What vision should this country have?

What vision should this country have? 

New Zealand feels as though it has an identity crisis. We are the land of milk and honey. But are we always only going to be known as a largely rural country with great farmland? To me, New Zealand used to have an edge. A different type of spirit. 

In the mid 2010s we had quite a sophisticated economy. Tourism and tech were almost competitive with our primary industry at about 10% and 7% respectively of GDP. When you compared with Australia, their tech sector was a measly 1% contribution to their GDP (although they have, and continue to have, a massive minerals industry which naturally skews % breakdowns). There was an economic joke during this period that Australia was the home of barbers and baristas. They were seen as a service's economy. Compared to New Zealand during this period, our country was known to have a rockstar economy (when the GDP growth is above its historical average - we had a growth rate of 3.5%). 

This has changed. We all feel the stagnation. But this perhaps started years ago. With signals like the migration of Xero from the NZX to the ASX in 2017, Rocket Lab being restricted by our government and iwi with regard to how many launches they can do in New Zealand (although being based in US is super important to their plans anyway). These are clear signals (and sensible ones really) that any innovation domiciled locally always has a roadmap that leads to leaving this country. 

Changing tact, it is interesting to look at Singapore and what Lee Kuan Yew did. Lifting essentially an island no one wanted, that was largely undeveloped, undesirable land, into a new country that has the highest GDP per capita in the world. But what a lot of people don’t know is that its formation was based on the Meiji Restoration of 1860s feudal japan. The Japanese were forced to develop a new strategy (that weaved their spirit and tradition with industry) in the face of the industrialisation of western powers. It was called: Fukoku Kyohei. It simply meant, enrich the country, defend the country.

What is nation building? Aristotle had a super interesting take on this; and it was something he imparted onto Alexander the Great (Aristotle was Alexander’s tutor). He said that a country is like a person; for anyone to act in the world properly it needs a soul. And Aristotle said that to have a soul, you need purpose, a vision and identity; meaning. A country needs meaning, just like any person. 

So as a country, what is our meaning? What are the things we can be proud of? 

Why did we really start this business, a few years ago, trying to build batteries? Ultimately building an eco-system and model unlike any in the world. The underlying driving force for us at Aotea Energy was to reduce energy poverty for our people on Aotea. Now we see what we have built as having direct applicability for our country. 

But it is actually deeper. It isn’t really about the batteries or tech innovation. It isn’t even so much about reducing energy bills and deploying a programmable layer of smart storage and energy dispatch for our country (although this is super super important!). It is actually about heeding the call to fulfil our needs as people to have meaning.