As the year winds down, businesses across New Zealand reflect on lessons learned and strategise for growth. For some, this year has been transformative, driven by innovative approaches to overcoming industry challenges. Director of Auckland public relations agency Impact PR Mark Devlin, discusses how selective outsourcing can be leveraged to expand capacity and access lucrative export markets. 

For many SME manufacturers, this is a frenetic time of year. Trying to pack in two months of production and administration along with plans for time with the family in the three weeks before Christmas can be exhausting.

The public relations sector is no different. Media continue to churn out content, client crises and issues still arise (frequently when the CEO is at the beach for some reason) and we work with journalists looking for stories they can hold to publish over the summer season when the news cycle tends to quieten.

That said, the end of the year is often the only time many of us will get to reflect back on lessons learned and look ahead to better more efficient ways of achieving business growth.

Over the past 12 months, I have worked with two businesses in very different sectors that stood out in this regard. Both of these have developed new ways of overcoming the challenges associated with outsourcing to dramatically expand their capacity and develop new export markets.

Wool carpet manufacturer Bremworth is a great example of how unanticipated adversity can be turned into an opportunity for growth.

In the months following the extensive damage to their Napier facility caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, the company moved to develop a hybrid manufacturing model under which New Zealand wool is sent offshore to be spun into yarn and dyed – before being sent back here to be made into premium wool carpets.

This new approach has removed bottlenecks and constraints on production volumes. Without these restrictions, the door is now opened to much larger offshore markets that would have previously been out of reach.

In an unrelated industry, the financial services sector, another business we have been working with called Orb 360, has successfully refined an approach to outsourcing that has insights applicable in the manufacturing sector.

According to Orb 360 managing director Jay Changlani, outsourcing is about dissecting processes to identify tasks that could be done by someone when clear instructions are provided.

He has developed a new outsourcing model that allows professional service firms to expand their businesses. This model involves segmenting each accountant’s role into three categories; client-facing interactions, creative and intellectual property work and tasks that can be delegated.

Changlani explains that the tasks in the third category are the most time-consuming and present the greatest barrier to expansion.

To address this, Orb360 pairs each New Zealand-based accountant with a counterpart in India who takes over at night to complete the work.

This transnational service model allows businesses to spread fixed costs across a larger client base, enable faster turnaround times, and increase efficiency. For Orb360, this has resulted in an efficiency increase of up to 20%.

This approach has enabled Orb360 to grow to 20 staff in New Zealand and 10-15 staff in India, serving approximately 2,000 clients.

Changlani believes this model will allow Orb360 to become one of the top 10 accounting firms in New Zealand within five years and will create the capacity to expand into markets like Australia. He suggests that this model could be adopted by other New Zealand professional services providers, especially in a market where many accounting firms are at capacity and turning away new clients.

Changlani points out that this model is not limited to the accounting sector and could be suited for a wide range of businesses where the work is structured and process-driven. He lists mortgage brokers, immigration advisors and lawyers as examples.

Manufacturers could potentially look at the cumbersome, repetitive or administrative tasks within their firms and consider how their NZ staff could be freed up using an offshore outsourcing model. With the right training, instructions and quality measurement it may be possible to free up your staff for more productive work – which ultimately could drive greater efficiency and growth in 2025 and beyond.