Signs of a Nation: The story continues

From Kevin Roberts. Yesterday I talked about Monocle’s 6 ways to brand a nation. In the same issue, they talked about how you can make your country stand out. A few years back, Geoff Vuleta, Derek Lockwood and I were attempting to convince the New Zealand government to give Saatchi & Saatchi a crack at developing an out of the box, extraordinary tourism campaign for New Zealand. A campaign that would put us on the map everywhere. It’s hard to break through the very competitive tourism clutter, and we had an idea that was astonishing in its audacity and innovation. Politics ultimately got in the way and the idea never saw the light. Monocle gives us 10 things to do to make sure your nation can compete with the best of the best. And what are the best nation brands? I’d put Italy, France, Ireland, Switzerland, Singapore and Dubai in my Top 10.

Here’s Monocle’s formula.

1. Develop an appealing national cuisine. Every woman knows the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Look at what France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, China and Thailand have done in this area. One thing’s for sure, New Zealand and Australia are not at the top of the totem pole in this game.
   
2. Develop a local wine, beer or spirit industry. Both New Zealand and Australia have done a fantastic job in wine and beer. Some might argue Bundaberg Rum (but only if you live in Queensland!) and 42Below have proven that nothing is impossible. A vodka from New Zealand. You have to love it.
   
3. Be recognized for being fair and just. New Zealand has taken a very positive stance in this area in terms of female emancipation, our position on the nuclear issue and view on conflicts that have very little to do with us. Visitors don’t want to get involved in Draconian local legislation, corrupt justice systems, or human rights issues.
   
4. Re-engineer the heavens. Neither New Zealand or Australia are faced with this particular problem. What passes for summer in the Northern Hemisphere is our winter, and we’re playing rugby. In the miserable Northern Hemisphere winter, it is summer in God’s Own. Places like Scandinavia successfully re-engineered the heavens by having all their travel photography being shot on that one golden day in July!
   
5. A good brand travels. Last week Air New Zealand was rated the number 2 long distance airline by readers of Condé Nast Traveler magazine. Singapore and Dubai owe everything to their 2 magnificent airlines. Unfortunately, British Airways and Heathrow aren’t quite the advertisement they used to be for the UK.
   
6. Behave yourself. Lager louts, race riots, taxi and tube strikes are not the best way to encourage tourism. New Zealand must be in the top 3 in this area with its easy going hospitality and relaxed and friendly population.
   
7. Go easy on religion. Religious fanaticism and extremism is off putting wherever it’s practiced. As Dave Allen said at the end of every show, “May your God go with you”.
   
8. Master infrastructure. Crowded airports, inefficient trains and public transport on strike do not add up to great experiences.
   
9. Build brands people want. Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland have all built brands. In some cases they are Lovemarks. So, how did they do it? Mystery, Sensuality and Intimacy are the key. Think Italy and Brazil.
   
10. Invest in sports. Go the All Blacks in France. Bring back the America’s Cup, Dalts.

KR

Signs of a Nation

From Kevin Roberts. Tyler Brûlé's Monocle magazine just gets better and better. Check out number 6 which focuses on nations and their branding. Tyler offers 6 ways to brand a nation and throws in another 10 steps to make your country irresistible.

First look at how Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Italy and Hong Kong measure up against these criteria and then run your own nation through them. It’s a fascinating journey.

Let’s start with Monocle’s 6 ways to brand a nation.

1. Flag
2. Passport
3. Bank Notes
4. Typeface
5. Stamps
6. Road Signs

Simple ideas, but they resonate with me.

Flag: In my house in Grasmere, I have a limited edition distressed rug by Vivienne Westwood that depicts a beat up Union Jack. On my wall, I’ve got an iconic photograph of The Who draped in a giant-size Union Jack while sleeping near the Houses of Parliament. A limited edition of 7 prints of the Stars and Stripes by the photographer Art Kane is also iconic, and if you go to the store next door to one of my favorite hotels, the ZaZa in Dallas, you’ll see a bunch of flags of Texas, the Lone Star State, including one with a bullet hole.

We are haunted in New Zealand by a flag that looks like a pale imitation of our colonial past. One of our super patriots, Lloyd Morrison, has led a campaign to find the contemporary iconic representation of what it means to be a New Zealander. To me the answer is on the All Blacks jersey on the left breast. The Silver Fern.

Passport: The new U.S. passport released two months ago has elaborate illustrations of U.S. history printed on every page. In New Zealand, they don’t even stamp mine when I leave home. In Britain, we had to turn in our special leather-bound, gold-embossed British passports for European community passports - which means absolutely nothing.

