Well another NZ manufacturing company has decided to chuck it in and open shop in China.
I am up to my ears in the area of manufacturing these days and I am a little shocked at the level of debate going on. Manufacturers are saying that if the corporate tax rate was dropped to between 20 and 25% then they would be ok and wouldn’t have to move. The sad news is that YES YOU WOULD!
The traditional manufacturing model is broken … there are now only very few areas where you can sustain-ably mash atoms on the edge of the world and move them 1000s of km to your market to sell them. Tax cuts aren’t going to help you. You’re competing on COST against companies that move their entire corporate structures to squeeze every last cent, rupee and yuan out of the process. They are going to kick the collective ass every single time - because while you were sleeping they changed the rules on you.
Should NZ close up the manufacturing shop? One of my advisors regularly says that the manufacturers should cut a deal with go-karters, ten-pin bowlers and anyone else who needs a large covered space ‘coz it’s game over. It’s going to be more profitable to rent out the space by the game. He’s right … the answer isn’t in big spaces here in NZ or, importantly, even in big spaces in China. The answer lies in changing the rules again. The pieces are there to be put together. If you permit me to be a little parochial we’ve just got to behave like Kiwis again. A good Rodquote is:
“This is a global opportunity that we can credibly take from New Zealand. We really do understand how small businesses work and the sort of issues our small businesses have are the same as the UK and Australia.”
The same logic applies when it comes to atoms. NZ has always been on the edge of the world and that experience is something that can’t be replicated and is rich loam in which to grow new ideas. We have always known the constraint of moving stuff around the world. It’s time our manufacturers stopped asking for tax breaks and started working out how to own a manufacturing game they can win.
A little while ago I posted a video of the robotic arm that has been created by Dean Kamen and his team. Ryan from hawaiigeek.tv forwarded a segment from a presentation Dean Kamen made in the last couple of days:
Well, after a bit of a struggle (damn them and their “secure by default” policies) I have been able to spin up an Amazon EC2 instance. So now I have essentially limitless computing priced by the hour … REALLY powerful! This means I can now foot it, software wise, on a global scale - from my office, muuuuuuuuuuuuuhaha! But seriously - Kiwi companies, pay attention! Global computing infrastructure for dollars …
I am using the very slick Right Scale tool. The guys there have done a great job in wrapping up the Amazon services in a very neat package. Nice work!
At Ponoko we’re eating up milestones and to keep up this rate I’m looking for someone to take charge of the development side of the company. I’m looking for a CTO or Senior Dev person.
The app is built on a RoR/MySQL/Linux stack. So I need someone with experience in that environment. I will also pay attention to really experienced (8+ years) web developers who are willing to come up to speed on the platform (e.g. LAMP developers) or developers who have a lot of experience with dynamic languages (Pythonistas feel free to apply). Bonus points are given to developers with a design or art bent. Special attention will also be paid to developers who have worked in a design led software development environment.
I’m not looking for a contractor. I want someone to join our team, buy into our dream and be involved in something quite special. You will be a person who has successfully shipped, who will be able to bring a bag of processes and who we can build a team around.
If you want an idea of my history and working with me please check out my LinkedIn profile.
To make it go, you merely twist the throttle, no clutch or gears, and the damn thing is almost totally silent, the chain whirring on the sprocket the only real noise at full throttle. It is pretty unreal to go fast in total silence like that…
