View from the Terris
July 2002

Business Seminar a Resounding Success

About 100 representatives of the business community met together with Councillors and Council staff at the Alan McDiarmid Centre, at the Gracefield campus of IRL recently. They have had major input into the future direction and thinking of the Council because of their stress upon the need for us to become more active in fostering, encouraging and facilitating business growth. The Seminar, entitled "Partnership and Transformation", was sponsored by The Evening Post and organised by Council staff. There was major emphasis upon the Council being more active in the following particular areas:

1. The business environment - that is, the area of planning and consents needed to be such that businesses would feel they wanted to operate here, and were encouraged to do so by a business friendly Council.
2. People - that is, businesses have certain skill shortages which needed to be identified and remedied, and that meant encouraging people with particular training to make their homes here.
3. Infrastructure - here it was emphasised that it was not the Council's business to actually start businesses itself, but it was certainly its business to provide for infrastructure that attracted and fostered new business. This might include better roading links, better internet links, and a more attractive physical environment in the form of "industrial parks".

The gathering heard about some of the really outstanding businesses which already existed in the area, such as Formway Furniture, which ranks alongside the best in Europe and America in the design and manufacture of office furniture.

It was noted that this was part of our growing self-confidence as a nation, which evidenced itself in the growth of a distinctive and unique New Zealand identity, reflected in niche manufacturing designs.

It was pointed out that we could learn from the success of our own local businesses, that, as a Council and as a community, we needed to evince the qualities which had made them internationally successful - qualities such as energy, focus and a "can do" attitude".

I was struck by the quality of our entrepreneurs and the extent to which they valued the people that they worked with. When I visit successful businesses in our city, I am continually struck by the way in which the leaders of those businesses treasure and affirm the people who work in those businesses to create that success.

My other conclusion was that the Hutt has a great future, but we can't simply let it happen. Indeed, businesses like Metallion (manufacturing stadium seating to the world), Formway (already mentioned), and DMC Stratex (a high tech communications company), have shown by their success that we must use their way of doing things to develop more of what they do in the way of high value specialist manufacturing, to create job opportunities and the vision of the future which will only happen if we make it so.

God Bless,
John Terris
Mayor