Bank Notes: U.S. bank notes are bewildering to any non-American. They are all the same size and color and it’s hard to differentiate between a $1.00 and $100 bill. On the other hand, the Australians have come up trumps in terms of tactile sensuality. Here’s a rough rule of thumb: the smaller the value, the brighter the color.

Typeface: Bob Isherwood, my creative partner at Saatchi & Saatchi, is a fan of Helvetica. It’s a typeface that lets the idea do the talking and leaves lots of opportunity to do something special.

Stamps: For me, stamps have the power of a one-scene movie. They should tell the stories of a nation’s history and future. Stamps are a perfect way to connect past, present and future through visualization of great heroes, great events and great experiences. And, of course, every year or so we need to issue a limited edition of one, just to keep the philatelists on their toes.

Road Signs: Think about these in Paris, or in other romantic environments. What a great opportunity for brilliant art direction and iconography. It’s a major opportunity for most countries and New Zealand is at the top of the list.

For the second part of this post, check in tomorrow. KR

Denis O'Reilly Blog #17: Looking through a kaleidescope

Angela Davis, 1974

“It must be a beautiful feeling to fly halfway around the world, touch down in a seemingly contented society, and discover a body of people who have been enacting your disobedient thinking for over 30 years.”

Blog #17 of Denis O’Reilly’s series Nga Kupu Aroha, from the flipside of the edge; “Looking through a kaleidoscope” (4,750 words):

• The meaning of Maori tangi; tangi for Mick the Aussie biker in Wellington, and Rangi Tareha at Waiohiki Marae after a 500-strong funeral in Redfern Sydney; the Hamuera Morehu Silver Band
• Arthur Young’s The Reflexive Universe and his explanation of the seven stages of evolution (Theory of Process)
• Edge-dwelling and the brink of disobedience
• The visit by Angela Davis (“the candle of social resistance”) to New Zealand with a radical agenda: the process of decarceration and introduction of restorative justice; her influence on the Polynesian Panthers in Auckland, capital of Nesia
• Definitions of “organised crime” in New Zealand; distinctions between venial and mortal sin; discontinuity of the 1980s economic reforms resulting in a 3:1 Maori/Pakeha unemployment rate; moral panic and the perspicaciousness of policy makers in regard to the criminal justice system
• “Can we reverse the trend and steer those people who are caught up in crime back to legitimate pursuits?”
• Time magazine’s cover story “New Zealand: A Culture of Violence” and Zeppelins sighted in Southland
• A good reason to get upset – the grand denial of potential; imprisonment becoming the standard expectation of our underclass, our lumpenproletariat, our nga mokai; Law & Order Select Committee submissions by Principal Youth Judge Andrew Beecroft and Children’s Commissioner Cindy Kiro
• “Could we agree on having a decarcerated nation within which the indigenous people are proportionally the least imprisoned population segment?’; tut-tutting at Australia
• “Police dragnets can criminalize whole communities and land large numbers of non-violent children in jail and don’t reduce gang involvement or gang violence…Once jailed these children will inevitably become hardened criminals and spend the rest of their lives in and out of prison…The emphasis needs to be on changing children’s behavior by getting them involved in community and school-based programs that essentially keep them out of gangs.” New York Times, 19 July 2007, “The Wrong Approach to Gangs”
• Celebration of life for daughter Kaylene; prayerful and profound intervention of a tohunga; respect and admiration for an ICU doc
• Maatariki – planted shallots, garlic, onions and chives and now time to dig in mustard so it can enrich the soil for Maori spuds: Tuteakuri, Moemoe and Perepuru
• A week ahead of politics and difficult engagements dissuading people from one path and persuading them to take another.

Posted. Raumati South

New Zealand Unleashed

My daily foray into Unity Books at 57 Willis Street has just yielded the sort of book about New Zealand that curls your toes up with anticipation. “New Zealand Unleashed: the country, its future and the people who will get it there” by Steven Carden (with Campbell Murray) is a geo-bio-histo-psycho thriller about the emergence of New Zealand in a pan-global sweep through nature and technology. Rooted in the biological science of complex adaptive systems, “Unleashed” is sectioned into “The end of certainty,” ”How to build a successful society,” “New Zealand’s DNA” and “Ideas for a more adaptable New Zealand.” A sped-up world and how we need to face change are key subtexts.

There are several elements to return to in “Unleashed” including the chapter “Maori 1 – a crash course in survival” about the extraordinary adaption of Maori society. “…after landing in New Zealand, Maori sat apart from the rest of humanity for perhaps another six hundred years. No one came to visit. No sailing vessels appeared over the horizon. No mail or telegrams arrived with news of the outside world. No one had sailed over the horizon in either direction for a long, long time. As far as Maori were concerned, New Zealand was the world.” (p 164)

Most resonant for me is the Steven Carden’s placement of New Zealand at “the edge of chaos”: “Innovations rarely emerge from systems with high degrees of order and stability. Systems in equilibrium lose diversity and give rise to the sorts of problems one encounters in homogenous communities and centrally planned economies. On the other hand, completely chaotic systems – riots, stock market crashes, revolutions – are not that great either.

