ThinkTank@HERA Archives

Are engineers behind the times when it comes to intercultural training?

Articles for Troy Coyle, Career, Industry Development, Resources, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent August 16, 2019

Surprisingly, this appears to be the case according to research recently released. An interdisciplinary team involving researchers with backgrounds in engineering, intercultural communication, and applied linguistics from universities in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia, and Japan conducted the research. They analysed written materials with intercultural communication as the subject, as used in engineering education. They…

The biggest single industry in New Zealand for waste is building and construction. So with commercial construction at record levels, residential building consents peaking at 1970’s levels, massive housing shortages combined with anticipated additional demand from Kiwibuild – we must find a better way. The solution is adopting circular economy thinking. Not only does this…

Your current employees are the key to helping our industry promote itself!

Articles for Troy Coyle, Education, Industry Development, Resources, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent March 6, 2019

What do you ACTUALLY do? Your answer can help our industry better promote itself. There is no doubt that heavy engineering has an image problem. We’re consistently hearing how hard it is to attract and retain quality staff. Students are not choosing it as a study focus. Apprentices are hard to find. Women are not…

What’s the future of our industry?

Articles for Boaz Habib, Education, Industry Development, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent February 18, 2019

If you think you’re safe from disruption, then think again. Because by the time a disruptive change has overtaken us, we won’t have time to react. If recent history is anything to go by, our future will be full of change. Innovations in the digital space have already transformed us, and the rate of change…

Diversity dissonance – broaching a taboo topic

Articles for Troy Coyle, Education, Industry Development, Resources, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent February 13, 2019

It’s not often you’d expect a heavy engineering research association to talk homelessness to their membership. But, having recently discovered that three homeless people were sleeping in the undercover area at the back of HERA House – here we are. The discovery led to some really challenging discussions amongst HERA House tenants on how to…

Stand up and move: is sitting the new smoking or bacon?

Articles for Troy Coyle, Education, Industry Development, Resources, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent February 11, 2019

Sitting for long periods is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat. This makes it a serious health and safety consideration with emerging awareness of its impacts. A range of studies show growing evidence for the serious consequences of pro-longed sitting.…

Benchmarking New Zealand’s performance in innovation and R&D

Articles for Troy Coyle, Industry Development, Research & development, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent December 10, 2018

New Zealand’s R&D and innovation performance – can we do better? The answer is yes! NZ’s expenditure on R&D is benchmarking alarmingly low. This is the key takeaway from MBIE’s recently released 2018 Research, Science and Innovation System Performance Report. But why does this matter? According to the OECD and Treasury, low R&D investment…

What are HERA’s values?

Articles for Troy Coyle, Education, Industry Development, Resources, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent December 5, 2018

That’s a good question and one we have been asking ourselves. So much so, that we’ve been working with our team to define them. Initially, by getting our lead team to propose what we think are the really important values we want to live by, and then having discussions with our full team to see…

Could your company infrastructure be set to face a natural disaster?

Articles for Boaz Habib, Education, Industry Development, Research & development, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent October 17, 2018

In today’s digital age, traditional manufacturing companies must harness disruption before it engulfs them. If you aren’t prepared – your company infrastructure is a natural disaster waiting to happen through digital disruption. That’s because natural disasters aren’t just restricted to events of nature. Nature of events can run their course in businesses and markets as…

Building real estate in innovation leadership

Articles for Boaz Habib, Education, Industry Development, Resources, ThinkTank@HERABy Kim Nugent October 10, 2018

Property infrastructure is on our radar for the month of October. And, not surprisingly it got us to thinking about what infrastructure needs to be developed to create a better organisational leadership culture. To answer this, we took inspiration from the Founder of Doblin Larry Keely who said “Innovation is the elegant integration of many…