Great design is deceptive. It looks so simple and obvious. Of course an iPod is the way to listen to music, a Campagnolo Record drivetrain the way to power a racing bike, or Google the way to search the internet.

But great design is anything but skin deep. It only works - it only happens - when it goes right down to the heart and soul of the company that produces it. And such a company thrives only when its roots go right down into the culture and country that inspire it.

When a company 'lives' design that deeply, it can distinguish and differentiate itself. Its products and services offer people unique value. It can prosper in a world economy against countless competitors offering only cheaper, me-too goods.

What works for a company can work for a nation. New Zealand could earn a very good living by offering the world inspired products and services. If we were that good, we could compete globally against companies driven by mass production, cheap labour and huge markets.

But that requires us to make nothing less than a fundamental shift in our approach to design at seven levels, right from the design studio down to the deepest aspects of our culture and country.

First, design must be fully integrated into the life of the company. Every aspect across a product's lifecycle - research and development, procurement, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and customer service - has something invaluable to contribute to the design of a product or service. If they don't, then design lives briefly in a vacuum and then dies.

Second, design must apply even to the structure of the company. A cleverly conceived and run company brings its people together in ways that let them be highly creative, efficient and well-rewarded in their work.

Third, design must shape the very networks and organisations through which we lead our lives and connect with the world. We have to be smart in the ways we get our act together because we live in a country so short of capital - human and financial.

Fourth, design must spring absolutely from who we are as a richly multicultural nation; what we are as a beautiful, unique country; and where we are half a world away from most other people. Our 'New Zealandness' is our greatest competitive asset in a world where one product or one country looks evermore like another.

Fifth, we need as a nation to want good design. It need never be expensive or elitist, just good and accessible. We need to appreciate the value and functionality of well-designed things, whether they're goods, services, systems, spaces or organisations.

Sixth, we need to understand that a niftily-designed product is no quick fix that somehow transforms everything. We have to do the very hard yards of imbuing our lives - unselfconsciously - with good design, before it can work its magic.

Seventh is the downside. If we don't use design as a multifaceted tool to help us earn a better living in the world, we'll never be anything more than a tiny nation producing prodigious quantities of a few commodities - a way of life guaranteed to result in economic failure.