This is not a romantic vision, it is a strategic one.
The problems we’re navigating downunder - the climate transition, housing, the future of work, the health of our waterways, the regeneration of our communities - are the same problems keeping leaders awake all over the world. We just happen to be small enough to move fast, and connected enough across culture and ecosystem to try things that larger nations can’t.
That’s the solutions economy. It’s not a niche aspiration, it’s essentially an economic survival strategy.
The old model - extract, export, repeat - is losing both returns and social licence to operate. The new one looks like this: local problems become local solutions, and local solutions find global markets. Multi-solving becomes the design brief. One investment that moves the needle on carbon, on equity, on jobs, and on health at once. Connected leadership - people who can hold the complexity, speak across sectors, translate kaupapa into strategy - becomes the scarcest and most valuable resource in the room.
At this point, Aotearoa doesn’t lack the ideas or a plethora of ready made solutions. We lack the narrative holding them together.
That’s what I think about a lot at Big Picture Thinking: how the stories we tell about what’s possible shape what we’re willing to try. A scarcity story produces scarcity policy. A solutions story produces something else.
Aotearoa has always punched above its weight when we believed we were doing something worth doing. The question isn’t whether we have the capacity. It’s whether we’re willing to name the ambition clearly enough to organise around it.
I think we are. Check out the manifesto.
BTW - I think everyone should write a manifesto. It is a powerful tool for shaping intention and a great way to force oneself to think deeply and broadly. Plus it’s a fun exercise. What is your burning aspiration for your economy, community, nation?