Anna Curzon: tech vet reaching for the clouds

New Zealand has never been better placed to raise productivity and grow its business internationally, says global tech veteran Anna Curzon MInstD, who wants to see a change in mindset and scaling international markets “from the get-go”. 
 
Curzon, a board director and advisor, is full of enthusiasm with the opportunities digital and technology can offer New Zealand and believes we missed the opportunity presented by Covid.

“We started to take opportunities as we were forced to integrate more digital practices into our businesses and life, but, unfortunately, we collectively pulled the throttle back when life went back to normal, instead of continuing to adopt technology and keep learning.” 

Curzon knows the opportunities and pitfalls, having been part of a company that grew into a hugely successful international player, listing on the Australian Stock Exchange ASX and operating in seven countries. That was software accounting firm Xero which she left last year after more than seven years, moving from fronting the domestic business to leading the global product team, spearheading product management, design, product marketing and operations. 
 
“For most businesses, the lion’s share of heavy lifting is now done through digital and tech channels. Having been part of a leadership team that experienced the highs and lows of scaling a high-growth SaaS (Software as a Service) business globally, I have a lot of learning to share.”  

Xero encouraged small businesses to move to the cloud and adopt new technology, and she saw how much more efficient they could be in terms of revenue growth and profitability as a result. 

Curzon is clearly frustrated by the view that Kiwi businesses expanding offshore are a loss. “If we want to fix our productivity problem, we need to be thinking about being a player on the global stage from day one and what is required from an operational efficiency perspective to enable this. Let’s not be afraid of our businesses moving around the world. That is success and encourages more entrepreneurs to aspire to bigger things. It’s a mindset shift.” 
 
Curzon’s experiences are relevant to modern-day boards. AI is something she describes as “both exciting and terrifying in equal parts”, quoting McKinsey’s finding that AI could generate US$2.6 to US$4.4 trillion in value across industries. 
 
“That is audacious, but it is a reasonable estimate of the size of the prize. The most important thing is to get out of the gates quickly and start experimenting. You don’t want to be in a position where it’s too hard to catch up.

“Start pragmatically. Think about how you can use AI to automate processes, reduce costs and leverage data to make faster decisions. Once you have nailed a few of those, start to think about new spaces, such as personalising customer experiences, and ultimately on problems that before AI may not have been solvable.” 
 
With many businesses moving to the cloud, Curzon says they will have a community or “ecosystem” of partners who they can draw on for knowledge and collaboration. Curiosity, she says, is an asset in a dynamic environment, and “never stop learning”. 
 
“Start by bringing them together to ask about their digital strategy. What are they learning that will ultimately benefit you? Their strategy fuels your strategy and therefore becomes collective. This is also incredibly important from a cyber security and stability perspective – your vendor’s vendors could be your weakest link, so know who they are and what their vulnerabilities might be.” 
 
After dabbling in directorships, Curzon flipped from global executive to Kiwibank director in 2023, with a goal to use her learning across global tech and financial services to support Kiwi businesses to be world class. 
 
The move made sense, not only with her Xero experience but also with an 18-year career in financial services at ASB, which started as a graduate with a stint in audit, before moving into senior leadership roles in internet banking, brand, marketing, innovation and design and the contact centre. Her governance portfolio now includes other tech companies, such as Atomic.io and Jade Software. She also supports international firms with advisory work. 

Say the word ‘productivity’ and Curzon lights up, with ideas and provocations to improve an area she agrees where New Zealand has been lagging.

While she appreciates the Government is rightly focused on fundamentals such as infrastructure, inflation and ‘turning the ship around’, she says, just like a board, we also need to be thinking long term and about opportunities, particularly in the knowledge economy. 
 
“A way forward could be partnering with specialists in the private sector to collaborate on the creation of a New Zealand digital strategy that addresses our productivity challenges, supports the growth of digital services from a trade perspective and encourages investment from the international tech sector.” 
 
Curzon was appointed to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) in 2021 by former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern – the year New Zealand hosted APEC online – and was reappointed by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon for another term. 
 
During her time on ABAC she chaired the Economic Integration Working Group, led the WTO workstream, was Convenor of the MSME Digital Transformation Task Force and co-chaired the Digital Working Group. She served on the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group from 2018-20 (by appointment of Luxon who was then CEO of Air New Zealand and Chair) and was named one of the Top 25 global women leaders in SaaS. 
 
Her roles in ABAC have given her a bird’s- eye view of what other APEC economies are doing to drive productivity, such as Singapore, which has a digital strategy firmly positioned as a foundation for its economic strategy, and Ireland, whose tax structure lured overseas investment and fuelled digital innovation and the economy. 
 
“Ireland’s openness to foreign trade and investment, low corporate tax rate and encouragement of workers with higher education has attracted multinational companies, including tech firms,” she says. 

Curzon is also calling for a review of regimes, such as the Foreign Investment Fund (FIF), saying, “you’re not going to attract high net-worth individuals to bring their families and businesses to New Zealand if their overseas investments are significantly impacted just by being a resident here”. 
 
“Would we see a host of international companies set up here that are goods producers? Maybe not. But tech is weightless, so the right positioning of New Zealand could encourage tech companies to bring some of their best people here. New Zealand is a great employee value proposition, especially with the unrest in the world right now. What’s more, from a supply side it would create an attractive sandpit to invest in our home-grown education and expertise in tech.” 
 
She advocates for diversity within the tech industry and encouraging women and other underrepresented groups into STEM opportunities. But despite her digital passion and proficiency, she is putting the brakes on when it comes to all-out use for teenagers. 
 
With a 17-year-old daughter, this mother has done “piles of research” on the negative impact of social media and is firmly of the view the negative outweighs the positive. “Until we work with tech companies to give us assurances that our kids are not seeing things they shouldn’t, we should delay their access to social media until they are 16. 
 
“I often get the response that the ‘genie is out of the bottle’ with social media, but there are clear and present solutions to redesign the environment we want our kids to grow up in. Online age verification technology using biometrics is incredibly accurate now. 
 
“We need this generation to be more robust, stronger and fitter, especially because they will have to support our rapidly aging population, like me!” she laughs. Clearly a director with her eye set on the future.