Angela Edwards
National Māori Business Sector Leader, Audit, Assurance & Advisory Partner, Kerikeri Managing Partner
Māori business leaders are feeling relatively positive at the moment, with current business performance sentiment remaining steady and the WHO-5 Wellbeing Index score only slightly down from October 2023. However, this positivity decreases when leaders look to the future, where both forward-looking business performance and wellbeing sentiment dip.
View journalist Paddy Gower's conversation with Angela Edwards, BDO Māori Business Sector Leader.
Our March 2024 BDO Business Wellbeing Index survey shows Māori business leaders are feeling only slightly less positive about their current business performance compared to October 2023, with 74% of leaders saying they have felt positive about their overall business performance all or most of the time in the past two weeks. This score was a record high of 77% in October last year, showing Māori business leaders continue to feel positive about how their organisations are doing. Drivers of this positivity in the last two weeks include the performance of systems and technology, progress in meeting tax compliance and commitments, and cyber risk management profile. Areas leaders are feeling least positive about include economic factors, cash flow, and workload.
This positive sentiment decreases when looking ahead, with 68% of business leaders expecting to feel positive about their business performance all or most of the time in six months’ time. This is down 20% from October 2023, and is the lowest measure of future business performance sentiment for Māori business leaders since we started surveying.
While it’s encouraging to see such a high measure of current business performance sentiment, it’s concerning that leaders are feeling less positive about future performance. Our survey shows the attributes driving this negative future sentiment for Māori business leaders are economic impacts, political factors, and their climate risk management profile. These attributes are reflected across many of our sectors, with Aotearoa’s economic challenges impacting businesses large and small. Continual rising costs, cost of living increases, and interest rate increases all affect Māori business leaders and put increase stress on cash flow.
Māori business leaders are currently reporting high levels of wellbeing, with a score of 70 out of 100 on the WHO-5 Index - the World Health Organisation’s internationally recognised wellbeing measure. This has decreased slightly from a high of 76 in October 2023, but remains similar to previous survey waves.
However, Māori business leaders don't expect their wellbeing levels to remain this high in future. 67% say they expect to feel satisfied with life all or most of the time in six months’ time, a significant decrease from 89% in October 2023. Business financial concerns, economic impacts, and high workloads are expected to be the drivers of negative wellbeing in business life - factors which have emerged throughout our survey as pressure points for leaders across all sectors.
Angela Edwards