September 02, 2013
Iceland Inc inspires Maori fishing and business hui
Maori fishing and business interests are this week hearing about how Iceland is getting more from its fisheries.
Te Putea Whakatupu Trust has brought Dr Ögmundur Knútsson, from the school of business and science at the University of Akureyri to talk to the Charting Pathways for Maori Industry Futures conference in Waitangi.
Trust chair Richard Jefferies says Iceland realised it couldn’t continue treating its fisheries as a commodity, and it looked for ways to add value through innovative science and better understanding what customers want.
He says over the past 15 years it has found new ways of doing business.
"They’ve gotten away from a predatory approach to trying to get all the business and there's a high degree of specialisation but also a high degree of collaboration that's going on between the companies over there so you've got these clusters of companies working together, both research and technology, the universities there are heavily embedded in the industry, but the companies as well working together to maximise the return for Iceland Inc," Mr Jefferies says.
The hui is also hearing from indigenous Canadian and Alaskan business leaders and from Maori business chiefs.
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