To P or Not to P
You can’t milk a rocket, but it sure pays better. From powdered milk to powered flight
Urology vs Neurology
For over thirty years I’ve been, shall we say; piddling into boardrooms across New Zealand, trying to make people see the value of intellectual property. It hasn’t always been warmly received. Perhaps I need a better Urologist. Or perhaps the boards need better Neurologists; because when it comes to understanding where true value lives, comprehension flows, at best, intermittently.
Our advantage lies not in raw materials but in rare materials
I recently visited Matt Jordan’s new exhibition in the city and was utterly spellbound. From his studio in the far north of New Zealand, Matt has earned world recognition, commissions arrive from around the globe and now routinely exceed the cost of a luxury car. One commission alone could equate to a small fortune in milk powder, yet what his clients receive is far rarer: a living work of art that can never be resold, only carried.
Matt’s work is cinematic in scope, narrative rich in storytelling and allegory, drawing on the greats of art history yet entirely reinvented. Here is intellectual property in its purest form, drawn by hand, told through skin, and exported from the far north as proof that New Zealand’s most valuable resource is still its imagination.
Body of Work, showing on Level 7, 131 Queen Street, Auckland, until 29th November, is not to be missed.
From body art to propulsion tech, our small country proves world-class IP doesn’t need size, just audacity.
Across the country, Kiwi ingenuity is taking equally audacious forms. At the Robinson Research Institute in Lower Hutt, engineers have developed a revolutionary ion thruster system they amusingly call the Steam Punk Bagel, a high temperature superconducting magnet designed for the next generation of electric propulsion. What links tattoos and bagels? It’s the same spirit that Rutherford fostered in his Cambridge laboratory: “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” It’s the imperative to do more with less, to ask bold questions and create something entirely new from humble beginnings. Both Matt Jordan and these space entrepreneurs are generating homegrown intellectual property of the highest order, transforming imagination and ingenuity into global value.
From Robinson Research Institute in Lower Hutt, comes a revolutionary ion thruster system, The Steam Punk Bagel.
Provenance is not just where things come from; it’s the spirit with which they’re made.
You can taste it in wine, feel it in hospitality, see it in technology. And yes, even Fonterra seems to be piddling its IP into the hands of France, who, naturally, have always known what brands are about.
So after a lifetime trying to convince boards intellectual property is not a cost but a currency, I’ve written it down.The book I’m working on may be my final shake, an attempt to unravel the ambiguity around brand, value, and IP. Because it still hurts when IP appreciates in value… but isn’t appreciated in the room.
Yet hope remains. Every now and then, someone realises a brand is not garnish, it’s the meal. Ideas, stories, symbols, far beyond physical assets.
So yes, I’ll keep piddling, politely, persistently, into boardrooms and balance sheets. I look forward to the day it no longer hurts when IP is ignored.
And so, the question for us all: To P or not to P?
Luxury tattoos. Rocket bagels. Only in New Zealand.
