Iwi leader with attitude

Teresa Tepania-Ashton says there is a wealth of talent to be tapped within Maori organisations. Picture / Richard Robinson

Maori perform at the highest level in comparatively Pakeha-dominated environments such as business, sport and the arts, so there should be no valid reason why they should not emulate this within Maori organisations.

The fact that this is not always the case has given mid-North Iwi leader Teresa Tepania-Ashton a lot to think about since deciding to give something back to her people.

Tepania-Ashton and other top-performing Maori are discovering that the talents that made them successful within mainstream business tend to be undervalued once they enter Maori organisations.

"Mainstream and Maori organisations operate under same the principles of management and business process but public perception of failed Maori ventures undermines the wealth of talent operating within them," says Tepania-Ashton, chief executive of the Kaikohe-based Ngapuhi Runanga the country's largest Iwi.

The end result, argues Tepania-Ashton, makes the job of convincing commercial organisations to become joint-venture partners more problematic.

She says negative public perceptions trivialise the skills it takes to do this sort of job. She has had to draw heavily on former experiences, including senior executive roles with Citibank and HortResearch since stepping into the iwi's hot-seat nine months ago.

One of the attractions was that it enabled her to be based in her home area.

It was her desire to improve the lot of her own iwi that spurred Tepania-Ashton to trade the corporate trappings of mainstream businesses for her present job.

Although 107,000 Maori identify themselves as Ngapuhi, 80 per cent live outside the tribal area. Tepania-Ashton says it will take considerable vision to improve the dismal lot of those who remain in an area where the unemployment rate is 23 per cent and the average annual income is under $15,000.

Faced with these realities, Tepania-Ashton's role running Ngapuhi is a balancing act.

Much of her time is spent seeking partners for possible commercial joint ventures, at the same time allaying any concerns of Maori about such projects.

Tepania-Ashton says that many Ngapuhi, having borne the brunt of questionable board decisions in the past and considerable losses from fishing interests, believe progress is too slow, particularly when it comes to redressing the region's housing situation where 73 per cent of Maori are tenants.

"We are also focusing on increasing our asset base, especially in fisheries and building industry options while continuing to develop our people, especially the youth," Tepania-Ashton says. "We can't do one of these functions without the other so it's a case of aligning the social issues of local Ngapuhi with the commercial urgencies."

But part of the constant tightrope that Tepania-Ashton walks is communicating as to why it takes the sufficient time to do the necessary studies for new ventures. Until now she has been bedding-down internal systems and processes and ensuring her team understands growth and capital expenditure plans. That means exploring initiatives that could lead to a clustering of tourism and other commercial ventures within the region.

"We recognise the need of travellers to engage with Maori in the region and so tourism remains a key future target area," Tepania-Ashton says.

She finds it incongruous that she now uses a much broader range of management skills than were required within most corporate roles she has had - and that's without the flashy salary and plenty of staff to get things done. Now, with a staff of only 10, she says it's crucial that they all become experts in their fields.

Leadership requirements mean she must ensure her team remains open, transparent and above all passionate about making a difference for Ngapuhi, particularly in education and social services. The iwi runs a scholarship programme covering all levels of tertiary education.

"We recently discovered that many of our younger people wanted a central place where they could find information about Ngapuhi and this led to the development of our website," says Tepania-Ashton.

She says that with so many Ngapuhi scattered, it takes patience, humility and insight to withstand what may at first seem no-win situations.

For example, members of Ngapuhi look at the $3 million their iwi has in cash, and the $65 million in fisheries quota claims, and wonder why they're not getting any distributions. One of her biggest hurdles is reaching consensus decisions while managing the minority who feel dejected.

As the public face of Ngapuhi, Tepania-Ashton must ensure everyone understands the relevancy of what their iwi is doing.

"People at the grassroots level need to know why now is the time for asset growth, diversifying and not for making distributions," she says. "It's hard to have this level of patience when you have an entrepreneurial spirit, but we can only progress things at a certain speed until everyone grasps what it is we're trying to do."

She says that organising the road-show to iwi throughout the region has helped allay fears and misconceptions about the role of her organisation. Many of her members thought Ngapuhi Runanga was a government agency because it received fishing quotas. She reminds them that while the organisation was formed to manage its fishing interests it has many commercial and social service undertakings.

Land development is a major factor in the iwi's five-year strategic plan and this is where Tepania-Ashton's HortResearch experience will be of considerable value.

She's is working with Technology NZ to help boost short and long-term growth for the region, including a mix of horticultural and agri-forestry opportunities.

"We won't consider joint venturing on these sorts of projects unless we can see a clear market end," Tepania-Ashton says. "Potential joint venture partners shouldn't underestimate our capabilities or pigeon-hole us because of recent history with failed Maori ventures."

Although Tepania-Ashton admits that some aspects of consensus building "Maori-style" are tedious, she says there's no way of avoiding them in an iwi environment.

So in addition to having key business attributes it's equally important she has lots of empathy with the people of the region. And while this level of consensus-building can appear clumsy and time-consuming to non-Maori business, she says it also helps define future strategy.

Tepania-Ashton says that is why many Maori organisations have an edge over their mainstream counterparts when it comes to visualising for future generations and making fewer resources go further.

"Maori ability for intuitive strategic planning goes back to pre-European times," Tepania-Ashton says. "Our immediate priority is to ensure we are investing our funds well. But good planning is the key to improving the lives of our people."