The SME Stream

Earlier this week, the Reserve Bank voted to hold the Official Cash Rate at 2.75% instead of raising it. 

The decision was counter to what many economists were expecting – so why did they decide to stick with it? 

Ed McKnight joined Jack Tame to dig into the details that likely drove the decision, and discuss where interest rates could go next. 

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As business owners, you know how hard it is keeping up with your business, let alone the news. Join Wilhelmina O'Keeffe each week as she gives you a rundown of the biggest stories that could impact your business, so you can make informed decisions with expert advice. 

This week, the Reserve Bank shocks many by holding the OCR steady, but was it the right move? More Kiwis are in work, and one island appears to be doing the heavy lifting. Plus we’ve heard about economic greenshots but not everyone is seeing them … so what’s the hold up?

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The Monetary Policy Committee voted to hold the OCR at 2.75%

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Southern Cross Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Regan Savage on how employers can better support workplace health.

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Salesforce's Richard Phillimore-Smith explains how AI agents could transform Kiwi businesses, lift productivity and move beyond chatbots.

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Forsyth Barr's Zoe Wallis breaks down the latest OCR and Fed decisions, the UK Budget and what the big economic calls mean for investors and markets.

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Promising signs for small businesses, even in a shaky economy. 

A Xero Small Business Insights report shows sales rose 5.6% year-on-year in the September quarter. 

New Zealand out-performed all four other countries Xero tracks, with sales growth ahead of Australia, the UK, the US, and Canada. 

Xero Country Manager Bridget Snelling told Mike Hosking they'd like to see this momentum continuing into the next quarter, especially since we're heading into the busy festive period.  

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Mike and Scott get into the metric every business owner loves to hate: KPIs. They break down why most businesses pick the wrong ones, and introduce the traffic-light system that replaces pass/fail pressure with a simple "who needs help" culture.

Drinking beer from: Panhead - Port Road Pilsner (5.2%)

Eating a pie from: The Receptionist - Steak and Cheese

You'll learn:

-The difference between lead measures (what you can directly influence) and lag measures (the results you actually want), and why most owners fixate on the wrong one;

-Why a KPI only means something when it connects upward to your business's true north, not just a random industry benchmark;

-How the Red-Amber-Green (RAG) system reframes performance as "who needs help" instead of pass or fail;

-What a healthy RAG spread actually looks like, and why staying green for six cycles straight is a sign to raise the bar, not celebrate;

-and a simple AI prompting trick: ask your own AI agent to review your past prompts and tell you how to prompt it better.

Liked this one and want to uncomplicate your business growth and get better content? Make sure you catch the next episode - hit subscribe and check us out here:

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The farming sector is in a cyclical boomtime at the moment and we’re all hoping it will continue forever. But we’re not hearing a lot from our farmers as the election date nears. So who better to talk to about that than the host of the most popular farming programme on New Zealand radio.

Jamie MacKay is the host of The Country. He’s a quintessential Kiwi bloke. He grew up farming in northern Southland, is a mad keen rugby man and managed to make a living from farming – firstly as a farmer in his own right for over a decade and subsequently with his own radio show which enables him to talk about farming all day.

He talks openly about the tough times, and how Rogernomics forced farmers out of business in the 1980’s and 1990’s, including his own brushes with financial uncertainty.

MacKay’s career has also given him a decent shot at the business of business. His entry into broadcasting came when he purchased a radio station from Radio New Zealand in the 1990’s. He turned 4ZG into Hokonui Gold and added a farming segment which started off at five minutes duration and over time grew to the hour long programme we know today.

He later sold out of the business, and The Farming Show moved on to Radio Sport and ultimately Newstalk ZB where is remains to this day, rebranded as The Country.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast MacKay speaks to Bruce Cotterill about a wide range of topics, from the original inspiration for the radio programme to the current performance of the farming sector and the positive outlook ahead.

There’s also plenty of talk about what the farmers are saying at election time, their desire for a farmer friendly government to continue, improvements in farm technology, and how we can maximise the future opportunities and grow the economy in the process.

This is a fun conversation with a good bloke, a natural story teller and a man who is positive about the future of New Zealand.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 73 with Bruce Cotterill and Jamie MacKay – Host of The Country on ZB

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Two days into the job, Roman Reyhani was confronting a $231 million question: how does New Zealand turn clever science into businesses that deliver lasting value here?

The founding chief executive of the New Zealand Institute for Advanced Technology joins this week’s episode of The Business of Tech to explain his approach.

The institute represents a pivot towards high-tech research and commercialisation. But its funding has largely been redirected from other parts of the science system, rather than added to the pot.

That increases the pressure to deliver. Can a stronger commercial focus succeed without weakening the research pipeline feeding it?

From genocide prosecutions to Silicon Valley startups 

Reyhani’s route to the role is unusually varied. Raised in Auckland, he began in international law, including an internship with the prosecution team at the United Nations tribunal investigating Rwanda’s genocide.

California offered a different way to make an impact. He established a legal practice and worked with technology startups, gradually moving beyond legal advice into strategy and business development.

Six years at Boston Consulting Group’s venture-building arm, now BCG X, followed. His teams helped major companies create products and businesses, recruiting people and taking technology to market rather than leaving clients with presentation slides.

Now back in New Zealand after more than two decades overseas, he wants the institute to bring an investor’s discipline to research funding.

“It’s not just here’s a chunk of money and a handshake and good luck to you,” he says.

Instead, funding would follow “stage gates” milestones with money shifted away from projects that aren’t progressing.

The institute’s territory sits between promising laboratory research and technologies mature enough to attract private investment. Bringing companies and investors alongside earlier could help bridge that expensive gap.

Applied AI is a big opportunity.

Then there’s the question of who benefits. Reyhani wants New Zealand to retain more value when taxpayer-backed technologies succeed, whether through financial returns, research facilities, skilled people or new businesses.

On artificial intelligence, he sees opportunities in applying existing models to New Zealand datasets, including agriculture and health, rather than competing head-on with the world’s biggest model developers.

It’s an ambitious brief for a modest budget by international standards. The challenge is choosing where New Zealand has a genuine edge, then backing it without confusing commercial discipline with impatience.

Listen to the full episode of The Business of Tech, streaming on iHeartRadio, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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