Lean startup is an innovation process with an unfortunate name. Although it is based on lean principles, it isn’t the same. And, although it was based on startup evidence, it also applies to businesses of all sizes, Government agencies and not-for-profits. It also applies to well established businesses who are well past the startup phase!…
There are many logical and psychological barriers stopping people from uptaking exponential technologies. In fact a study of US manufacturing firms’ adoption of exponential technologies has many similarities to feedback that HERA receives from its members. Key findings being, that companies are too focused on the day-to-day operations to respond to longer-term disruption opportunities. And,…
The end of July saw HERA deliver the second module of our Innovation READY program. The aim – to mould the mindsets of those willing and open to re-assess how they’re currently doing business. As an attendee, I have to be honest. The concept is quite hard to grasp. Like anything unexplored, it’s unknown. It…
Business disruption is experienced on an almost daily basis. Just recently, HERA lost email and file access for several days, which was hugely disruptive. Could that have been avoided? Yes! We should have moved to the Cloud earlier. But we didn’t because we didn’t think our server would have such a dramatic failure. We foresaw…
Disruptions to established businesses happen all the time. Like everyone else in business, HERA members and their communities are called on to navigate in a potentially disruptive VUCA world – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. In this article Kirsten Patterson, CE of the Institute of Directors of New Zealand (IoD), talks about how her members…
Last week was a successful one for our ‘Design for Joint Strength, Fatigue, and Fracture Resistances in Welded Connections’ seminars series. Taking place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch they were presented by University of Michigan Prof. Pingsha Dong. The inventor of the mesh-insensitive structural stress method adopted by the 2007 ASME Div 2 and API…
It’s been a long time coming trying to find the right candidate – but we’ve finally done it! Next week welcoming Robert Ryan to our Welding Centre team! Robert brings over 30 years’ experience in the engineering trade to our offerings. In the late 80’s beginning his career specialising in welding. Consequently leading to a…
Our Innovation READY course kicked off at HERA last week with a highly motivated group of 18 attendees. It’s the first time a course based on lean start up principles has been offered at HERA. Addressing the important need for developing and fostering an innovation mindset in our industry. The day was packed with high…
Last week we were excited to have our Executive member and WSP Opus Corrosion & Asset Integrity Consultant Raed El Sarraf head to Rotorua from 20 – 22 June. Here, he attended IPWEA’s ‘Disruption, the path to resilience’ conference as one of three finalists for the Hynds Paper competition. Attendees explored the challenges and demands…
We’re coming up to the International Day of Women in Engineering on 23 June 2018. And, with almost all member companies that we visit stating that attracting and retaining talent is a key issue for them, we thought we would share some ideas with you. The aim – to provide some insight on how to…
HERA Foundation is focused on delivering research for the betterment of our industry. And a key avenue they use to achieve this is through the award of postgraduate scholarships. A great example of this is University of Auckland’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Student Kingsley Ukanwa. Who was charged with the task of understanding…
Finding time to think about the future of your business or keeping an eye open for new opportunities can be difficult. Particularly amidst demanding business pressures. In fact, according to our recent member surveys – most find ‘lack of time and resources’ and ‘retaining talent’ the most challenging factors to create an innovative business. So,…