Launched in June 2022, the BDO Business Performance Index (previously known as the BDO Business Wellbeing Index) is a leading biannual study across a market-representative sample of New Zealand business leaders and owners, exploring the priority issues impacting their business performance. Each report shares the latest insights, market commentary, and practical tips for navigating the most commonly raised concerns and challenges faced by business leaders, across nearly 20 key business performance drivers. Findings are reported at a national and regional level, as well as for the mid-market and a range of key sectors.
Capturing responses from hundreds of business leaders annually, across two 6 monthly waves, the Index is New Zealand's largest survey of its kind - and a Gold category winner at the 2024 Research Effectiveness Awards.
As advisers to over 20,000 businesses across Aotearoa, at BDO we are in a unique position to see the impacts of a broad range of factors – including financial, economic, regulatory, environmental and social. The BDO Business Performance Index was born out of growing observations among our BDO Partners of the particular impact that financial concerns can have on business leaders and their businesses. Most importantly, the Index is our opportunity to provide practical tips for the business leader community; helping them to be best placed to navigate the key challenges of running a business, particularly financial concerns, and in turn promoting stronger business performance outcomes.
In the lead up to New Zealand’s General Election on 7 November 2026, the October 2026 report provides timely insights on the big issues facing business leaders in the coming weeks. Six months on from our last report, released in the lead-up to Budget 2026 in May, the much-anticipated fuel-supply crisis has not eventuated. Yet the absence of a single defining shock should not be mistaken for stability. While sections of the primary industry face favourable fortunes and Canterbury enjoys a strong residential construction sector, economic and political uncertainty remains a constant for many business leaders nationwide. Learn more about current business leader sentiment and the common challenges business leaders are facing right now.
The biannual digital survey is conducted by an independent research agency. More than 500 respondents are canvassed in each survey wave, spanning a wide range of industries and business stages, based on a market-representative sample of New Zealand’s business sector. The survey targets business leaders and owners (anyone who was not an owner, General Manager, CEO or Director is excluded from results). For the purpose of the report, we refer to all respondents generically as “business leaders”.
Respondents are asked to share their sentiment regarding overall business performance and a wide range of specific factors which impact this - both over the past two weeks and looking ahead to six months’ time.