Kurien Thomas
[FYI request #11269 email]
18 October 2019
Dear Kurien Thomas
OIA 2019-20-05 NZTE BEACHHEADS INFORMATION
Thank you for your email of Saturday 21 September 2019 regarding an Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act) request, seeking:
1) The NPS for each Beachhead Advisor and for each geographical sector for the last
3 years
2) How many times were each Beachhead Advisor appointed/engaged/used over the
last 3 years?
3) How many successful engagements arising from Beachhead Advisor for each
geographical location for the last 3 years?
Geographical location in the above is defined as per the New Zealand Trade and
Enterprise’s (NZTE) webpage.
Part of the information you have requested is enclosed. We have weighed the potential
public interest on this request and have decided to refuse part of your request for information
under the following sections of the Act:
Section 9(2)(a): To protect the privacy of natural persons.
Section 9(2)(b)(i ): To protect information that would likely unreasonably prejudice the
commercial person who is the subject of the information.
Regarding Question One, information is being withheld under S.9(2)(a) and S.9(2)(b)(ii) of
the Act. The information you have requested is used in the review of how Beachheads is
performing as a service and how the Advisor is working with our customers. However,
Beachhead Advisors are independent contractors and not employees of NZTE. They have
other careers beyond this role. Releasing an individual’s NPS may negatively affect the
Advisor’s reputation in future business dealings.
For context, Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a globally acknowledged benchmarking tool used
to measure the wil ingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to
others. NPS is an index ranging from -100 to 100 and is calculated by taking the percentage
of promoters (those that gave a score of 9 or 10) and subtracting the percentage of
detractors (those that gave a score of 0 to 6). NZTE calculates the Net Promoter Score
(NPS) of its services from ‘pulse’ surveys that are sent to its customers following
participation in the service. Customers are also asked to provide comment on what NZTE
could do to make them more likely to recommend the service.
Regarding Question Two, information is being withheld under S.9(2)(b)(i ) of the Act. NZTE
has interpreted your request as having two parts. A request for the number of times an
Advisor is appointed to their role, and the number of times that they provided a service to our
customers (“engaged” or “used”). NZTE has 150 active Beachhead Advisors across its
international network. Advisor engagement levels are not an indicator of the quality of each
Advisor’s work, but reflective of demand for their given skil set in a market at that time. By
disclosing these numbers, it could create the unfair or false impression of an Advisor which
might impact their professional reputation. NZTE has released the number of beachhead
engagements by geographic region.
Regarding Question Three, NZTE is unable to answer this question. NZTE does not attribute
a result made by a New Zealand company in an international market to their engagement of
a Beachhead Advisor. Instead, NZTE looks at the overall impact of its engagement with a
business and verifies with a business that NZTE’s holistic support has contributed to the
business making sales internationally. Therefore, NZTE cannot specifically attribute certain
outcomes solely to a Beachheads engagement.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely,
Melissa Trochon
