Matthew Reed blog: Going for gold

This month we’ve launched our extranet version of PowerPlace – a big step forward for us, as it now opens PowerPlace out to thousands of brokers around the country. As you’d expect, we consulted brokers along the way so that we could build something that would work for them ... but the proof will be in the pudding, as they say!

Coincidently, I’ve been reading a book set during the gold rush in New Zealand, and it’s made me reflect on what makes people tick.

When you think about it, human behaviour is pretty interesting. We’re strongly motivated by self-interest, yet we derive great comfort from the support of others. In the 1860s, trying your luck as a prospector in the South Island’s west coast goldfields was not for the faint-hearted. It meant an arduous trip by land or sea just to reach the desolation of Hokitika. The first would-be miners then had to cut their way through the bush and survive on wild birds and berries before they could peg their claim and set to with rudimentary sluices, scouring the mud and gravel for specks of colour.

It was a precarious and volatile existence in which very few fulfilled the dreams that had driven them there. Yet thousands were compelled to try. Why? Most were lured by hope that they would get rich, but they were spurred on by the fact that many others were doing the same thing, providing reassurance that it was worth it and also because it gave them the competitive urge to ‘get there first’. Most only made enough to live on, if that, but they kept hoping, probably because they had nothing to lose. It wasn’t the rich or the middle classes who stood on gravel faces, drenched in icy water, day in, day out. It was the poor, and those at the margins, for whom the only way was up.

In the end, through the hard work of those people, the pioneer spirit did prevail and has left places like New Zealand and Australia with a ‘can do’ culture that produces innovation, advancement and wealth.

For economic growth in the here and now, we need those who are prepared to lead. Someone has to blaze a trail into today’s equivalent of the goldfields, and early adopters are a valuable commodity for marketing directors. Yet we also need those who are prepared to follow. It’s been great for Twitter that Stephen Fry has been such as vocal advocate, but without hoards of ordinary people tweeting back, that e-fruit would wither on the vine. And it has taken more than just Lindsay Lohan using her iPad to shield her face from photographers to make Apple’s third-quarter profits hit $3bn – but plenty of us heard about it.

The other thing about human behaviour is that most of us are pretty clued up. Ultimately, although we might be encouraged to try something because of a celebrity endorsement or gossip in a gold-rush town, we can soon judge for ourselves whether it works or not. The important thing is to give it a go.

Matthew Reed is chief executive of PowerPlace.