Things a little bird told me

In his recently released book, Things A Little Bird Told Me, Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone, makes a strong case for the view that opportunities do not just “come along”, rather they are made by people willing to proactively go out and seek them, even at some risk. Indeed, risk is part of the territory.

That is why Tom and I are here in the Middle East seeking out new opportunities for Kiwa.

After a week in Dubai and productive meetings with regional representatives for international publishers based there, we moved on to Abu Dhabi where we have set up an office. Then this week things moved ahead considerably when we met with Malcolm Miller, the NZ Ambassador to the UAE, and Megan Mathias, Senior Advisor, Economic Partnerships with NZTE. Both expressed their desire to see Kiwa succeed and to do whatever they can to facilitate that.

If there is a single lesson learned from our meetings so far, it is that Kiwa’s long-term success depends on the extent to which we can create products that meet the different needs of different customers. The key word is “bespoke”, that is, how well can we find specific solutions to specific problems? We understand that creativity is a renewable resource so we are on our way.

With meetings set up in UAE, Sharjah, and Oman already, the feeling we have is that just by being here we have opened up many more opportunities to share the Kiwa story with the world.

Picture is of my meeting with Malcolm Miller, New Zealand’s ambassador to the UAE, and Megan Mathias from NZTE