Our country may be small and geographically isolated, but a visiting expert says New Zealand companies face an even bigger barrier: lack of ambition.

Ken Morse, head of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center in Boston, is in New Zealand for a two-day workshop, Global Strategies for Ambitious Kiwi Entrepreneurs, being held at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Auckland offices.

Although he loves New Zealand’s number eight-wire innovation, Mr Morse says another iconic part of Kiwi culture is often a problem in business: the “she’ll be right” mentality.