BNZ survey finds owners underestimate productivity gaps in their own operations
New Zealand business owners are far more likely to view productivity as a problem for the country than as an issue within their own operations, according to a new BNZ survey.
A gap between national concern and local action
The survey found 80% of respondents see productivity as a national issue, compared with 68% who see it as a problem for their sector and just 58% who recognise it within their own business.
Alex West, head of sustainable finance, growth sectors at BNZ, said the gap often comes down to how difficult it is for owners to step back from daily operations.
"Business owners understand their operations inside out, but when you're focused on serving customers and keeping everything moving, it can be difficult to step back and identify where productivity improvements could be made on a larger scale," West said.
The finding also lines up with official data — Stats NZ's most recent productivity figures, for the year to March 2025, showed multi-factor productivity declining 0.9%, with the country's weak capital productivity long linked to a national bias toward housing investment over productive business assets.
That narrow focus appears to be shaping planning horizons more broadly. Nearly half of respondents (45%) plan productivity improvements less than 12 months ahead, while only 12% plan three or more years out.
West said this timeframe doesn't match the scale of investment productivity increasingly requires, pointing to automation as one way businesses can rethink labour-intensive processes, including in areas like medication dispensing, where automating repetitive tasks can free skilled staff for higher-value work.
Uncertainty and funding perceptions add to the caution
Economic uncertainty was the most cited barrier to investment, identified by 72% of respondents, ahead of regulatory complexity at 54%.
West argued that waiting for conditions to stabilise before investing may not be a viable strategy given how persistent that uncertainty has become.
"There's been economic uncertainty for over half a decade now, so what we're experiencing is probably the new norm," he said.
Perceptions around finance access may also be reinforcing hesitancy, with around a third of respondents (32%) believing only large businesses can access meaningful capital, and 39% citing fear of financial loss as a barrier.
West said addressing this requires structuring finance around a business's broader transformation rather than around a single asset purchase, citing BNZ's work with Taranaki laundry business La Nuova on a $5 million automation project that combined traditional lending, asset finance, and flexible cashflow support across its implementation stages.
A longer-term view is key, BNZ says
West's advice to business owners is to extend their planning horizons well beyond the next financial year.
"Understand what your business and industry will look like in one, two, five and ten years, and have a plan for how you execute at each of those intervals," he said.
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