Double Shot Interview: Ray Avery, 2010 New Zealander of the Year, says entrepreneurs should put clients ahead of products, trumpet Kiwi success, network offshore and do good above all

By Amanda Morrall

It is hard to believe that up until two weeks ago, when I was invited by a friend to hear Sir Ray Avery give a motivational speech to a group of chartered accountants, that I hadn't yet heard of this remarkable New Zealander.

That fact that I hadn't doesn't make me unusual, even if by my own account it makes me grossly uninformed. In Avery's kinder estimation, my ignorance just makes me a Kiwi.

Kiwis, for all their No.8 wire ingenuity, their tenacity and disdain for the status quo, don't seem to appreciate what they have going for them; both in terms of their own talents and that of others, he argued.

To prove his point, during a speech he gave Monday, he asked a crowd of over 50 to raise a hand if they knew who Colin Murdoch was. The name had a familiar ring to me but as I couldn't point to anything specific other than vague recognition, I kept my hand down, as did every other person in the room.

After he'd informed us that the Dunedin-born pharmacist and veterinarian had singled handedly changed modern medicine with his invention of the disposal syringe, the crowd was collectively humbled. 

"He (Murdoch) arguably made the largest contribution in global health care of any individual in the whole world and he's unknown at home and that's a tragedy. I talk about Colin every chance I get because I'm sure if enough people get to hear of him, they'll say yeah, "I can do that.''

When Sir Ray went on to describe his own contributions to the field of modern medicine (his own invention has brought vision to an estimated 15 million people in the developing world) I'm pretty sure the name Avery was tattooed in the mind of everyone in that room. His long road to success as a scientist and world-famous businessman was against all odds.

Born into an abusive home, Avery was made a ward of the state at the age of nine after suffering a brutal beating at the hands of his own mother. He subsequently ended up in orphanage where the abuse was even more horrific. He eventually fled the situation and spent a year living under a railway bridge in London before being rescued by a good samaritan who set him off on the path to the success he would garner as an adult.

Avery's personal triumphs and professional success, in addition to winning him a knighthood and the title of New  Zealander of the Year, have made him one of the most highly sought after guest speakers in the country.

"Too homely"

His humility and humour, as well as a gift for public speaking, made him an undeniable charmer.  But one of his leading  messages to his audiences is to ditch the Kiwi modesty.

New Zealanders need to do more to celebrate their success, outside of the sports arena.

"Particularly in the area of science. We've got very big companies in New Zealand that are making game changing technology. Lanzatech is one that is selling some green technology that can probably revolutionise the fossil fuel industry and it really hasn't been given the coverage or persona that it should do within New Zealand. It's been picked up almost at a greater level overseas, so much so that Richard Branston is investing in the company. But for us we're still very homely in the way that we do things.''

Avery said the usual argument that a lack of capital prevented Kiwi businesses from shining on the international stage was a "half truth.''

"What we know from the demographics of businesses is that we have approximately 420,000 small businesses which make up the lion's share of all our businesses in New Zealand. What we also know from scientific research overseas and from local research at Waikato is that you need a threshold of at least 50 people in a company before R&D can be successfully implemented.

"You also need a particular population density working in the innovation sector for innovation to occur osmotically. For instance something like Silicon Valley versus Hamilton. What we've done is we've fragmented all our innovations centers and they don't necessarily communicate particularly well with each other.''

Money in need of a good idea

Funding, while scarce was still there to be tapped, he maintained.

"One of the things I find when I'm talking to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is that they also have great difficulty in finding the quality of businesses to invest funds in. It's not necessarily that the funds aren't there, it's just the ideas behind the businesses aren't there either -- or there aren't enough of them.''

To help Kiwi companies gain greater exposure, both within and outside the country, Avery has supported the establishment of the New Zealand Knowledge Bank, an open source Website where companies can profile themselves and connect with would-be investors, talent or export markets.

"We're hopeful that by trying to get everyone on the same page, we can create an artificial concentration of dialogue. And if we can do that, we have a chance. I don't see any other solutions.''

The Icehouse, New Zealand's hothouse entrepreneurial support programme, hopes to see 3,000 new companies the size of Fisher and Paykel get off the ground over the next two decades.

Avery, while an optimist, isn't so sure.

"I struggle to find where they're going to come from in terms of scalability and the existing raft of companies."

Avery sees, as a potential solution, the commercialisation of intellectual property found within New Zealand's Crown Research Institutes, for example Landcare Research, which gave birth to CarboNZero, a world leader now in the certification of carbon zero companies.

Tapping the intellectual property that currently exists and then adapting it to the real needs of customers, instead of the perceived needs, was the key to expanding export markets on a broader scale, said Avery, who has done just that with his own development agency Medicine Mondiale.

"We know what the customers want. There's a big gap between being customer-centric and product-centric.  The CRIs develop products and technology, but they don't know who the customers are. Sometimes you need to change the customer for the end product.''

Looking back on his own success, having engineered, marketed and exported what's billed as the world's most affordable and effective intraocular lenses (used to treat cataract patients in the developing world) Avery suggests his passport was the ultimate ticket to success. He said entrepreneurs with big ambitions need to improve their connectivity by forging human relationships in person.

"In terms of New Zealand companies and CRIs we need to get out more. We need to get out into the market. Often what that means for academics is going to an international conference but you actually need to go and live and work in the those countries or find people who have lived and worked in those countries to get some feedback on the ecological niches that exist.''

Selling the story, is another crucial part of the puzzle that Kiwi entrepreneurs are missing.

"What I do know from the media and communications industry is that the more you tell your story, the more people believe it and then people begin to believe it innately. It's rather like having a flag. In the old battles of the 16th  Century you always had a flag bearer, which led the troops into battle and for us we don't have that. We don't necessarily do it through icons even.''

"Have heart"

Having a goodwill ambassador might achieve similarly good outcomes, added Avery, whose final parting message to his audience was to "do good" and make a difference.

"It's the future of business,'' he said.

"The largest percentage of what we get for our work is from donations of goods in kind; that can be patent attorneys or computer design companies donating their time. I think they recognise that, just like giving a charitable donation, that being seen to be good is a good thing. It gives clients a belief that they do have a heart. If we could make the future of businesses more social entrepreneurial we'd have a much better planet."