Want to know what’s on chief executives’ minds at this election? 

Who’s best placed to be prime minister: Chris Hipkins or Chris Luxon? What do they think about party policies affecting business and who is best placed to be the custodian of the country’s economic future?

Look out for the 2023 Mood of the Boardroom Survey out on Friday in our sister publication, the New Zealand Herald. 

It’s 21 years since I first launched the CEOs survey within a State of the Nation report that I edited. In those early years it was a labour of love. Faxing questions. Deciphering CEOs’ handwriting. Calculating weighted averages. 

Thankfully, technology has stripped out the more laborious tasks. 

But what endures is the willingness of chief executives to place trust in the Herald (and me) to distil accurately their sentiment on major issues: Business. Politics. Personalities. Policies – particularly in an election year. And to be frank in their opinions. 

Since we put the survey into the field at the end of August sentiment has shifted markedly. Hipkins is not the gamechanger that Labour had hoped when Dame Jacinda Ardern nudged herself out in January from the country’s top job. 

It’s remarkable how polarised opinion is against Ardern now. 

Despite her leadership through multiple crises – these days she is a busted flush (to many). 

I’m not talking about business people here. 

I wrote recently about how she charmed Blackrock’s Larry Fink on a visit to his boardroom in New York in May 2022. Then a year later the investment firm decided to open a $2 billion fund to bankroll some initiatives towards New Zealand becoming powered by 100 per cent renewable energy. 

I have reservations about this aim on energy security grounds. But that wasn’t was at stake here. 

The anger against her was palpable. Some 949 respondents piled in when my column was posted on Facebook. Possibly, 15 per cent were positive. The rest, simply nasty. Personal. 

Labour’s Focus groups would have told them that “playing the Jacinda” card would be a hopeless strategy in their campaign. She’s off building a new career in public life at Harvard and with other pals like Prince William and Justin Trudeau. 

But as we have seen this week, Hipkins is losing ground in the campaign against Luxon as the latter opens a clear lead on him in the preferred prime minister stakes. 

In the recent 1News Live Leaders' Debate when it came to quickfire questions the pair agreed on most.  No surprise then that they have bled support to third parties which have more defined stances. 

There’ll be more of this on Friday. 

But a big shift in this year’s survey is the rising concern CEOs have about crime and law and order. 

Twenty per cent of survey respondents are “extremely concerned” about the effect this was having on business confidence in New Zealand today. 

It is way up there in the rankings. 

Retail CEOs are having a particularly hard time. 

Andrea Scown, chief executive of Mitre 10 talks about the violent and aggressive behavior which is more frequently directed towards their frontline team members. She says they are dealing with the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff with greater safety training for our teams.  

“My belief is that beyond the obvious societal drivers of poverty, cost of living, social isolation and so on, are uncontrolled social media platforms such as Tik Tok exacerbating the copycat behaviours.” 

Her hope is that New Zealanders will take to the polls placing their votes on policy - not people or parties. 

Foodstuffs Northern CEO Chris Quin offers another insight. Keeping their team of 24,000 and millions of customers safe every day in the face of retail crime that’s up by almost 50 per cent year on year in their stores is keeping everyone at Foodstuffs awake at night.  

He’s much less optimistic than a year ago about New Zealand being able to address the rise of crime affecting the retail industry in New Zealand and overseas. “It is becoming more brazen and it is getting more aggressive. We are facing a serious issue with career criminals who are repeat offenders and all too willing to get ugly and even assault staff when confronted. “Everyone has the right to feel safe when they work and shop. Retailers need public and political support to use modern technology tools to keep our stores safe.” 

This behaviour is not confined to retail operations. 

In Auckland there is precious little evidence of police out on the beat. And a Pollyannish view of the central city from those that don’t live there in tall buildings (like me). 

These are issues that need to be confronted along with rising social division.