Don’t Build a Castle on Sand

Ask around in New Zealand business circles and you’ll find more than a few stories of technology projects that looked promising, until they didn’t. The pattern is familiar: a major investment in a new system, a slick launch, and then… not much changes. The root cause is almost always the same. Technology was treated as a shortcut, not as a true enabler of business strategy.

When Tech Is Treated as a Silver Bullet

Why does this keep happening? In the rush to keep up with competitors or to show quick wins to boards and stakeholders, many NZ organisations reach for technology first. A new CRM or ERP feels like instant progress. But without a clear plan for how it will drive growth, improve customer experience, or change the way people work, the benefits rarely materialise. The temptation is understandable, tech is tangible, and results can be measured in licenses and logins. Strategy, on the other hand, takes time, discipline, and sometimes uncomfortable conversations.

Local Cautionary Tales

Ports of Auckland: Automation Without a Plan

Few tech failures in New Zealand have been as public or costly as the Ports of Auckland’s automation project. Launched in 2016, the plan was to double the port’s capacity using driverless straddle carriers and advanced software. The promise was bold: more throughput, improved safety, and a boost for Auckland’s economy. What happened instead was years of delays, ballooning costs, and a collapse in productivity. An independent review laid the blame squarely on poor governance, a weak business case, and a lack of engagement with both senior management and frontline workers. The technology simply couldn’t be integrated into the port’s real-world operations, and the risks were never fully understood or managed. By 2022, the automation was scrapped, with a write-off of at least $65 million and a reputation hit that will take years to repair.

Novopay: Payroll Modernisation Gone Wrong

The Novopay payroll system, rolled out by the Ministry of Education, was supposed to modernise how school staff across the country got paid. Instead, it became a national scandal. Teachers and support staff were left unpaid or incorrectly paid for months. The core issue wasn’t the software itself, but a lack of clear requirements, poor testing, and no real contingency planning. The focus had been on launching the new system, not on making sure it would actually work for the thousands of people relying on it. The fallout was massive: public outcry, emergency interventions, and years of extra spending to fix what should have been caught before go-live.

Auckland Hospital: IT Upgrades That Disrupted Care

Auckland Hospital’s recent attempt to upgrade its IT systems was meant to streamline operations and improve patient care. Instead, it led to workflow disruptions, staff frustration, and public concern. The new technology didn’t fit the way clinicians actually worked, and the change management was lacking. This wasn’t just a technical hiccup, it was a strategic misstep. The lesson? if you don’t align your tech with the day-to-day realities of your people, even the best systems can do more harm than good.

What These Stories Have in Common

In each of these cases, the technology itself wasn’t the root problem. The real issue was a rush to implement without a clear, practical strategy or a deep understanding of how the new system would fit into existing operations. When leaders skip the hard work of process mapping, stakeholder engagement, and risk assessment, even the most promising tech can end up as an expensive lesson.

Building on Solid Ground

So how do you avoid building your next big project on sand? Start by getting clear on what you want to achieve. Before signing off on any new system, ask: What business problem are we solving? How will this investment help us grow, serve customers better, or work smarter? Involve the people who will use the system every day. Map out your current processes and define what success looks like in practical, measurable terms.

It’s also important to remember that technology should fit your business, not the other way around. Tailor your approach to New Zealand’s unique business environment, where scale, pace, and customer expectations can be very different from overseas markets. Resist the urge to copy what’s worked elsewhere without adapting it to your own strategy.

Finally, measure what matters. Focus on outcomes like customer retention, sales cycle time, or operational efficiency, not just system adoption rates. Be willing to pause or rethink projects that aren’t delivering real value.