Creating value for NZ Inc through cleantech
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe says he is incredibly frustrated by zealots on either side of the global warming debate.
Tuesday, June 08 2010 || Comment || BY Unlimited staff
We struggle with that as an airline. We will never be the world’s biggest airline and in fact we don’t have any right to operate any routes other than to and from New Zealand. So as we look and say ‘how do we grow our business and create more value for the New Zealand economy?’, we have started saying ‘how can we create value from our intellectual property, our endeavour, activity and innovation?’
We’ve developed some of the newest, most innovative seats in the world and we can sell that technology. We’ve got one of the most creative and best developed aircraft interiors businesses in the world, so we can sell our interior designs for aircraft to other countries.
That’s where the future lies, not trying to compete with economies that have far more scale than us and say ‘we can produce a pound of butter or a widget or a seat cheaper than you can produce it’ but actually we can produce a more innovative, more valuable product and we can teach others how to do the same by exporting our intellectual property.
I look at China and India and other high growth economies in Asia, and we can’t compete on scale. I’ve been to China seven times in the last two or three years and they value the reputation we have for quality, for our environmental standpoint, our innovation and creativity.
I look at China’s economy and we have a perception as being strong in agricultural exports so how can we leverage our brand and our reputation and creativity into the scale of that market? We can never produce enough to match the consumption growth that will occur but we can help them to develop the infrastructure themselves.
And I look at that and say ‘what would happen to our ability to grow value for this economy out of the Chinese market if we had a major environmental scandal or catastrophe in this market?’
It would destroy the value of our brand and our ability to create increasing value for this economy. Yet we almost take our environment for granted and today we are doing less than many other developed economies to try and preserve and enhance our environment. It feels to me that we are on the verge of a great opportunity but we also sit on the precipice of great risk if we don’t embrace the environment we have and figure out how we can take a position on the world stage and leverage that position for great value.
If someone feel like a customer now on Air New Zealand, it is a great improvement. In the past you felt like and object with one purpose of existing, pay. Maybe the same should be applied in overseas export markets. Maybe New Zealand should stop feeding useless bureaucrats in NZTE, embassies and consulates, and make use of the 40% of top skilled expats kiwis that already have left the country because they could not stand the inapt beancouter culture. Now we hear that only 20$ of the skilled immigrants stay. The use New Zealand as a stepping stone to something better. There are two possible reasons for the New Zealand failure. Stupidity or ignorance. Ignorance is curable, stupidity is not. harriss.rick@gmail.com
Posted by Rick Hariss at 12:45 on June 10, 2010
I'd like to see Air NZ expressly state their value proposition in an equation that includes the airline fare in $$. eg. Business travellers your value = xx + xy. Am sure it will be interesting compiling one for the non-business travellers :-)
Posted by KeaSqueak at 11:46 on June 9, 2010
As a businessperson who up until recently was flying 4-5 long haul flights a year, I will always fly Air NZ for business or pleasure after the enormous strides they have made in the past 3 or 4 years. Every time I step onto one of their planes I am made to feel like a customer, and that is a fantastic feeling when done well. Compare that to flying domestically in the US, and there is night and day between the experiences.
So a notional equation about the value proposition is pointless for me, and proves to me that price is not the only proposition an airline can compete on.
Posted by DW at 02:15 on June 9, 2010
Whilst Rob's has a valid point about extremists there needs to be consideration to the thought that without them we don't achieve middle ground. Just mull that concept!
Posted by Beach cleaner at 04:20 on June 24, 2010
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