Steven Carden, McKinsey and Company
– author of “New Zealand Unleashed”
– sees himself as an expert on change. And yet, when he became a parent, he found out about the extent of change
– main lesson: we experience a lot of changes in the world
– New Zealand is going to face many changes in the next years. Technology has made many things different, eg, processing power of computers, music on iPods vs stereos, the speed of communications
– Relationships are changing. Eg, 1 out of 8 couples in the US first met online
– Technology is changing the way we view the world. China and India are going to make much more of an impact on the world. And in the globalizing economy, many economies have workers that are willing to work for much less than NZ workers.
– these are causing a major change in what’s valued in a workforce

– so … What happens now? Steven argues that the growth of technology power is about to hockey stick. As a nation, we are not ready for this. And Steven is greatly worried about this.
– therefore, we need to have a set of different conversations about how we prepare for the future. What do we want to look like as a nation in the future? What do we want to be known for in 20 years?

– Steven’s big idea: We need to be highly adaptable. Three breakdowns:
(1) be great at generating new ideas,
(2) be great at absorbing ideas from other places, and
(3) be wiling to change.

– for businesses in New Zealand:
(1) focus on great execution,
(2) intelligently deal with complexity (called out Xero and SonarSix), and
(3) re-think the definition of market.

– conclusion: “I am optimistic about the future, which is why I’ve come back.”