Māori business concepts

What these concepts are

• Māori business concepts are the values a Māori business is run on. They shape what the business exists for, who it answers to, and what counts as a good decision.
• They are not a translation exercise. Each concept changes the decision a business makes, so it belongs in an explanation as a reason, not a label.
• Five carry most of the weight: pūtake, tūranga, tikanga, kaitiakitanga and rangatiratanga.

The five concepts

Pūtake — the reason for being.

• Why the business exists at all.
• Many Māori businesses exist for reasons beyond profit: to hold and grow collectively owned resources such as land, water or forestry for whānau, hapū and iwi, or to sustain te reo, arts and culture.
• These businesses often run to a multiple bottom line — social, cultural, environmental and economic goals reported alongside profit.

Tūranga — the positioning or anchor of the business.

• How the business is set up and what it is built on.
• A business built on collectively owned Māori land may be legally unable to sell that land, so it cannot make the decisions an ordinary company would make. It must generate returns from the asset rather than out of it.

Tikanga — values, rules, priorities and ways of doing business.

• The set of values that shapes how the business behaves day to day. Named values include:
  • whanaungatanga — kinship and relationships; developing, managing and sustaining relationships, and working harmoniously towards common goals
  • manaakitanga — hospitality, generosity and care; resourcing the business to host and look after people properly
  • kotahitanga — unity and a shared sense of belonging
  • wairuatanga — spirituality, and observing spiritual protocols
• Tikanga also creates real tension: obligations to whānau, and whānau expectations, can pull against what is commercially easiest.

Kaitiakitanga — guardianship of natural resources.

• Responsible environmental management and sustainable enterprise.
• Assets are held for future generations rather than owned outright with a right to sell them, so decisions are judged over decades, not quarters.

Rangatiratanga — self-determination, ownership and control.

• The right and the ability to make your own decisions about your own resources.
• In business terms: keeping ownership and control local rather than selling to an outside investor, and being motivated by that independence.

Which concept a decision belongs to

• Each concept covers a different kind of business decision:
  • Waste, water, land, emissions, long-term resource use → kaitiakitanga.
  • Staff relationships, teams, unions, whānau, working together → whanaungatanga, within tikanga.
  • Who decides, ownership, autonomy, outside control → rangatiratanga.
  • Why the business exists, and goals other than profit → pūtake.
  • Legal structure, land, collectively owned assets → tūranga.