Business building bridges

Mäori and general business communities have more in common than differences, and both would gain from closer collaboration.

That was just one finding of a wide-ranging national survey of Mäori and mainstream business networks, organisations and government agencies, to find ways for them to work together for the benefit of themselves and the economy.

Mäori businesses are making an increasingly significant contribution to New Zealand's economy, with annual production estimated at $1.9 billion in 2003 and an asset base conservatively estimated at $9.4 billion in 2006.

In the past, both business communities have developed pre-conceived ideas about the other and have failed to develop enduring relationships, says co-author Diane Ruwhiu, a Management lecturer and PhD candidate in the Department of Management.

A significant number of successful Mäori businesses and many smaller ones don't make use of organisations like Chambers of Commerce and Employers' Associations that are there to help them.

Both groups have a strong desire to build closer relations, Ruwhiu says. Each has distinctive differences and should embrace those differences, but they also share similar goals and practices.

"Good business practice is good business practice, regardless of who you are ... but we have to acknowledge respect and work with diversity amongst both communities," she says.

The report, Building Business Partnerships: Closer Collaboration between Mäori and General Business Communities, was commissioned by the Hui Taumata Task Force and Business New Zealand, and jointly researched and written by Ruwhiu, Polson Higgs' partner Phil Broughton and researcher Tony Wilson.