Doing business with Māori starts with leadership
At a glance
Doing business with Māori is a leadership challenge before it is a commercial one. Māori values offer practical guidance for building trust, reducing risk and creating durable partnerships. Organisations that shift from transactional habits to relational leadership are better placed to work with Māori businesses and communities.
Māori are a significant and rapidly growing economic force in Aotearoa New Zealand. Nearly one million people identify as Māori and Māori economic activity contributed around $32 billion to GDP in 2023, representing close to nine percent of the national total. Over the past five years, that contribution has grown by more than 80 percent, supported by an asset base of around $126 billion and more than 24,000 Māori-owned enterprises nationwide.
These figures shift the conversation. Doing business with Māori is no longer optional, symbolic or a ‘nice to have’. It is now business as usual for organisations that want to remain relevant and credible in New Zealand’s future economy. Expectations have also changed. Māori businesses and iwi are sophisticated commercial operators with clear governance structures, long-term aspirations and a strong focus on intergenerational outcomes.
From transactional to relational leadership
What often holds organisations back is not intent but mindset. Many still approach Māori engagement through a transactional lens, treating it as a task to complete or a risk to manage. If you treat Māori engagement like a transaction, don’t be surprised when trust walks away.
Shifting to relational leadership, where presence, responsibility and trust come first, is the foundation for working well with Māori. Māori give a piece of themselves when doing business. Leaders are expected to take ownership of that piece and protect it, building trust and enduring relationships in the process.
Four Māori values that shape good leadership
Māori values are often misunderstood as cultural concepts to learn. In practice, they function as leadership behaviours that guide how organisations show up, make decisions and build relationships.
Whanaungatanga: relationships first
Whanaungatanga centres on connection, consistency and reputation. In a business context, it asks who truly owns the relationship and who remains accountable when things become difficult. Taking accountability of the relationship rewards non-Māori organisations with long-term opportunities that are only open to partners of Māori businesses.
Manaakitanga: how you treat people matters
Manaakitanga is about respect, care and dignity, especially under pressure. Commercial success does not automatically translate to maintaining mana. Behaviour during challenging moments sends powerful signals about values and intent. Organisations that prioritise Māori engagement understand that hospitality, openness and respect are not soft gestures; they shape how partnerships form and endure.
Kaitiakitanga: intergenerational thinking
Kaitiakitanga brings a long-term lens to leadership. Decisions are assessed not only for immediate outcomes but for their impact ten or twenty years ahead. Māori businesses often balance commercial returns with responsibilities to land, water and future generations. Leadership that aligns with this value recognises that short-term gains can undermine long-term credibility if they shift costs onto communities or the environment.
Rangatiratanga: respecting authority
Rangatiratanga recognises Māori as decision-makers and rights holders, not stakeholders to be managed. Effective engagement reflects iwi governance structures and authority in decision-making processes. If your systems don’t support these values, your people won’t either. Leadership systems, not policy statements, determine whether rangatiratanga is respected in practice.
Organisational challenges and capability gaps
Most organisational failures in Māori engagement do not stem from bad intent. They come from capability gaps, structural mismatches and outdated leadership models. One recurring challenge is the assumption that care and consultation are enough. Good intent does not equal good engagement.
A common gap sits at leadership level. Māori engagement is often delegated without authority, budget or clear accountability. When this happens, organisations struggle to align speed-driven corporate systems with Māori decision-making processes that value deliberation and consensus. The result is frustration on both sides and missed opportunities with Māori businesses.
Leadership roles have also evolved. Early approaches often relied on appointing cultural advisors without commercial influence. Over time, organisations that succeed have recognised the need for leaders who can operate across governance, strategy and market development. It is not enough to just “speak the language”. Engagement needs to demonstrate practical value that non-Māori organisations can provide to Māori businesses.
Leadership strategies that move the dial
Practical leadership strategies make the difference between intention and impact. At GHD, our Rautaki Māori strategy, our Smart Seeds programme and our Supplier Diversity Strategy offer clear examples of how organisations can align Māori values with action.
Our Rautaki Māori strategy focuses on building enduring partnerships with iwi and Māori communities, respecting mātauranga Māori, tikanga and te reo Māori, supporting Māori employment and retention, committing to continuous improvement and collaborating with clients for sustainable outcomes. These pillars embed Māori engagement into how we operate, not as a standalone programme but as part of everyday leadership practice.
Up-and-coming Māori leaders find opportunities to showcase their capabilities through our Smart Seeds programme. By building relationships with Iwi in particular, we help these emerging entrepreneurs get their voices heard in the right places.
Our Supplier Diversity Strategy complements this approach by intentionally increasing engagement with Māori businesses across our supply chain. We set clear targets of 2% eligible spending with Māori & Pasifika businesses by end of 2025, smashing that goal when we reached 8.9%, and 3% by end of 2026, where we are currently on track to surpass that target at 5.4% spending. This creates tangible opportunities for Māori businesses while strengthening our commercial resilience and market insight.
Our Supplier Diversity Strategy complements this approach by intentionally increasing engagement with Māori businesses across our supply chain. We set clear targets of 2% eligible spending with Māori & Pasifika businesses by end of 2025, smashing that goal when we reached 8.9%, and 3% by end of 2026, where we are currently on track to surpass that target at 5.4% spending. This creates tangible opportunities for Māori businesses while strengthening our commercial resilience and market insight.
These initiatives reinforce a core lesson from our leadership discussions: culture follows leadership, not policy. When systems reward speed over relationships, people follow the system and end up blaming the culture when engagement fails. When leadership models prioritise trust, presence and responsibility, Māori engagement becomes part of how business gets done.
Turning Māori leadership into lasting partnerships
Doing business with Māori sits at the intersection of economic opportunity, leadership capability and values-based decision-making. Māori values provide practical guidance for how relationships are built and sustained. Organisational challenges highlight the cost of treating Māori engagement as transactional rather than relational. Leadership strategies grounded in Māori leadership, Māori engagement and supplier diversity show what good practice looks like in action.
This is not just good Māori engagement. This is good leadership. Organisations that understand this are better placed to work alongside Māori businesses, contribute to long-term prosperity and build trust that lasts beyond any single project.