Analysis

NZ Manufacturer July 2024 by Media Hawkes Bay Limited – Issuu In business, first impressions matter. New research by NZ Manufacturer business advisor and Impact PR director Mark Devlin has found many of the country’s manufacturers are failing to manage their online reputation – an oversight that could have repercussions for their growth.  For manufacturers, business relationships can be multi-faceted and, given the technical nature of the industry, at times they can also be highly complex. Whoever your target consumer is when you enter a business relationship at some level, even a rudimentary transactional one, you need them to have confidence in your brand from the outset – a promise you can deliver in a way that aligns with their understanding of what constitutes value. If you fail to reassure a potential customer that you can adhere to this expectation, your chances of entering a relationship are greatly diminished. I recently toured a local manufacturing facility where I was shown a piece of cutting-edge technology destined for the export market that was worth around $1 million. This is not an insignificant amount of money to spend on a single product and it occurred to me that if I was buying something of that value from an overseas company I would want to have the highest level of trust in that firm. This begs the question – how does a manufacturer create digital ‘trust signals’ so that when a potential customer, employee or other stakeholder begins to research their company, it provides the requisite reassurance necessary for them to move to the next stage of interaction and purchase? While all manufacturers have customers, few would have walked in their digital shoes to understand what they see during any initial desktop research process. At the same time, an even smaller number of […]

– Dennis Wesselbaum, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Otago  In the ups and downs of the global economy over the last decade, New Zealand has had one relatively consistent challenge: persistent productivity stagnation. Productivity compares the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the amount of inputs used to produce them. Since the Productivity Commission was set up in 2011, annual productivity growth has averaged at just 0.2% – one of the worst in the OECD. In 2023, New Zealand experienced declines across key metrics: labour productivity dropped by 0.9%, multifactor productivity (which includes labour, capital, energy, materials and purchased services) fell by 2.2% and capital productivity by 3.8%. There has also been a sharp decline in small business productivity, with a 19% drop from its peak in November 2022. Productivity is not only an abstract concern. It directly impacts income growth, exacerbates inequality and hampers overall welfare. The productivity puzzle But New Zealand’s stagnation doesn’t have to be inevitable. There are tangible approaches the government can take to boost the country’s productivity. Here’s how. Human capital There are at least two ways New Zealand can improve human capital – the sum total of the skills and education a worker has to do their job. In the short-term, the government needs to allow more high-skilled migrants to enter the country. This type of migration can reduce skill mismatch and create knowledge spillovers. That is, migrants bring valuable knowledge, expertise and innovative ideas from their home countries, which can spread to local firms, industries, or individuals via collaboration and competition. Over the long-term, investing in education and cultivating STEM and digital skills will be crucial for combating the country’s productivity stagnation and future-proofing the workforce. Technology Technological advancement is a key driver of progress, yet its integration requires careful planning. Artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, holds immense potential to boost productivity. One […]