A Counter to Doomsayers of Manufacturing in Australia
Every day people in positions of ‘opinion authority’ make choices about what ‘opinions’ they will offer on a whole array of subjects. And it would be fair to say that over the past five years or so, many of those ‘opinion authorities’ have been significantly negative on Australia’s manufacturing sector. There’s no doubt that the sector is undergoing change which includes a shrinking base and fewer employees. And allowing me to counter with just one observation – it seems to me that the vast majority of these ‘opinion authorities’ have NO CLUES as to how well some areas of Australian Manufacturing are going,
Now I’m not going to go too extensively into this observation but any of these opinion authorities might for one just go and visit Hilton Manufacturing in Dandenong, chat to them about their ongoing growth, their continued demand and some of the initiatives they take beyond the manufacturing sector.
And let me prompt you just one step further because Australia’s manufacturing supply chain has brilliance all the way through it. One case in point in the Industrial Design company Katapult Design in Byron Bay. They probably make surfboards or hair beads right? Er no. Katapult Design have just won a Global award, the Red Dot award which is the ‘Academy Award’ of Industrial Design for their design work in Medical Products. The Best of the Best 2013 award
Katapult were approached by an overseas company to undertake the design work. Nathan Pollock and his team do other brilliant work for companies around Australia – manufacturing companies. So the next time any of these ‘opinion authorities’ open their mouths about the future of manufacturing in Australia, tell them to pull their heads in, or at the least, take their blinkers off
Whilst the counting of votes is over the election is yet to be completed. Right now the discussions continue between the ‘three amigos’ who are clearly maximising their time in the spotlight, and the two leaders of the major parties. And whilst the media is fixated on who ought to be, deserves to be, should…
Read More >If you’ve seen any of the media campaigns for the Australian Federal Election you could have come to the following conclusions: Julia Gillard had a fixation with hand getsures; Tony Abbott had a fixation on Boats; and the Greens had the best Television Commercial not only of this campaign but of any other they’ve had…
Read More >If you’ve been following any of the mainstream media election coverage here in Australia (stuff in the usual papers, radio and TV programs) you’ve no doubt got a good understanding of what is going to happen on election day. The mainstream media synopsis thus far is that a) Julia Gillard got off to a good…
Read More >This great little cartoon/graphic says it all and although looking at the subject of Universities, there is much that we can all learn Here’s the Graphic. If your website spends all its time talking about you, and no time talking about the customer, how do you think your customers (and prospective customers) feel? I…
Read More >A series of recent activities has me writing on the idea of ‘future strategy’ and how different organisations are approaching their future development. What is interesting is the strong sense that preparing for your potential future requires multiple paths forward, not a single ‘home run’. To that end I’ve recently considered sporting bodies and local…
Read More >Stephen Downes is one the handful of bloggers I follow consistently. I do so because Downes (unlike many others unfortunately) like to write about his thinking AS WELL AS promoting the thinking of others, whether or not he agrees with them. In that way you get a solid collection of alternative views within his field…
Read More >Coming off what has been undoubtedly my busiest period (3 months) in the past decade, I’m in the throws of catching up on some light reading. I usually have at least two books on the go and my preference is for the books to be about diverse topics because it allows the mind to seek…
Read More >Every now and again you have an opportunity to listen to some rare insights to an industry sector. These opportunities are typically rare because the insights need to come from someone who not only ‘knows their stuff’, they need to be able to translate their knowledge in a way that the average person in the…
Read More >The ‘Supertax’ debate is an interesting one and as expected, both parties are heavily invested in their own outcomes. One thing the Mining Companies understand is that the tax will lower the size of their profits in boom times for the resources sector – they’ll still be raking in billions, its just that some of…
Read More >As more organisations look to gain an understanding of how to both identify and prepare for their potential and desired futures, Design Thinking is on the current radar screen as a skill set likely to provide significant value. On the 25th to 27th of may you can attend a highly interactive and practical conference on…
Read More >