Standards to get profile boost

By Tom Clarke

We can expect to see and hear more about Standards New Zealand and its activities in future if Rob Steele has his way.

Standards NZ's new chief executive says that promoting the crown entity and what it does is one of his key objectives.

Mr Steele says the organisation, which establishes and monitors effective voluntary standards for New Zealand industry and commerce, has a big impact on the lives of every New Zealander, although that's not generally recognised.

"It's not a case of banging the drum for the sake of it, but banging the drum to make sure that people understand why we're here and know that we're pretty customer-focused."

Standards NZ is particularly important to exporters, to help them to avoid running into invisible barriers to trade imposed through the use of standards, particularly in the case of our major trading partners, he says.

For that reason, the body works closely with its equivalent in Australia to produce joint standards.

"One of the key objectives for New Zealand exporters is to produce a product that will meet Australian standards," he says. "The trend now is even more towards meeting ISO [International Standards Organisation] standards, so that when they're exporting to places like Europe and Asia, manufacturers and exporters won't be tripped up by what are effectively invisible barriers to trade."

To smooth the path for exporters, Standards NZ is also a member of the ISO, which helps it to align local standards as closely as possible with international standards.

This has applied particularly in the timber industry, where Standards NZ has worked closely with forestry and industry groups to ensure that some of the species of tree being grown in New Zealand, particularly pine, get international acceptance.

Unlike many overseas standards organisations, Standards NZ receives no Government funding. It is totally reliant on industry funding, which Mr Steele says is a healthy situation.

"Our dependence on the users of standards for funding obviously provides a very sharp focus on what's useful."

Mr Steele has a background in senior financial management and joins Standards NZ after six years with the Kapiti/Horowhenua power company, Electra, where he was chief executive. He joined Electra after 18 months at the Bank of New Zealand. Before that he worked in financial consulting and auditing with one of the predecessor companies of what is now Deloitte Touche Tomatsu.