6 September 2012
Maori businesses urged to exploit their X-factor
Having a Maori schoolkid greet a Chinese businessman out in the wilds of East Cape – speaking perfect Mandarin – is the
kind of distinctive touch that gives Maori business its edge.
It certainly worked for Sir Wira Gardiner and the new company he is involved in, New Zealand Manuka.
“He was a Chinese investor looking for a business partner in New Zealand and he had seen all the flash people, who had
wined and dined him. So we did exactly the opposite,” Sir Wira told an industries conference in Rotorua last week.
“We took him to a rural area, Whangaparaoa [where the company works in partnership with local Maori], and a boy from the
local school got up and mihi-ed him in Mandarin. That was the breakthrough for us – the moment the student started
speaking, his eyes lit up.”
The resulting deal, signed in June, secured potential revenue of $8 million to New Zealand Manuka and gave the fledgling
company’s manuka honey health products access to 1700 outlets in China.
Opening the Nga Whetu Hei Whai: Charting Pathways for Maori Industry Futures conference, Sir Wira, a founding director of the Waitangi Tribunal and former chief executive of the Ministry of Maori
Development, said: “That agreement came from relationships; from doing the unexpected; and from doing the only thing
we’ve got as Maori, te reo me ona tikanga [the language and its culture] – you’ve got to play to that strength.”
The point of difference that Maori could offer in the business world was a recurring theme of the two-day conference
organised by Te Putea Whakatupu Trust, an education, training and workforce development organisation established in 2004
under the Maori Fisheries Act.
Te Horipo Karaitiana, chief executive of the Federation of Maori Authorities, saw being Maori as a distinctive
plus-factor on the international stage.
“Whenever we’re building businesses at an international, national or local level, we need to be mindful of the concepts
of comparative and competitive advantage. I’d put to you that there’s one more – our distinctive advantage: our cultural
advantage.
“Being Maori makes a difference internationally – I see it all the time. We have a long-term, inter-generational view.
In China, there is a concept called guanxi – a concept similar to whakawhanaungatanga (relationship-building). We
understand that concept, so we’re one step ahead of everyone else,” he told the conference.
“The Maori nation is a developing nation within the developed country of New Zealand. We’re worth about $36 billion
according to latest BERL report and we have to ask ourselves ‘what is the future of the Maori nation?’ It’s a real
simple answer: Whatever we decide it will be.”
Looking back to Maori success as international traders in the 1830s to 1860s, Mr Karaitiana said: “Maori enterprise is
absolutely prospering again.”
“It’s an exciting future for our young people coming through, steering these large-scale businesses that are based on
collective asset bases, into global value chains. I know that Maori and what we’re motivated to do will change this
country.”
Te Putea Whakatupu Trust chairman Richard Jefferies was delighted to have brought together so many prominent Maori
business leaders for the trust’s second annual conference.
“We need to collaborate and ask ourselves what will key Maori industries look like in 30 or 40 years, and how do we get
there?” Mr Jefferies said.
“The aim is to identify a strategic vision for Maori industry and support our economic growth through education and
skills development.
“With the assistance of industry leaders, the trust will develop education and training strategies to boost Maori
capability at middle and senior management level and help provide the skills that these key industries will need from
their workforce in the future.”
More than 20 other speakers included Maori Party co-leader Dr Pita Sharples; Aotearoa Fisheries chairman Whaimutu Dewes
and its chief executive Carl Carrington; Ngati Porou Seafood Group general manager Mark Ngata; agriculture consultant
Hilton Collier; Tutehounuku Korako, director of International Inbound Travel Services; Antony Turoa Royal, chairman of
the Maori Broadband Working Group and a director of 2Degrees; Hemi Rolleston, chief executive of horticulture company
HukaPak; governance strategist Rawinia Kamau; and Hinerangi Raumati, former chief financial officer of Tainui Group
Holdings.
An international perspective was provided by keynote speaker Sophie Pierre, a member of the British Columbia Treaty
Commission and a representative of Canadian First Nations.
ENDS