under construction above New Zealand in 2006 – the same year local space entrepreneur
Mark Rocket bought his ticket to space aboard Virgin Galactic. Since then, Mark has co-founded pioneering
New Zealand business Rocket Lab and last year launched his latest venture in Christchurch. Image courtesy of NASA.