Thinking about Technology Valley

The Hutt Valley has not performed well in terms of GDP growth for most of the last decade. Many manufacturing businesses have closed or moved to Auckland. A number have become service/distribution companies for products produced outside the region, often offshore.

Science and technology, readily available from within the region, represents an opportunity for Greater Wellington Region and especially Hutt Valley manufacturing and export businesses to build a strong and sustainable competitive advantage that will both underpin growth and ensure the long-term survival of the companies. Essentially, the plan is to ensure that to the maximum extent possible, locally generated science and technology  - along with the R&D institution connections - become a core competences of the local firms.

In summary the goal is to:

Influence Hutt Valley and other Greater Wellington Regional businesses – notably existing and emerging manufacturers and exporters – to:

1. regard science and technology and R&D institution links as critical core competencies, and
2. engage actively with regional R&D institutions such as Callaghan Innovation, WelTec, Victoria University, Massey University, GNS Science, NIWA, ESR, BRANZ and CRL Energy.

Traditionally, businesses and science providers in New Zealand have struggled to communicate and cooperate effectively. This reflects different values and different perceptions of time and money. The challenge remains to encourage and help them to work in harmony such that a mutual interdependence develops to the benefit of both.

If business: science collaborations can be established on a large enough scale, then the economic well-being of the Hutt Valley and the wider region will be greatly enhanced and GDP and employment growth assured for a long period. If the collaborations occur sufficiently widely across the Hutt Valley, then there is every reason to rebrand the two cities involved as “Technology Valley”.

There are a number of parallel initiatives underway. Technology Valley Online is one of them, led by Fraser Carson of FRESCO with funding support from WelTec. This will provide an online forum for regular communication and provision of information on the evolution of Technology Valley. Technology Valley Working Group chairman Charles Peterson is working on private sector development initiatives involving the introduction of very significant offshore technology. Callaghan Innovation is now up and running, incorporating Industrial Research Ltd and the Technology New Zealand applied research and innovation funding role formerly operated by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and its successor, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. It will be important that Hutt Valley and greater Wellington firms engage rapidly and intensively with Callaghan Innovation; it is certain that the management of the new entity is presently considering where to allocate its resources - demands from Auckland and Christchurch will be strong.

So what else is required to bring Technology Valley to realty?

Vantage Consulting Group believes that there is an opportunity for skilled consultants to engage directly with Hutt Valley manufacturers and exporters in particular in order to build business: science collaborations. Some might believe that this is the sole province of Callaghan Innovation but such sitting on our hands is a passive approach which is not served us well in the past. Callaghan Inovation, now up and running, cannot be everywhere at once. They will want us to be proactive, to stimulate and challenge our businesses to think in new ways about how engagement with science can provide them with a new and sustainable form of competitive advantage. This may require firms to rethink strategically the manner in which they are operating now and their present and future directions.

Business and science organisations are inevitably very different. Problems can arise in terms of commercial vs scientific objectives, ownership of intellectual property and achievement of acceptable timeframes for completion of works that scientists undertake full businesses. These are areas where we at Vantage Consulting Group believe we can help facilitate the change in companies’ strategic thinking which, if executed and applied on a large enough scale, can lead to Technology Valley becoming a reality.

Clearly, to achieve this on a large scale, we would need to allocate a great deal of time to the tasks involved. For this reason, we have approached the Technology Development Group of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, seeking support for Hutt City Council and Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment co-funding. The Technology Development Group viewed our approach as too “top down” and believed that Callaghan Innovation was likely to carry out the work anyway. They suggested that we obtain co-funding from Grow Wellington like other consultants.

We have not allocated several tens of thousands of dollars of free consulting time to the promotion of Technology Valley so that we can be like other consultants! Our aim is to work together in a coordinated partnership with important organisations such as Callaghan Innovation, Grow Wellington, Hutt City Council, WelTec and the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce to make the Technology Valley dream come alive. If “top down” means challenging manufacturers and exporters about their underlying business assumptions on technology, science and future strategic direction, then we think this is a great idea. Attempting this on a bitsy, one-off basis will only result in the Hutt Valley maintaining its past poor economic performance and trajectory.

What do you think?