Te Puni Kokiri Auckland regional director Pauline Kingi takes “loaves and fishes” approach to management. She has to.
“With Te Puni Kokiri’s administration constrained by the reality of just one percent of the public purse, I have to use loaves and fishes approach to expand and meet our outreach strategy,” she says. “I call it my te wheke (octopus) strategy. We use all the tentacles we can to achieving our objectives. By using the loaves and fishes approach I can turn one percent into 100 percent. It is amazing what you can do with some creative [management] thinking and prioritisation of how to use the resources given to address our areas of need.”
Kingi, lawyer by training with three degrees, including an LLM from Harvard, and Diploma in Criminology, has been elected to the board of NZIM Auckland. She began her career as regional solicitor with the former Department of Maori Affairs where she “observed many things which I vowed I would never replicate when I came to Te Puni Kokiri”. She was also awarded Harkness Fellowship in 1983 and spent two years in the United States where she completed her Masterate at Harvard and worked at both the United Nations Security Council and the Brookings Institute in Washington.
But now she is “in love” with her role as manager. “I like being creative with my team and I enjoy watching them grow as individuals,” she says. “We look at the critical areas of need that we are trying to develop, identifying where are the gaps in mainstream funding opportunity. We do analysis around that, develop risk management framework, look closely at the environmental and political risks, risks in terms of the Ministry and what we are trying to do and then trust your courage, judgement and belief in people and, if you do it well, they trust you right back.”
Kingi also likes being catalyst for change and “for different way of thinking”. Her decision to stand for the NZIM Auckland board is strategic one. There is, she believes, “a lot of knowledge, expertise and wisdom that one can learn in the NZIM to assist and enable iwi Maori to do things”.
“As Maori move forward to be more active participants in the economy we have to know how to do the business structures right and know how to maintain those business structures. We have got to know about management culture,” she explains.
“We also have to know how to strengthen the governance in management. More and more Maori businesses and enterprises need to understand how to do the business of management and governance properly.
“We are still learning the business of asset management and how best to manage risk. And over the years that I have been on multiple structures, the best learning experiences I have had have been in combinations with the Treaty partner – Pakeha people,” she adds.
Kingi believes Maori will “feel comfortable” with new management skills. “They will take it on board,” she says. “The best part of the Ngai Tahu development has been the partnerships between the iwi and the best banking, best commercial skills that were invited into the partnership. Look at what has been created. I believe Maori can embrace this skill set and would want to.”
Kingi also believes Maori are suited to the transition from the transactional, linear, narrow focused and tunnel approach of command and control management to more transformational leadership.
NZIM’s current national objective is to lift management capability generally. Does Kingi think NZIM can learn something about different ways of approaching management from Maori?
“Yes I do,” she says confidently. “A different way of approaching not only the problem, but also the issues. How you define an issue. How you address the response. Management is about mutual reciprocity. I have found that when you hop on structures the management relationship that develops is the key. The right relationship begins the transformation – the change process.”
Pauline Kingi is also on the Aotea Centre Board of Management, Auckland University of Technology Council, Moana Pacific Fisheries, Quality Health Wellington and the Furniture Industry Training Organisation.
New NZIM Directors
Christchurch lawyer Grant Cameron FNZIM, Housing New Zealand Corporation senior executive Joanne Tuffield AFNZIM and Dunedin-based chief executive of Citibus Newton, Gary Williams FNZIM have been elected to the National Board of the New Zealand Institute of Management.
Cameron has his own Christchurch law firm Grant Cameron and Associates and was chairman of Canterbury NZIM for the past two years. He was former chairman of the Charity Gaming Association.
Tuffield has mix of private and public sector senior management positions and is currently general manager strategic services of Housing New Zealand. She is also currently deputy chair of the NZIM Central board.
Williams has, prior to his appointment as CEO of Citibus, held senior management positions in local government and the retail sector. He is also currently chair of the Otago Peninsula Trust, the Fortune Theatre Trust and Otago Foundation Trust Board.
Karen Cooper and John Butterfield have also been elected to the NZIM Central board. Cooper is chief executive of Wellington-based Vision 2020 and Butterfield is former manager director of GEC New Zealand and chairman of Kapiti Cheeses and has recently been appointed general manager of Resources and Services Archdiocese of Wellington.
Auckland region director of Te Puni Kokiri, Pauline Kingi CNZM, has been elected to the board of NZIM Auckland.
For further detais contact:
David Chapman
