The Last Word

Innovation Stalled

Why the Crown Research Shake-Up is at least a 2-Year Setback In a year where New Zealand’s productivity crisis is finally getting some airtime, the government has managed to stall one of our most important levers for change: innovation. The Crown Research Institute (CRI) reforms were supposed to turbocharge commercialisation and collaboration. Instead, we’ve ended up with a bureaucratic limbo. Restructuring science funding in theory might make sense, but not if it pulls the handbrake on actual innovation for two years while the dust settles. The timing couldn’t be worse. David Altana, Head of Growth & Partnerships at SmartSpace.ai & Co-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast. david@altena.solutions While other nations are doubling down on R&D to fuel economic transformation, New Zealand is in danger of drifting further into irrelevance. We’re already ten years behind our OECD peers on technology adoption. Now, with innovation policy in flux, the few Kiwi companies ready to lead from the front are left waiting for clarity, funding and alignment. Rob Bull, Director of the New Zealand Lean Academy. rob@nzla.nz To understand why this matters, we need to be clear on the difference between innovation, R&D and technology adoption. Innovation is about exploring better ways to lift organisational performance. That a bold business model shift, or solving a customer problem in a novel way. It’s the spark that drives progress. R&D is what fuels that spark. It’s the deliberate investment of time, moneyand expertise to develop the ideas that underpin innovation. It can live inside universities, CRIs, or businesses themselves, but without it, our ideas run shallow. Technology adoption is how we bring it all to life. It’s the moment we take those R&D outcomes or global innovations and embed them into how we actually work. This is where New Zealand, historically, has […]

Leadership From the Top

How Government Must Reflect What It Asks of Business Stop Pointing Fingers, Start Holding Mirrors If you’re a business leader in New Zealand, you’ve likely heard it all before: “Lift your productivity, innovate faster, create higher-wage jobs, be more sustainable, upskill your workforce. David Altena is Head of Growth & Partnerships at SmartSpace.ai & Co-Founder of The Better SMB Podcast. david@altena.solutions Rob Bull is Director & Principal Consultant at Plexus Consultant & Co-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast. rob@nzla.nz These are worthy goals. But it’s time we asked a tough question in return: Are our public institutions holding themselves to the same standard they expect from us? Leadership isn’t about titles, it’s about accountability, starting at the top. If the private sector is expected to do the hard work of transformation, then the public sector must model what good leadership looks like: clarity, consistency and execution. The Double Standard Holding Us Back Manufacturers are told to build systems, measure progress and lead their teams intentionally. We’re expected to set targets, empower people and stay the course through uncertainty. Yet across public policy, we too often see the opposite: Strategies without metrics Funding without follow-through Agencies working in silos Change driven by election cycles, not national interest It’s no wonder productivity has flatlined for decades. The truth is, we don’t just have a business performance problem, we have a systems leadership problem. Businesses are being challenged to grow up, digitise and collaborate. Isn’t it time government did the same? The Easy Button Problem In the private sector, lifting performance means innovating delivery models, rethinking processes and doing more with less. If we make poor decisions, we lose customers. If we waste resources, we destroy value. But in government, too often the first response is to reach for what […]

