From the Editor

By Matt Cooney, August 10, 2006 @ 3:09 pm

We get a bit hot between the ears when someone mentions ‘the brain drain’ in New Zealand. It’s our young and talented drawn by the big cities and bigger bucks offshore: doctors, entrepreneurs, academics, teachers and—probably causing the most distress—our rugby players. We train them, give them a few clues about the world and then they head off to create wealth elsewhere, leaving behind their student loans and elderly relatives. Or so the theory goes.

Which is why our advertising industry is so interesting. There’s a steady stream of creative young New Zealanders headed for the agencies of London and New York, but the local industry has turned that to its advantage by keeping in close contact with expats, luring other creative types here and by giving opportunities to young talent (see Catherine Smith’s cover story on page 32). It’s clearly working: our industry had its best result ever at the Cannes Lions ad awards this year.

You might think our advertising hotshots don’t have much in common with our emerging green energy industry, but both are making the most of New Zealanders’ creative thinking and can-do optimism. Pioneering clean energy is a tough business but the potential returns are massive—not to mention the flow-on effect for industries like tourism and agriculture, as Sally Blundell reports on page 52. If the green entrepreneurs can harness our talents as cleverly as the ad industry then they have a good shot.

None of this is new, of course. Margaret Mahy has been running a global business from her Governors Bay home for decades. Mike Bradstock tells her tale on page 66.