Māori Business Growth programme launches

The first Māori Business Growth programme held by The ICEHOUSE has kicked off. Head of Māori Development at The ICEHOUSE, Shay Wright, says The ICEHOUSE and University of Auckland Business School have recognised the importance of Māori SMEs and incorporations to New Zealand’s economy and are championing a move forward to help them grow. 

The Māori Business Growth programme has been created for a Māori business audience leveraging both traditional business wisdom as well as Māori knowledge systems. It focuses on interweaving core concepts of people, management, marketing, financials, and the role of culture and iwi in the businesses.  

“BERL has valued the Māori economy at $37 billion. SMEs make up 70% of that value. The two day workshop focuses on these SMEs and the managers of them. It’s going to shake them up a bit, challenge their thinking, especially about what it means to be a Māori business, and fill their kete with tools and ideas to grow their impact on the Māori and New Zealand economy.”

The workshop is co-facilitated by Christine Woods and Chellie Spiller (Ngāti Kahungunu) of the University of Auckland Business School. Both have a longstanding involvement in business development and Māori business issues.  The ICEHOUSE has a strong track record of supporting business growth to draw on. This has enabled the team to pull together learning from export focus business, family business and agricultural operations.  

“The strength is in our brand, but interestingly the talent and value is in the room – both in the presenting team, but also in the participants. The informal chats between participants are hugely important”, says Wright.  

Along with the UABS facilitators, there will also be presentations from BNZ, Ernst & Young, Tainui Group Holdings and Kajavala Forestry – catering to the wide audience of Māori SME owner-managers and iwi development managers. BNZ and Te Puni Kōkiri have been hugely supportive in making the programme possible. The recently launched indigenous food cluster is catering the programme.