Expect to Win: Raising the Bar and Aiming for Excellence

From June issue, NZ Manufacturer magazine www.nzmanufacturer.co.nz In a Bay of Plenty workshop, the first press of the day starts up. Meanwhile, 18,000 kilometres away, its twin in Stuttgart is already changing over to the next job, 30% more parts out the door before smoko. Same equipment, same potential just different culture. David Altena is Head of Growth & Partnerships at SmartSpace ai & Co-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast. david@altena.solutions New Zealanders already work around 15 percent longer than the OECD average while generating 20 percent less output per person. Our productivity gap has widened from 34 percent in 1996 to roughly 40 percent today. “Good enough for NZ” is quietly costing us millions every pay cycle. The Budget for manufacturers is a brand-new 20% “Investment Boost” tax deduction: buy qualifying plant or machinery after 22 May 2025 and you can write off one-fifth of the cost in year one, on top of normal depreciation. Rob Bull is Director & Principal Consultant at Plexus Consultant & C0-Founder& Host of The Better SMB Podcast. rob@nzla.nz Before racing for a purchase order, pause. A tax break multiplies whatever capability you already have, good or bad. Before you bolt a faster robot to yesterday’s habits, take ninety days to hard-wire a culture that expects to win. After all, every dollar you save on tax is wasted if the new kit sits idle for want of process discipline. Winning is a system, not a slogan In factories that outperform global peers, five habits show up in every shift and hum in the background like the compressor: Uncompromising clarity – three numbers on every wall, one for productivity, one for quality, one for innovation and improvement. The strategic goals are translated into performance metrics the whole team can understand and influence. Standard […]

Own It: Leadership is a Personal Responsibility, Not a Title

In the picture: David Altana is head of Growth & Partnerships at Smartspace.ai & Co-Founder & Host of The Better SMB Podcast. You can’t change your business without changing how you lead. In the picture: Rob Bull, Director & Principal Consultant at Plexus Consultant & Co-Founder & Host of The Better Business SMB Podcast We’ve made the case. New Zealand’s productivity crisis is real, and it won’t be solved by waiting on government policy, new funding mechanisms, or the perfect hire. Now we come to the heart of the matter. If we want better-performing businesses, change needs to happen to avoid the status quo and repeat the conversations of the past 30 years. If you’re the owner, GM or leader of a manufacturing business, the next leap isn’t strategic. It’s personal. The next frontier is you. The Mirror Test Think back to last week. Were you the calm in the chaos, or part of it? Were your conversations clear, or rushed? Did your team get direction, or distraction? Did you put aside any time to improve your leadership skills or knowledge? This might have been as simple as being curious and watching a couple of YouTube videos. Learn what is happening in leading businesses, it doesn’t take too long to find a couple of case studies and pick up a few pointers, then think about how this can be applied in your business. Leadership isn’t just visible in the big decisions. It’s in the energy you bring to the day-to-day. And your team mirrors it back, whether you realise it or not. Many of us rose through the ranks by being the fixer, the hard worker, the one who showed up when others didn’t. But that mindset, the hustle, the constant firefighting, the 14-hour days, doesn’t scale. It […]

The Skills Shortage Smokescreen

Stop searching for unicorns. Build a workplace worth joining and staying at. “We just can’t find the right people.” It’s the go-to excuse for operational issues, stalled growth and missed deadlines. But let’s call it what it is: a smokescreen. The so-called “skills shortage” is a convenient distraction from a harder truth. For many businesses, they don’t have a people problem, it’s a management problem. David Altana is head of growth and partnership at Smartspace.ai and co-host and founder of The Better SMB Podcast. When we dig beneath the surface, the reality is clearer than we’d like to admit. If your business can’t attract or retain good people, it’s probably not the labour market letting you down. It’s likely something internal: your culture, your systems, or your leadership. You Get What You Build For According to MBIE[1], 40% of roles in Tamaki Makaurau are classed as low-skilled, so let’s contrast a couple of businesses in the same region, competing to attract the same workers. One constantly complains about a lack of skilled staff. The other quietly gets on with hiring, training and growing its team. The difference isn’t luck. It’s leadership. Rob Bull is Director and principal consultant at Plexus Consultant and co-founder and host of The Better SMB Podcast. The successful business has designed itself to be a place people want to stay. It invests in onboarding, creates meaningful development pathways, and builds an environment where team members feel valued. Managers know their people. They communicate. They coach. They share the “why” behind the work. These companies don’t have a secret recruitment strategy, they simply understand retention starts with trust, which is built through day-to-day leadership, not policies or perks. To get an idea of what this looks like in practice, it’s worth reading the Jones & Sandford Joinery […]