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Leadership From the Top

How Government Must Reflect What It Asks of Business

 Stop Pointing Fingers, Start Holding Mirrors

If you’re a business leader in New Zealand, you’ve likely heard it all before: “Lift your productivity, innovate faster, create higher-wage jobs, be more sustainable, upskill your workforce.

David Altena is Head of Growth & Partnerships at SmartSpace.ai & Co-Founder of The Better SMB Podcast. david@altena.solutions

 

Rob Bull is Director & Principal Consultant at Plexus Consultant & Co-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast. rob@nzla.nz

These are worthy goals. But it’s time we asked a tough question in return:

Are our public institutions holding themselves to the same standard they expect from us?

Leadership isn’t about titles, it’s about accountability, starting at the top. If the private sector is expected to do the hard work of transformation, then the public sector must model what good leadership looks like: clarity, consistency and execution.

The Double Standard Holding Us Back

Manufacturers are told to build systems, measure progress and lead their teams intentionally. We’re expected to set targets, empower people and stay the course through uncertainty.

Yet across public policy, we too often see the opposite:

  • Strategies without metrics
  • Funding without follow-through
  • Agencies working in silos
  • Change driven by election cycles, not national interest

It’s no wonder productivity has flatlined for decades. The truth is, we don’t just have a business performance problem, we have a systems leadership problem.

Businesses are being challenged to grow up, digitise and collaborate. Isn’t it time government did the same?

The Easy Button Problem

In the private sector, lifting performance means innovating delivery models, rethinking processes and doing more with less. If we make poor decisions, we lose customers. If we waste resources, we destroy value.

But in government, too often the first response is to reach for what we call the “easy button.” Increase taxes, introduce levies, or add compliance costs, rather than apply that same rigour to operational efficiency.

Crown entities expand. Public spending escalates. Yet the connection to improved services or outcomes is often unclear.

Meanwhile, business leaders are being urged to lead transformation, adopt technology and collaborate to drive better outcomes. If government truly wants to support national productivity improvement, it must do the same, by modernising its own systems, trimming waste and rethinking how services are delivered.

The Reality for Business: No Easy Button

There’s no monopoly. No guaranteed inflows. No captive audience.

In our world, if we raise prices without adding value, we lose market share. If we fail to adapt, we go out of business.

You can’t choose a competing government or council. But our customers can, and do, choose a competitor. That’s the reality of a market-driven environment.

Yet, businesses are continually expected to lift their game, while the public sector often raises costs instead of reducing friction. That misalignment reduces trust.

The Irony of Misaligned Expectations

Here’s the irony: some of the very institutions asking businesses to “get serious” about productivity haven’t earned the trust required to lead that conversation.

How can we ask firms to invest long-term when government budgets operate year-to-year?

How can we expect manufacturers to build capability when training systems are being restructured mid-flight?

How can we talk about innovation when it takes years to reboot our own science and research infrastructure?

We’ve written previously about expecting to win, about lifting ambition across the private sector. That same standard must apply to government too. Not because it’s politically convenient, but because system-wide performance depends on it.

This Isn’t About Criticism. It’s About Consistency.

Let’s be clear: this isn’t government-bashing. It’s a call for leadership alignment.

We believe in high expectations, for everyone. Government plays a vital role in enabling businesses to perform. But leadership means living the standards you set.

Here’s the challenge:

  • If government wants more cross-sector collaboration, it must break down its own silos
  • If it wants a future-ready workforce, it must stabilise its training systems
  • If it wants innovation, it must measure outcomes, not just announce intentions
  • If it wants better performance from business, it must improve its own

Many of the best public servants we meet already believe this. They want to do more. But they’re stuck in systems that reward caution over courage.

It’s Time for a Leadership Culture Shift

If we truly want to lift national productivity, we need a culture of leadership across the entire system, not just in boardrooms, but in Cabinet, Crown agencies, councils and commissions.

That means:

Stability of Purpose: Stick with a vision long enough to make a dent. Higher national productivity is not won and done in a year

Transparency of Outcomes: Show us the scoreboard. If an initiative is meant to lift exports or skills, measure it and share it

Strategic Collaboration: Move beyond consultations. Build real partnerships with business, training providers, Māori enterprise and local communities

Execution Excellence: Less talk. More doing. Deliver results before announcing new strategies

As we’ve said, speed is useless if it sends you straight into a wall. That applies to policy too.

What Good Looks Like: Learning from Singapore and Norway

It’s easy to point out what’s broken. But let’s also learn from where it’s working.

Two countries stand out: Singapore and Norway. Different in geography and scale, but united by one thing, governments that act like high-performing organisations.

Singapore doesn’t just write visionary plans, it delivers them. Agencies operate under multi-year strategic roadmaps. Innovation is expected, tracked and resourced. Public-private collaboration is the norm.

Norway leads with purpose and discipline. From its sovereign wealth fund to education and infrastructure, its institutions are aligned, evidence-driven and trusted. Policies are strategic, not reactive. Business and social outcomes are seen as connected.

Neither country is perfect. But both operate with a culture of accountability that earns them the right to lead national conversations about performance.

What We Can Learn

We need to stop excusing New Zealand’s underperformance as too complex or too hard to solve.

If Singapore can align a city-state of 6 million behind shared goals, and Norway can manage complex wealth while staying globally competitive, then surely we can do better.

We’re small. We’re smart. We’re connected. But to turn potential into performance, we need leadership that earns followership.

So, What Now?

If you’re reading this in a government office:

  • Pick one initiative your agency leads
  • Define what success looks like in terms a manufacturer would understand
  • Share your metrics
  • Deliver like your job depends on it, because it does

If you’re in business, keep pushing, keep leading. Don’t wait for permission.

Hold government to account and hold yourself to the same standard.

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