“New Zealand businesses are insufficiently prepared to turn the promise and opportunities facing them into the success stories we need to make a real and lasting difference to our economy, society and personal wellbeing,” NZIM chief executive Gary Sturgess recently told an International Pacific College (IPC) Tertiary Institute presentation in Palmerston North.
NZIM is, he said, working to address the problem. “We call it New Zealand’s leadership imperative. It’s about solving shortcomings in our collective management and leadership capability,” he added. “Organisational capability is what makes the difference to an economy and society.”
Organisations are only as good as the people they employ. But even the best people only perform as well as their leaders allow, said Sturgess. “Unfortunately, New Zealand enterprise does not have a particularly good track record for best practice management and governance.”
NZIM wants to help organisations of every kind lift their management and leadership capability and believes it boosts capability by promoting the disciplines identified within its Management (and Leadership) Capability Index (MCI). The Index has now been adopted by management organisations in Australia, India, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
“The MCI is based on soundly researched and experience-based performance evaluation that measures the practices and progress of individual companies,” Sturgess explained. “It can even compare capability levels across industries or whole economies and between countries.”
“There are nine capability drivers that contribute to sustainable performance and profitable business growth,” Sturgess told his audience. For more on NZIM’s Leadership Imperative and an insight into the nine drivers that deliver management capability, go to: www.nzim.co.nz
