The Value of Being Identified as a Māori Business
The Value of Being Identified as a Māori Business
Thursday 29 May, 2025
The NZBN Register now offers businesses the option to identify as Māori-owned.
For Māori businesses operating at the forefront of Aotearoa’s economy, this is more than a symbolic gesture. It’s a strategic opportunity to shape commercial identity, signal values to market partners, and unlock pathways that align with kaupapa Māori.
At Tompkins Wake, we work with some of the country’s most sophisticated Māori enterprises, across energy, infrastructure, forestry, and investment. We understand the significance of cultural integrity in commercial decision-making. With that in mind, we offer a perspective on the new Companies Office feature that goes beyond the administrative, into strategy, positioning, and partnership.
What’s New
Hīkina Whakatutuki or the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has recently introduced a feature within the NZBN register that allows businesses to identify as Māori-owned. This can be done through the online NZBN dashboard and is entirely voluntary. Identification can be updated at any time.
The change is part of a broader government initiative to better recognise Māori business activity and inform procurement, policy, and economic development decisions.
Why Consider Identifying
- Visibility and Voice: Choosing to identify can contribute to greater visibility for Māori businesses within national datasets and policy frameworks. For enterprises seeking to influence government policy or industry settings, being part of a clearly defined cohort matters. It sharpens the ability of decision-makers to engage with Māori business on evidence-based terms.
- Procurement Advantage: Many central and local government agencies have adopted social procurement policies that promote and acknowledge the need for engagement with Māori-owned businesses. While not a silver bullet, formal identification helps remove ambiguity and can streamline eligibility for certain tenders or partnerships. For Māori businesses with scale or specialist capability, this may present competitive advantage.
- Market Signalling: For many high-performing Māori businesses, values like manaakitanga, kaitiakitanga, and whanaungatanga are more than internal drivers, they’re part of brand and reputation. Being identified as Māori-owned on the NZBN can reinforce these values to suppliers, investors, and customers seeking values-aligned relationships.
- Strategic Alignment: Identification also helps entities such as iwi commercial arms, Māori trusts, and incorporations consolidate their business networks and demonstrate collective economic contribution. This could be valuable in engagements with banks, joint venture partners, and international investors.
Important Considerations
- Not a Definition of Identity: Selecting Māori ownership on the NZBN is not a legal or cultural determination, it’s a self-identification tool. The Crown is not defining what constitutes a Māori business. Each entity must decide for itself whether and how to engage and there are a range of factors that contribute to whether or not that decision is right for you.
- Data Usage and Privacy: MBIE has advised that Māori business data will be used for aggregate reporting and policy purposes. Individual business information remains subject to NZ privacy laws. However, businesses should understand what identifying might mean for their profile in public and governmental systems.
- No Direct Access to Funding (Yet): While some might hope that identification brings immediate access to funding, there are currently no direct financial benefits tied to this classification. The real value lies in the longer-term positioning and ecosystem-building that can result.
A Pathway to Collective Impact
For many of our Māori clients, this is not just an administrative checkbox, it’s an opportunity to affirm a place in the fabric of Aotearoa’s future economy. The move to enable Māori business identification is a small but significant recognition of the distinctiveness and strength of Māori enterprise. Used strategically, it can support the visibility, voice, and influence that many of our clients are already advancing across various sectors.
Tompkins Wake is proud to walk alongside Māori business leaders shaping that future. If you’re considering how this change fits into your business or group strategy, we’re here to support that kōrero.
For tailored advice or to discuss what is best for your business, please get in touch with one of our experts below.
