Poppy Cats

The feeling that they are singled out for being successful is stopping many entrepreneurs achieving their potential.

Entrepreneurs in New Zealand are facing increasing criticisms of Tall Poppy Syndrome and a study by Otago University researcher Dr Jodyanne Kirkwood suggests that this is negatively affecting the business environment by discouraging entrepreneurs.

Tall Poppy Syndrome is a term used to describe the act of disparaging those who succeed by making it apparent that their success has elevated them above the rest of society. Dr Jodyanne Kirkwood’s research into this phenomenon began after she interviewed 50 entrepreneurs for her PhD and found that Tall Poppy Syndrome was an issue impacting New Zealand business, which she felt deserved more exploration.
Since she began her research six years ago, she has carried out two studies and interviewed 65 entrepreneurs from throughout New Zealand. Tall Poppy Syndrome has been an unexplored area in business and Jodyanne felt it was something about which business people needed to know. She says the results of her studies surprised her.
“I was shocked that entrepreneurs were feeling as if they had to hide their wealth and hide what kind of car they drove or what kind of house they had. I thought that it was a real shame that they felt they were not able to celebrate the rewards they had built up over years of hard work.”
She says accusations of Tall Poppy Syndrome affect entrepreneurs in two ways. They face criticism as an individual but also as a company. She says people have feelings about a certain company, which are separate from their feelings about the individual. This means that entrepreneurs face criticisms from both angles. This, Jodyanne says, is what makes entrepreneurs more vulnerable to criticism in the New Zealand business environment and makes their success so much harder to achieve.

The main criticism entrepreneurs face is the perception that they have been lucky to accomplish any success rather than focus being placed on the effort required to gain that success. Jodyanne says, “There needs to be a societal acknowledgement that Tall Poppy Syndrome is there and it’s a problem. The real problem is that there is no acknowledgement that entrepreneurship is quite a difficult thing to do and people have taken quite a risk to achieve their success”.
Jodyanne says she asked entrepreneurs what they thought could be done to overcome Tall Poppy Syndrome in New Zealand. She says their solutions mirrored hers. They included educating people about the effort required for entrepreneurs to succeed and the sacrifice they make when starting their business. She says, at a societal level, there needs to be more celebration of individual achievement and less inclination to reward non-achievers in order to maintain the status quo.
The results of her study showed that entrepreneurs tried to control the affects of Tall Poppy Syndrome by playing down their wealth and hiding their success. She says some people avoided driving their car or inviting people to their house in order to avoid criticism due to their success. Others went so far as to deny they were entrepreneurs. She says, “It was almost like entrepreneurship was being treated as something really bad.”

Many entrepreneurs suggested that changing the prevalence of Tall Poppy Syndrome would be difficult. They indicated that it was easier for them to accept Tall Poppy Syndrome as a natural part of business and learn to ignore it. There was a consensus among those interviewed that Tall Poppy Syndrome is an undeniable part of New Zealand’s business culture. However, after further questioning, Jodyanne found that entrepreneurs were affected more deeply by Tall Poppy Syndrome than they initially admitted because they felt they had to hide their success.
“This is an emerging field of study and there is a lot to do. Tall Poppy Syndrome affects business worldwide even though it is not necessarily called Tall Poppy Syndrome in other countries. I found it amazing that research into Tall Poppy Syndrome had never really been done before. It’s something quite new so it was exciting for me. To have entrepreneurs’ voices heard, rather than relying on statistics, was new and interesting.”

Jodyanne says the business community has been surprised at her findings. It is a controversial issue and she has found that everyone has a strong opinion on Tall Poppy Syndrome. The main difficulty is identifying the steps to fix the problem but Jodyanne says discussing the affects of Tall Poppy Syndrome is the first step in developing a change in New Zealand’s business culture.
“I would love it if there was an acceptance that entrepreneurs have done an amazing amount of risk taking and hard work to get where they are. I hope one day that the wider community starts to look at entrepreneurs and accepts and acknowledges that their success is a result of hard work and sacrifice and not just luck. If there was that recognition, then there would be less effects of Tall Poppy Syndrome for entrepreneurs.”

As well as continuing with her research into Tall Poppy Syndrome, Jodyanne has been conducting research into other areas of business. Jodyanne and her colleague Dr Sara Walton were invited to speak at the International Women’s Forum in Montréal, Canada, in October, where they presented findings from their study of ecopreneurs. Among the 800 guests was Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil and Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of Jacques Cousteau.

Jodyanne says she looks forward to conducting more research into Tall Poppy Syndrome in the future while continuing as a senior lecturer in the management department at the University of Otago.

Monique Esplin