EDITOR’S LETTER New Zealand’s Future Space

We can only take New Zealand to the world successfully if New Zealand enterprise sees itself differently. That will only happen if we can imagine world in which we are the centre of gravity, at the top not the bottom, price maker not price taker, land of innovation and leading edge thinking, land of positive action populated by organisations that understand the shifts that are taking place.
We need to shift the perception of ourselves as nation that trades commodities – taking prices and not thinking global about the way in which we do business. Instead we need to set standards, think premium and clever and collaborate with the best and brightest the world has to offer. We need to promote our uniqueness.
According to the GlobalScan survey released at the Davos Economic Summit we lead the world in environmental governance. What better position of strength from which to view the world of the future?
So, let’s image ourselves as successful, unique, something special, as leaders of the new world not the old, of limitless thinking and moving beyond the boundaries.
Pose the questions: What does it take to see ourselves differently and to act accordingly? Can we help write the blueprints and show the way by promoting the courage and the confidence to simply imagine the world we are entering?
On Management magazine we want to help explain the new world in which New Zealand must survive and thrive. We’re doing this with stories throughout the year. We have already identified many of them. In this month’s cover story associate editor Vicki Jayne talks to top people about the big issues of the day. She asks them what big ideas will shape New Zealand’s future; how far will New Zealand’s compass swing as the geopolitical power points east; how does an export-dependent economy cope with rising oil prices; are we on the verge of climate changes and environment considerations that offer us real opportunities or more insurmountable problems? We know what approach we want New Zealand enterprise to take.
Today’s world is world of broadband, of outstanding leadership and enlightened governance, of innovation and global partnerships, of new markets in Asia. It is world in which people are valued and their ideas harnessed to transform our world.
New Zealand needs help and advice to reshape its enterprise, its political environment, its way of thinking if we are going to imagine the future successfully.