How can local companies best keep up with rapidly changing markets and an obsolesence rate that will see an estimated 70 percent of today’s manufactured goods killed off by 2010?
That’s question that Connect Canterbury was set up last month to address. It aims to bring some of New Zealand’s most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders together to work with local technology companies in overcoming obstacles to growth through its year-round “Springboard” programme.
Participating companies will initially face roundtable of local experts in investment, accounting and marketing and then be assigned case manager who will spend six months helping the company to implement roundtable recommendations.
The Connect model of expert networking was first established in California and is now being replicated in Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and now New Zealand. Connect Canterbury will work with other local and national agencies such as NZ Trade and Enterprise, and with its Auckland counterpart to form Connect New Zealand.
Leave is leave
Kate Kearins
December 3, 2025
Thanks to the 24/7 connectivity of modern work life, it can feel like taking leave and being on leave are two different things. But, writes Kate Kearins, they shouldn’t be.