“The key is to find that spot where disequilibrium breeds vitality and creativity, but doesn’t do so at the expense of all order and structure. The spot is the ‘edge of chaos’, a term coined by the physicist Norman Packard. He uses it to describe a state of untidy creativity, between rigidity and chaos. In this zone, the system is best able to function, adjusting constantly to a turbulent world, but without traumatic upheaval.

“Systems operating at the edge of chaos are excellent information processors and are highly creative. They are sensitive to slight changes in external conditions and internal events, generating innovative responses to these which adapt or evolve to suit the current environment. ‘The ghost in nature’s machine,’ he writes, ‘almost seems to be purposefully piloting the system to the edge of chaos.’…

…[The edge of chaos is] where productive agitation runs high, innovation thrives and breakthroughs occur. It’s the place this book argues New Zealand should be. A dynamic, innovative, creative society that is comfortable changing.” (pp 112-113)

Globalization is an exciting concept for New Zealand when viewed through a biological lens. We have a unique and powerful location in the world that is significantly underappreciated by a mass of people stuck in the rut of “small, remote, isolated.” “New Zealand Unleashed” puts some much-needed intellectual and metaphoric moxie into our perspectives about who we are, and what we are capable of achieving. “Unleashed” introduces new thinking and language that picks us up and points us to a better place that has us fully engaged with global change.

Steven Carden is an Engagement Manager for management consulting firm McKinsey and Co., and returned to NZ in 2006 from a posting at McKinsey’s New York office. He has arts and law degrees from Auckland University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. In 2005 Steven was one of five New Zealanders awarded an inaugural Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leaders Award. Campbell Murray is director of the Novartis BioVenture Fund in Boston. He trained as a doctor and also has an MBA from Harvard.

“New Zealand Unleashed,” by Steven Carden with Campbell Murray, Random House, Auckland

America's Cup - do we have the Edge?

A principal interpretation of the edge metaphor is that of seeking competitive advantage - in business, in technology, in creativity, in sport. How to win, how to sustain winning. Here's a sprinkling of edge metaphors in media commentaries on the America's Cup, the finals of which commence Sunday morning NZ time in Valencia, Spain, between the holders, Alinghi of Switzerland, and Emirates Team New Zealand. Godspeed boys from the edge.

"The America’s Cup represents the leading edge of yachting design.”

“It is the nature of the beast that once that edge is gained - there is no second.”

“These boats and crews have been honed to a razor edge in these trials.”

“What gives a syndicate an edge is how they apply the technology.”

“The America’s Cup Finals - who has the edge?”

"If one team has a slight speed edge it is likely to be game over."

“Both teams tacked to a port course looking for an edge as the wind shifted.”

“We expect the changes will help us gain a competitive edge.”

“Throughout the race, it was clear the black boat had a speed edge.”

“In front during the first leg and made the turn with a 32-second edge.”

“They had an edge on speed and had a perfect week where everything went their way.”

“New Zealand grab America's Cup edge.”

“Cutting edge Kiwi products and technologies have a strong presence in Valencia.”

“Team NZ hold an edge in head-to-head clashes in buildup regattas.”

“The feeling is that if Alinghi believe they have a speed edge, Baird will steer.”

“In America's Cup sailing as well as in financial services, to be on the cutting edge it takes the right combination of strategy and teamwork.”

Photo by Carlo Borlenghi ACM, Sail Magazine.

Kevin Roberts on the Heart of Wellington

Invited by the Wellington City Council to address business leaders and influencers at Te Papa on creativity, in the context of being awarded a WCC-sponsored Kea/NZTE World Class New Zealander Award, Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Worldwide and nzedge.com co-founder Kevin Roberts commenced by revisiting the 1991 Saatchi-created Absolutely Positively Wellington campaign which put modern moxie into the beige government town.

Roberts observes that there are 428 metro areas in the world with populations of more than one million inhabitants. Cities are an organizing idea of the 21st century. How does Wellington – population 164,000 in the city and 424,000 in total regionally – become a global leader? People figure centrally; the city's reputation should start with its people. Nancy Wake (where is her statue?). Joseph Nathan (where is his statue?). The brilliant and recently-departed scientific trio of William Pickering, Maurice Wilkins and Alan MacDiarmid. KR favorites Earle Kirton and Ken Gray. Because of the fissure they broke in Wellington’s crust, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Richard Taylor and their Wingnut/Weta crews have created a world-leading film industry. From magnetic resonance to Olympic composition to All Black HQ, southern harbour-jewelled Wellington knows how to cut a swathe from the edge.

