Qualified staff departure a problem

By Keith Newman

THE cornerstone of New Zealand's future export prospects is our ability to do things cheaper than elsewhere, and the challenge is to find and retain qualified staff with hi-tech skills, says Tait Electronics chairman Angus Tait.

Our major differentiator in the manufacturing market place is lower wages and our ability to make things go a lot further technologically, he says.

Mr Tait believes the combined impact of our colonial days and our survival of the "holocaust of the early 1980s," has produced a built-in ability to do more with less. In the early 1980s, he says, the traditional infrastructure was turned upside down by privatisation, deregulation and the removal of government incentives, but the upshot was a cost-effective economy.

The only problem with paying lower wages than competing industrial nations is having to constantly train young people who may end up leaving for greener pastures. New Zealand's flatter economic structure means, he says, that pay rates are often 25 per cent lower than in the United States, Britain, or Australia.

"We take about 20 to 25 new engineering graduates each year and train them up to the standard required. We have the largest engineering staff in our field in Australia and New Zealand - about 200 people - and we lose about 10 per cent through natural attrition each year."

To ensure the company gets the best graduates, it has a formal agreement with Canterbury and Auckland Universities. It makes cash contributions and sends its experienced people to give lectures and help shape the engineering curriculum.

The only way to keep staff is to make the work interesting and leading-edge, he says, and make it clear you're investing in the best plant available in terms of test gear, computer access and tools of the trade, and give good career prospects.

Moving New Zealand from a rural-based economy to one based on intellectual property is imperative, Mr Tait says, but will be a slow process unless the Government takes a stronger interest in promoting technology-based industries.

Except for words of encouragement and export awards the Government hasn't actually done much, says Mr Tait, who is 80 this year. He was recently awarded the Trade New Zealand Director's Award for his contribution to exports.

Christchurch-based Tait exports over $100 million a year in specialised mobile and portable radio communications equipment and recently secured a $30 million deal to supply a mobile radio network for the province of Alberta in Canada.

"You can't create clusters by taking some strange initiative from the academics. Mushrooms grow up together mysteriously. I don't mean to be unkind to Porter," he says.

Mr Tait describes economic development guru Michael Porter's recent visit as "academia spouting visibly and being watered by Tradenz at great cost."

He says the idea of clustering related industries together to strengthen the technology sector is "well overblown" because the process happens naturally.