The study followed the Prime Minister’s observation to an Auckland audience in May last year that “Wellington is dying and we don’t know how to turn it around”.
A third of the companies interviewed had total sales of over $50 million for the most recent financial year. Almost half had operated in the Wellington region for over 20 years. The senior managers were united in their views of the advantages of being based in Wellington but had varying thoughts on the most effective ways to promote the city.
One major plus for Wellington is its compact city centre which allows easy networking in a community where people are willing to share insights. Wellington is seen as having a collegial atmosphere—information is shared and, as a result, it’s easier to pull projects together and deliver on them.
Companies also say proximity to government provides opportunities to work on complex and demanding long-term problems and this work helps develop and maintain strong skills in project management and business analysis. In the technology area, the distinctive skills in Wellington are in establishing start-ups and in online engagement rather than manufacturing or consumer goods.
A big plus for Wellington is that it is seen as offering a work-life balance which is difficult to have in Auckland or the major Australian cities. The capital has good public transport, relatively short commuting distances, opportunities for many to live in apartments or inner city suburbs within walking distance of work and house prices which increasingly compare favourably with those in Auckland.
Branding Wellington as a good place to work through focusing on its advantages as a digital city was seen by many as the best response to New Zealand’s distance from overseas markets. As one interviewee put it, Wellington should be promoted as a city where “new stuff happens and digital businesses thrive”. As another executive observed—“Geographic borders are nowhere near as important as they used to be. There is aggregation of activity around cities as opposed to around countries… Wellington needs to re-define itself, like all cities do”.
During August, Victoria University aims to identify in more detail the key skills that fast changing digital companies aim to attract to Wellington, where nearly 50 percent of people work in knowledge intensive roles compared with the New Zealand average of one third. Please get in touch with me if you would like to be involved. Email: richard.norman@vuw.ac.nz
Read the report on Wellington’s knowledge economy
Dr Richard Norman teaches Human Resource Management and Training and Development at Victoria University. This is one of three articles on findings of the study, ‘Wellington’s knowledge economy – coming to grips with technology change’. The study was developed in partnership with Wellington Regional Council, with support from Grow Wellington and Wellington City Council.