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!…
In the next ten years, 40% of the fortune 500 companies won’t exist in a meaningful way. When we stop paying attention to being the disruptor – we become the disrupted. Growth matters. Throughout history we’ve seen this happen many times. As our CEO Troy Coyle mentioned in her ThinkTank@HERA article ‘Are you disruption ready?’ the journey…
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…
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…
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,…
That was the provocative title of my Keynote at MAD2018: A Collaborative Future for NZ Manufacturing and Design. It’s a question that is well worth considering. Though, I’m not sure the answer is one that we all want to hear. Manufacturing BERD looks great. GERD not so much. According to Statistics NZ R&D Survey…
Manufacturing companies make significant contribution to NZ’s BERD according to a report released recently on the state of manufacturing in New Zealand. “Manufacturing Report 2018. Beyond commodities: Manufacturing into the future” identified that in 2016, national BERD was just $1.6 million, with manufacturing accounting for 42% of that ($671 million). The report also identified that the metals…
Like many organisations, we want to ensure that our team gets home safely after their day’s work. Raising health and safety awareness is a fundamental step in ensuring that happens. The heavy engineering metal-based sector is full of hazards in workshops that must be managed and controlled, but driving is an unsuspecting one that often…
BRANZ is New Zealand’s independent, impartial research, testing and consulting organisation for the building and construction industry. However, there is a current perception that they aren’t as impartial as they should be – and have a bias towards timber. But is that really true? Our CEO Dr Troy Coyle decided to take a closer look,…