Building Global Businesses: Kerry Paul's Guide to Going Global from NZ

What drives you to start and build global businesses? In my case between 2003 to 2021 I founded and exited five start-up companies. I would like to share why I did this alongwith what I learnt from these experiences. The aim is to encourage others to think through do they want to do the same and if they do what they can learn from my experience?

Lessons from Five Start-ups to Exit over 20 years This Blog Series draws heavily on Kerry Paul’s experience over 20 years founding five start-ups, building these into global businesses and finally the exit. The most notable being Manuka Health New Zealand 2006-15. In less than a decade, it grew from a start-up to a $73 million business, exporting to 45 countries with a staff of over 120.

Getting Started: Turning a Core Idea into a Business Every successful business begins with an idea. But having an idea and turning it into a sustainable, global business are two very different things. In my experience, the difference lies not just in the product itself, but in how well you define, plan, and execute around it. There are many challenges when building a global business from New Zealand.

Leadership Style Matters An idea, however, is only as strong as the people driving it. Leadership is critical. In my view, leaders are not “born”—they’re developed. The most important trait? A growth mindset.

A key consideration when starting a business is the development of a strategy and the establishment of essential capabilities. Company strategy can be defined as the integrated set of decisions made on activities to position the company where it can deliver unique value to its customers in its chosen markets while earning superior returns in the long run. In short, strategy defines how you compete in your chosen markets on a sustained basis.

Developing a unique business model is a process of combining your firm’s unique skills and capabilities to meet customer’s needs with your ability to add value to the product or service you want to deliver.

Securing investment and establishing governance are crucial for start-ups, especially during the initial phase and throughout the business lifecycle.

The Governance Imperative Raising funds is one part of the equation. The other is governance—the structures and practices that ensure the company is run responsibly. Securing capital brings obligations. Shareholders are entrusting you with their money, and maintaining their confidence is one of the CEO’s most important jobs.

Leadership Starts with Selling the Vision I’ve always believed that leadership is about more than issuing instructions. It’s about getting people to want to do the work—because they believe in the mission as much as you do. For a chief executive, that means spending an enormous amount of time selling: selling the core concept, selling the plans, selling the values, and selling the changes needed to keep moving forward.

The Realities of Managing People Of course, engaging employees isn’t always smooth sailing. People bring their whole lives to work, and that means challenges inevitably arise. We all have our share of difficult situations—personal conflicts, underperformance, and even breaches of trust. Each case had to be addressed individually, with honesty and firmness.

Defining the Market When you decide to take a product global, the first challenge is to define your market. Without clarity, you don’t know who you’re competing against—or how you’ll win. For instance, in Manuka Health, this meant positioning ourselves not simply as a honey company, but as a player in consumer healthcare, specifically the self-medication segment we called “natural healthcare.”

From the very beginning, you should know you intend to operate overseas: if you are going to compete internationally, then you need to build a global consumer brand. This is not a side project or an optional extra—it is central to your strategy. A brand, after all, isn’t just a logo or a tagline; it’s the way people around the world perceive your company. And perception, especially in international markets, is everything. This is a major challenge when building a global busin

Ironically, one of the best ways to build a global brand is to first succeed in your domestic market. Overseas distributors want proof the brand is already performing well in New Zealand before they commit to launching it abroad. The home market becomes a testing ground—a place to refine products, packaging, and messaging before taking them global. Building the brand in the home market is a critical step in building a global business from New Zealand.

When people talk about going global, it’s easy to focus only on international markets and overlook the role of your own backyard. But in my experience, the New Zealand market is not just important—it is essential. It is your testing ground, a place where you trial new products, refine marketing messages, and built credibility before knocking on the doors of overseas distributors. This is a key business strategy for New Zealand entrepreneurs.

When people think about building a global brand, the focus often falls on marketing, packaging, or product innovation. But none of these matter if you can’t reliably get your product into customers’ hands. Distribution is not a side issue—it is the backbone of global expansion. A brand lives or dies on the strength of its sales and distribution capability in each market.

Your distribution journey can start almost by chance. By example, a Japanese businessman sees your products in a tourist store, contacts you, and by the end of the day, you have met them and started the distribution partnership. That was how it can often happen in those early years: connections, conversations, and as a result of a lot of travel.

If you want to compete globally, you can’t stand still. Innovation is not a buzzword—it is survival. Without a steady pipeline of new, credible products, it is nearly impossible to attract distributors, convince retailers, or keep consumers engaged. Distributors in particular, always ask the same question: what’s next? If you cannot show them a strong product pipeline, they look elsewhere.

Why the Supply Chain Matters

The Customer-Centric Supply Chain For me, the heart of supply-chain management was always about the customer. Distributors need to know they can trust you. If you let them down, they wouldn’t just hesitate to reorder—they’d hesitate to sell. Once a customer is lost because of poor supply, winning them back requires enormous effort.

Why Every Business Needs an Exit Strategy No matter how passionate you are about building a company, there comes a time when you have to consider how you’ll eventually leave it. An exit strategy isn’t just about selling—it’s about making sure the business continues to thrive under new ownership. For the New Zealand entrepreneur this is one of the most difficult challenges. How to balance shareholder returns whilst ensuring other stakeholders are fairly treated.