At Chamber Conference last week I had the opportunity to listen to Jonathan Ling, CEO of Fletcher Building. The challenge put to him was; Is the goal of reaching the top half of OECD ranking per capita GDP and closing the gap between Australia appropriate or should NZ have absolute targets such as growth or export to Australia and China? In answering this question Jonathan showed the conference the significant growth Fletcher Building has had through mergers and acquisitions and increased productivity.
He talked about New Zealand’s need to increase productivity and to increase the opportunity for investment in overseas countries especially countries where we are trading. He suggested we need to make New Zealand attractive for some of our best minds to stay here or at least come back here and to do that we may need to create some incentives. We also need to modify our culture – he compared the Australian, ‘ Win at all costs’ culture to our NZ culture of ‘burn no bridges, build relationships’ culture. We are so concerned with being friends with everyone that we are not competitive.
His suggestion was that we should be having conversations about increasing productivity around the kitchen table. Be prepared to challenge thoughts, beliefs and norms at the dining table. Where did the ‘OE’ come from – we are the only country that has this phenomenon? What about the need to attend University away from your home town – where did this come from – in countries around the world students attend University closer to home?
After my walk (Global Corporate Challenge) yesterday morning I heard an interview on TV One Breakfast with Dr Rhema Vaithianathan, from Auckland University – talking about the skills of Managers. She linked New Zealand’s below average management skills to our lower productivity. Her comments were especially around the management of people, getting rid of people who don’t fit the organisation, recruiting the right people to fit your organisation and the empowerment of people to keep them stimulated and happy with their workplace. Once dissatisfaction creeps in good people look for better opportunities and a lot of the time it’s off shore? So what are the answers?
Would a greater investment in R&D help your business, would education support your desire to increase your productivity – assuming of course that you want to increase your productivity.
For those of you considering further education we have a scholarship with the Waikato Management School that enables one person each year to half price fees for the Post Management Diploma in Management Studies – a qualification in its own right but also the precursor to the MBA – Master of Business Administration. If you want to learn more about this scholarship and the Post Grad Dip or MBA please don’t hesitate to make contact with me – I will even buy you a coffee!
We appreciate your feedback – wayne@waikatochamber.co.nz – Thank you!
