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

Before I Was Me – thoughts on what aging might hold

Mar 12, 2021

Sometimes the words come to you readily and this small piece has me thinking about what I’d like to say at a time when maybe I’ve lost the cognitive ability to do so   Before I was Me Before I was Me I used to be fit, and even quite smart; We’d chat about love,…

Read More >

Waving Goodbye to Wedgewood’s Factory in HR

Mar 6, 2021

I was doing it well before then and there’s clips of me online going back as far as 2010 or so, railing against the idea of human resources as a label and the insistence by HR managers or CEOs that only people who work ‘in the office’ are going to be productive. It Is A…

Read More >

Why the Future of Vertical Farming is Two Decades Ahead of Expectations

Feb 2, 2021

Like lab grown meats, Vertical Farming is going to be part of the future of food. For now it might be best to compare them to small scale battery storage on the electrical grid that can help balance out spikes of demand in the system and provide an output directly where needed.   Eventually (like…

Read More >

A Shift in Perspectives – What Commercial Property Owners Are About to Experience that Many have Never Before

Jan 27, 2021

In rental and lease markets it’s fair to say that for the best part of three decades, the landlords have been the price setters. The rules around negative gearing in domestic supply enable sizeable portfolios. Demand in office spaces in central suburbs has been consistently tight. And now, finally, CFO’s have become aware of the…

Read More >

PPE Opportunities for Australian Manufacturers Emerging in the USA

Nov 28, 2020

With Australia having just about wrestled Covid19 to the ground (NSW remains a bit of an issue) there’s now surging demand for PPE in the USA. The Covid19 virus is tracking toward an exponential increase and PPE Manufacturers should start looking for supply opportunities Sadly in the USA over the past week, they are adding…

Read More >

The Mechanical, Psychological, and Biological Interventions of a Pandemic

Oct 19, 2020

The Mechanical, Psychological, and Biological Interventions of a Pandemic With Johnson and Johnson also pausing it’s #Covid19 #vaccine trial, it is becoming clearer to more of the public, that the long steady path to a vaccine is not something that can be rushed for anyone’s political agenda or preferred view of the world. We’re learning…

Read More >

Life Versus Lifestyle – Approaching Life AfterLockdown

Oct 12, 2020

It seems that one way or another, Victoria is going to pop out of #Lockdown. Probably not in the way we would have hoped. And so for everyone pushing for #AfterLockdown in Victoria and for the wider society, there are two questions you must confront: One – ‘What do you feel is an acceptable level…

Read More >

The art of sanity in a Pandemic Lockdown

Aug 29, 2020

No, it’s not easy. Most of the challenges come down to our expectations – are they valid based on the assumptions you have made about your future? Those assumptions are based on the information you have available to you. We gather information, make an assessment of meaning, which leads us to make assumptions for an…

Read More >

Covid19 – Helping People Deal With Lock-down Events

Jul 3, 2020

A thought on the ‘Why should I be in lock-down in my suburb, it’s not fair that we have to do it and no one else has to, my hair’s a mess I need to sell coffees and pizza’ crowd – an explanation you might appreciate   You’ve been asked to go back into lock-down…

Read More >

What Makes Good Visions?

May 4, 2020

Visions are forward looking statement, but good ones, REALLY good ones have key elements 1. They are things you want but do NOT have 2. Are as long or as short as they need to be 3. Are by the people they are for 4. Are for the people they are by 5.Offer stability in…

Read More >