Māori business concepts
What these concepts are
- Five Māori business concepts run through the whole of Level 3 Business Studies, and any of them can attach to any topic — operations, marketing, human resources or strategy.
- Each one is a value the business is run on, and each changes what counts as a good decision. The reasoning lies in the effect on the business, not in the translation.
The five concepts
- Pūtake — the origin or reason for being.
- Every business has a reason it exists. Many Māori businesses exist for reasons beyond profit: to hold and grow collectively owned resources such as land, water, farms or forestry on behalf of whānau, hapū or iwi.
- Many run to a multiple bottom line, where social, cultural, environmental and economic goals sit alongside profit in the mission statement and the annual report.
- Some exist to provide an avenue for cultural expression — to sustain te reo, Māori arts, design or performance — and seek profit mainly so they can keep doing so.
- Tūranga — the positioning or anchor of the business.
- The legal and ownership structure the business sits on. Some Māori businesses use the same structures as any other business; those built on collectively owned assets are subject to specific laws.
- The practical consequence: if the core asset is Māori land that will never be sold, for legal or tikanga reasons, the business cannot make trading decisions the way a business that can sell its assets would.
- Tikanga — values, rules, priorities and ways of doing business.
- The set of values that guides how the business behaves, including whanaungatanga (relationships and kinship), manaakitanga (hospitality, care and generosity), kotahitanga (unity), wairuatanga (spirituality), puawaitanga (seeking the best return across integrated goals) and purotu (accountability to current and future generations).
- Kaitiakitanga — guardianship of natural resources.
- Responsible environmental management and sustainable enterprise: caring for land, water, flora, fauna and people as assets held for future generations, rather than owned and available to be sold.
- The trustees or owners are kaitiaki — guardians — so the test of a decision is whether it protects and grows the resource, not just short-term or individual profit.
- Rangatiratanga — self-determination, ownership and control.
- The ability of a person, whānau, hapū, iwi or collective to determine its own direction. It is frequently the motivation behind a business rather than a policy inside it.
A concept changing a decision
- Decision. Te Awa Honey, an invented Northland mānuka honey exporter owned by a whānau trust, refuses to increase hive numbers beyond what its blocks can carry, even though demand exceeds supply.
- Concept. This is kaitiakitanga — the hives and the ngahere are held in guardianship for future generations, so the resource is protected rather than exploited for the highest possible return now.
- Effect. In the short term this caps revenue, because Te Awa Honey turns away orders a competitor would take. In the longer term it protects the yield and quality that its premium price depends on, and it gives the business a genuine story for its Japanese and German buyers, who audit sustainability claims. That supports both the price premium and the security of supply the business's profitability rests on.