– Doug Green

We all want to be like Sebastian Vettel. Successive wins on the trot, lots of space between us and our rivals, utilising a fantastic product that keeps us in the lead. In Vettel’s case 13 wins in a season which probably means the manufacturing technology used to put his car together is pretty damn good.

Made me wonder recently when I heard the talk of making a car of part paper, thanks to 3D developments. Maybe there is such a thing as horses for courses and the song Blowing in the Wind was ahead of its time.

John Walley (Page 1) has an article entitled, Is Manufacturing Important? My answer to this is, Is there water in Lake Taupo?

Manufacturing is pretty serious stuff. The nation wouldn’t be a nation without it and if there was no manufacturing (nigh impossible!) we’d all be wandering around wearing sarongs made from banana skins Ð from bananas imported from Equador. I suppose this does raise the point of who makes the sarong?

But let’s not dwell on that…

The pride we have as a nation in what we do is seeing sustainable success now consistently occurring. New Zealand is currently sixth in the world for business optimism, our highest ranking since 2010. Along with the United Kingdom and United States we are playing a part in driving global business growth.

Little old New Zealand, I hear you say. How can we be…an influencer? Lots of factors play into this; security as a nation, stable democratic government, a reasonably decent standard of living and an environment – most important – for designers, developers and manufacturers to get on with making great products.

There are a few downers, however. The wages we take home aren’t that flash, and frankly, some employers are lucky to have dedicated staff who work for moderate rates of pay.

There’ll come a time when employers ignore this point to their peril.

So let’s be happy with where we are heading. Lots more to do, things that can be done better, complacency is not an option.