Reciprocal Exchange: Fostering Environmental and Organisational Value
Tauutuutu is an ethic driven by Māori economic wisdom supporting reciprocal mutually beneficial transactions over long periods of time. Tauutuutu can provide a pathway for organisational and environmental strength. Organisations are a collection of collaborating individuals and prime candidates for adopting a tauutuutu ethic.
Organisations hold outsised responsibility and power for driving transformational environmental change. 71% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are produced by just 100 companies[i], and 60 firms are responsible for half of the world’s plastic pollution[ii]. Organisations are the key to rapid and transformative change to address environmental degradation.
Sustainability and Value Chains
Tauutuutu, with its core principle of reciprocal exchange through the currencies of mana and mauri, inherently promotes sustainability by encouraging organisations to think beyond short-term gains and consider long-term environmental impacts. By fostering relationships based on mutual benefit and escalating contributions, Tauutuutu cultivates a culture of stewardship where businesses are more likely to prioritise the health of the environment as integral to their success. This ethic can drive organisations towards more sustainable practices, trusting that their partners are committed to reciprocating these efforts. Such an approach not only enhances a sustainability ethic in individual companies but can also create an inspirational ripple effect, sparking a wave of sustainable practices across industries and regions.
Organisations do not function alone; they are part of a linked chain, sometimes described as a value chain. A value chain refers to the full range of activities businesses and organisations engage in to bring a product or service from conception to delivery to the end consumer. Value chains represent a scale that has the potential, due largely to their size and reach, to stimulate transformational change. A robust value chain depends on mutually reinforcing and escalating levels of social investment to support collaboration.
An organisation acting alone can be a powerful stimulator for environmental improvements. However, it alone cannot drive the transformative changes required to address global environmental issues. Numerous organisations have been founded on the premise that collaboration is necessary for addressing big challenges, e.g. the UN, WHO, NATO, etc. However, it is not the organisation itself that creates change but the collaborative behaviour of individuals within and between organisations. Tauutuutu provides a powerful ethic to explain and drive the social investment required to support successful value chains.
Case Studies
Tauutuutu-driven value chains drive innovation and value creation for multiple parties. Suppliers gain exposure and a purpose that adds value to their operations, benefiting regional economies in areas like wage growth, education, health, and housing. While the general business world values strong supply chains, Tauutuutu provides a framework to enhance and innovate value chains, expand their impact, and generate new value types for multiple parties. This is a progression from focusing on customer value alone to recognising and driving various economic, social, environmental, and cultural value-enhancing outcomes.
Two Māori firms that have described value chains as the core of their success are Miraka and Tatua. In research by the Productivity Commission, both dairy firms have been described as ‘frontier firms’—the country’s most productive companies[iii]. Neither firm pursues a strategy of maximising production; instead, they focus on maximising the value of their products. On average, frontier firms’ value added per worker is almost double that of the second most productive group of firms. It is nine times as productive as those firms in the bottom 10% of the productivity distribution[iv].
Miraka’s Te Ara Miraka Farming Excellence Programme illustrates Tauutuutu in action. By incentivising farmers to meet high standards based on environmental, social, and economic pillars, Miraka fosters reciprocal obligations that enhance productivity and sustainability. This programme gives farmers the ability to earn a premium of 20 cents/kg of milk solids by meeting 31 standards, including 13 mandatory ones, based on five value pillars; ngā Tangata (people), Te Taiao (environment), ngā kau (cows), miraka (milk), and taurikura (prosperity). Miraka’s business model encourages their suppliers to reflect the reciprocal obligation to the collective (in this case, employees) and the environment, which is an inherent application of Tauutuutu.[v]
Chairman Kingi Smiler explained that Miraka:
“…is fundamentally driven by the vision and strategy of participating in the value chain in a direct sense and having more control over a niche opportunity”.[vi]
Specifically, Miraka has created incentive schemes for farmers to add value to their milk based on strong environmental credentials and focuses on “having more direct contact with customers over the long term” through strong connections with their international distributors[vii]. Māori beliefs regarding the wider environment see Miraka use its position in the supply chain to motivate its farmers to go above and beyond regulatory requirements for animal welfare. Miraka adds value by emphasising the core Māori beliefs and values by looking after their stock and the environment and treating their suppliers like family, ensuring that the entire value chain embodies these values.
Other impressive organisations embody a tauutuutu ethic and demonstrate their potential to support ‘frontier firms’. These include Tatua, Awhina Group, and Waiū Dairy.
Tatua’s success as a frontier firm highlights the value of Tauutuutu in creating strong, trust-based value chains that drive innovation and mutual benefits for all stakeholders. One of many traits these organisations share is their focus on land-based business. It is no surprise that Māori organisations have demonstrated great success in agriculture. This sector has a substantial need for social collaboration and environmental health, both of which are critical features of historic Māori well-being and core to the tauutuutu ethic. The model of escalating reciprocal exchange promoted by Tauutuutu is equally applicable in other sectors. At its core, it focuses on relationships and trust, which are underpinned by recognising the need to generate broad beneficial outcomes.
Conclusion
Tauutuutu, a Māori ethic, supports long-term reciprocal transactions, strengthening organisations and the environment. Tauutuutu fosters long-term environmental stewardship through reciprocal exchange. Organisations can drive significant change via mutual social investment as part of value chains. Examples like Miraka and Tatua show that Tauutuutu-driven value chains boost innovation and sustainability. Miraka’s Te Ara Miraka Programme incentivises farmers to meet high standards, reflecting core Māori values. Other firms like Tatua, Awhina Group, and Waiū Dairy embody Tauutuutu, succeeding through trust-based value chains that promote collaboration and mutual benefits.
[iii] Skilling, D. (2020). Frontier firms: An international small advanced economy perspective. Landfill Strategy Group.
[iv] Skilling, D. (2020). Frontier firms: An international small advanced economy perspective. Landfill Strategy Group.
[v] Rout, M., & Reid, J. (2019). Unlocking export prosperity: The distinctive cultural attributes of food. https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10182/11971/RR%20350%20Cultural%20Attributes%20report_FINAL.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
[vi] Rout, M., & Reid, J. (2019). Unlocking export prosperity: The distinctive cultural attributes of food. https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10182/11971/RR%20350%20Cultural%20Attributes%20report_FINAL.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
[vii] Rout, M., & Reid, J. (2019). Unlocking export prosperity: The distinctive cultural attributes of food. https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10182/11971/RR%20350%20Cultural%20Attributes%20report_FINAL.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y