An interesting article here that came out of the Better By Design conference last week. The gist of the argument was that, in order to remain globally competitive, NZ manufacturers have no option but to move production offshore.
Now we need to qualify this argument – if we want to remain price competitive then, yes we have no option but to move to locations with a labour cost that is less than ours. But in stating this aren’t we missing the main point about our ability to compete? we should not be trying to compete on price but creating world class products that are sufficiently differentiated that they command a premium.
An example I like to use is the Danish design houses – Danish Design is, of itself, such a well known concept that the individual brands are buoyed by the brand as a whole.
This is where a specific NZ brand that is bigger than all the little boys and girls trying to do their own stuff comes in.
It was tried a while ago by The NZ Way but maybe the time is ripe for another go – no catchy gimmicks just Authenticity!
