Amotai Launches 'Tai Nui', The First Indigenous Supplier Diversity Maturity Matrix

Amotai is proud to announce the launch of 'Tai Nui', the first indigenous supplier diversity maturity matrix. Tai Nui, which translates to ‘the greatest height of a spring tide’, is a framework designed to help organisations navigate and accelerate their supplier diversity journey.

After several years of research and working with over 200 buyer organisations including government, corporates and Iwi organisations, and registering over 1,500 Māori and Pasifika suppliers, Amotai has developed Tai Nui to address the challenges faced by organisations in meeting the government’s progressive procurement policy and spend target for Māori businesses.

Although the government's spend target is for Māori businesses, Amotai advocates for both Māori and Pasifika businesses and believe the policy should be expanded to include Pasifika businesses.

“Amotai continues to shape the future of procurement practice in Aotearoa and we are thrilled to introduce Tai Nui to support organisations in their supplier diversity journey,” says Amotai’s General Manager, Ariana Paul.

“Our framework is grounded in Te Ao Māori worldviews and we’re expecting it to be a game-changer, providing our buyers with a blueprint to become champions for supplier diversity, through meaningful engagement with Māori and Pasifika owned businesses, supplier development and the creation and execution of supplier diversity plans.”

Tai Nui is the first indigenous supplier diversity maturity matrix of its kind with the framework being developed by The Southern Initiative and Amotai supplier diversity experts, alongside research and development professionals Naomi Hughes and Lee Churchman from Aotahi, a Māori-owned consultancy with over 25 years of experience in developing indigenous programmes.

Tai Nui includes four stages: Tai Mate (slow moving tide), Tai Timu (low tide), Tai Pari (high tide) and the penultimate Tai Nui (spring tide), reserved for those organisations who have established very strong approaches towards advancing supplier diversity.

The launch of Tai Nui was announced in February at Amotai’s ‘Making Sense of Suppliers’ workshop held in Tāmaki Makaurau, with further workshops scheduled to run across the country over the coming months.

“Buyers will get to engage with Tai Nui at these events, starting with a self-assessment tool to rate themselves on various aspects of engagement – for example their leadership support for supplier diversity, and their procurement tactics,” says Ariana.

“The tool will then help organisations identify any gaps and strengths, with supplier diversity experts available to support them, regardless of where they are on their journey, and provide any necessary educational resources to help.”

The official launch for Tai Nui will take place at Amotai’s Summit in September this year, an event aimed at inspiring and arming participants with the tools to increase the diversity of their supply chain and engage more with Māori and Pasifika owned businesses.

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