Amazing what Google searches can find ! I ran across this discussion in your forum concerning an article I had written a year ago for the Press on my experiences as an employee of an electronics design company in New Zealand. I'm currently working in Canada for a subsidiary of a USA Electronics Manufacturing company. Perhaps I could comments on some points raised by Andrei Link. (I'll also later comment on Vicki Hyde's e-mail).
>>[AL] The team culture in NZ is something he seems to have overlooked. I have personally heard comments in the US about how team-oriented the NZ development culture was and how easier it was to get things done. ...What will happen to this part of the culture if Vaso's model culture prevails and how will it affects end results?<<
Kiwis, like all nationalities - including USA citizens - labour under some comforting patriotic delusions. This is one of them - that Kiwis are more collegial - "nicer" - in their workplace, and that this somehow leads to both greater productivity and an enhanced lifestyle. Team orientation in NZ seemed to me no better and no worse than can be found in any North American workplace. If it were true that Kiwi culture makes it easy to get things done, then we would see a much more successful Silicon Plains high-tech in Canterbury and a rapid influx of investment capital. This isn't happening. I suggested in my article some reasons why not.
>>[AL] On management training for engineers: I have not met here an engineer telling me that he/she wanted to do a management course and was discouraged by his/her company. I had the privilege of having my MBA supported by my company, and I know of many other similar examples throughout the industry.<<
In the electronics design company where I worked in Christchurch, there was - as far as I could determine - not a single person among some 200 professionals who was actively studying for an MBA or MEM. I don't believe there were more than a half-dozen Master's degree holders - of any kind - in the entire facility. There was one PhD - in Geology ! This is in stark contrast to a typical "Silicon Valley" company - or in fact any progressive electronics company throughout the USA. Even here in Canada, where the number of (post)graduate degree holders is typically less than in the USA, I'm in an electronics hardware design department where about half the engineers have an Engineering or MBA-type Master's, (by law, all are Registered/"Chartered"/Licensed Professional Engineers), and there are perhaps a dozen Physics/ Engineering PhDs in a department of one hundred.
Here in Canada, my boss has a PhD in Engineering. In Christchurch, my boss with the same title had a Secondary School diploma and some kind of minor radio/technician Certificate - but no degree and no comprehension of university-level studies - perhaps even a hostile attitude towards higher education. I seem to recall he could barely read without moving his lips. His lack of knowledge had devastating impact on the quality of his decision-making - and he could not be made to see the light. Up and down the line in Management and Senior Technical positions, there is simply no equivalence between "comparable" USA and NZ high-tech companies. Kiwi companies are typically FAR behind in the intellectual investment represented by post-graduate degrees. This needs to be corrected. Kiwis have plenty of raw science/engineering/programming talent, but if New Zealand expects to build a high tech industry of any size and significance, it must move
away from the idea that a bachelor's degree is enough for a progressive career in world-class high tech.
Regarding Andrei's point that no company in New Zealand discourages MBA (Master's) studies. He's probably quite correct - though I have to wonder that perhaps post-graduate study was rare in my employer's facility in Christchurch precisely because so few Managers had first degrees and would therefore feel threatened by post-graduate degree holders. In the USA (and, to a lesser extent, Canada), productive and ambitious employees are quickly identified and urged to pursue (post) graduate study. This is *actively* encouraged in North America - not so in New Zealand, where post-graduate study is more or less a matter of voluntary personal initiative which competes with tramping and rugby games.
More tomorrow. I have to get back to work, lest I feel the lash...
-Vaso Bovan, BESc, MBA, PEng
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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