The conundrum is that Wellington is the capital city; “contentedness is a problem for a capital; where is the burning platform? The challenge for Wellington is to radicalize the public sector. I’m talking about the difference between policy wonk and policy passionista. We have to radicalize the culture of incrementalism. It’s time to light the beacons of Gondor. There needs to be a rebellion against the prevailing orthodoxy of civil service. To be successful, companies have to create organic growth of 4-6%, year in, year out. That takes creative combustion that travels to customers at warp speed. It’s important for New Zealand to have a peak performing government sector, because it comprises about 40% of our economic activity. This is Wellington’s #1 job. All along The Terrace there should be outrageous goals that absolutely lift performance. Strategies, reports, plans and platforms are survival table stakes. Action comes from the “I” words – Imagination, Insight, Intuition, Inspiration and Ignition. One revolution beats a hundred resolutions. It starts with language…all revolution starts with language. Wellington is The Heart of the Edge of the World. That’s a hell of a draw card…here where the world starts.”

Text of the speech is here http://www.nzedge.com/speeches/come_to_the_edge.html



Video of presentation to Wellington City Council (4 April 2007 - 39 minutes, 89MB)

TED Conference: Edge Experience

BACK TO THE FUTURE: The genesis of the “New Zealand as Edge” metaphor was a conversation started at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference http://www.ted.com/ in California in 1996 with Kevin Kelly, then founding editor of Wired magazine, about biological constructs aka change in the species always starts at the margins, the fringes, the edges. Recently I have been been back in Monterey for my 10th TED and been boggled as usual by the range of presenters, from economists, demographers, architects, photographers, designers, space scientists, geeks, VCs, surgeons and singers. TED is like drinking from a firehose. Presenters included French designer Philippe Starck, physicist Murray Gell-Mann, biologist EO Wilson ("the Ant man"), basketball hero Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, singers Paul Simon and Tracy Chapman, bashful tycoon Richard Branson and passionate novelist Isabel Allende. President Bill Clinton was an experience in itself but even he bowed to the humility of war correspondent and photojournalist James Natchwey. Keynotes are 18 minutes, shorts are 3 mins – Sam Morgan presented a new design for dispensing pain relief medicine which can save lives the world over. TED aims to improve the world. TED can be for everyone, see the inspirational and sometimes world-changing presentations at http://www.ted.com/. See especially the presentation by Hans Rosling at the 2006 conference, it will change your world view of what is happening and what is possible. TED is billed as "Ideas worth spreading" as the conference assembles the "world's greatest thinkers and doers." I first went in 1994 after discovering the information architect Richard Saul Wurman, who created and owned the conference, and whose thinking and methods have been a major influence on my work. Chris Anderson now owns, curates, convenes, chairs and cajoles, and he has beautifully segued the original vision into a working/achieving movement. For me TED has been life-changing in terms of seeing ideas up close from the folk who had them. I don't have on my CV "invented the PC", but chances are the person standing next to you in Monterey did. The proximate location to Silicon Valley has always ensured cutting edge technology breakthroughs have been shown, but today's most important science - biology - is at its core - together with a rambunctious and irresistible humanity that has people constantly on their feet. My notes (50 speakers, 6 pages) on the 2007 meeting are at www.nzedge.com/features/TED.html.

Time Magazine goes to the Edge

The Edge metaphor is used countless times everyday the world over to describe situations where people are seeking a competitive advantage. A nick, a tipping point, or the avoidance of crisis. At the left is a May 2007 ad for Time Magazine. A one-word equity. Time talked to nzedge.com in 2003 when they visited to do their five-yearly survey of New Zealand, titled:

"Cool Kiwis: Why it's suddenly hot on the edge of the world."

The Edge metaphor permeated Time's 50-page rave, taking an in-depth look at designers, scientists, exporters, film industry, Maori language revival, musicians, and winemakers, in a bid to discover "what makes NZ one of the world's edgiest countries." The verdict? "NZ is in the vanguard of a dynamic world - its human diversity, open spaces, wit, flexibility and sheer tenacity have taken a rugged, isolated country and positioned it on the cutting edge of adventure, knowledge and creativity ... its talented tall poppies are fast, savvy - and so hot, they're redefining cool."

How are we feeling in 2007? Time's 2003 description of New Zealand is far from our view of ourselves as presented in the daily headlines. How can Time's 2003 vision encompass all New Zealanders? Is this who we really are? Or is New Zealand really a "lifestyle island" where people principally want contentment? This blog will explore, celebrate, push and cajole solutions to question.

For 50 more images of Edge - book covers, magazines, posters, captions, people - go to http://www.nzedge.com/gallery/index-world-edge.htm