Small is the New Big.

 

July 2005

 

 

Think Ngai Tahu and you think Big: megabucks, megavision, megamana. But their latest strategic investment drive is going smaller than micro. The iwi is investing in nanotechnology - “the next great advance for humanity” according to Ngai Tahu Chief Executive Robin Pratt.

Nanotechnology creates devices, materials and systems at the molecular level by manipulating single atoms. Molecules are measured in nanometres, which are one billionth of a metre.

Pratt’s approach to investment isn’t science fiction, but is rooted in Ngai Tahu’s multi-generational planning. “We’re looking very long term. We need a business with a hundred year perspective. In my view nanotech is going to be one of the next great advances for humanity, and we’ll be working on a scale and complexity we haven’t done before. Ngai Tahu needs to get in there at the ground level right at the beginning, and develop those competencies in the tribe.”

With its nanotechnology associate The MacDiarmid Institute, Ngai Tahu is investing in research and development. It is also funding scholarships so that by the time scientific breakthroughs are ready to be developed for commercial purposes, trained Ngai Tahu nanotech talent will be ready to take the technology into the marketplace.

Pratt says there has been no iwi resistance to nanotechnology on ethical or spiritual grounds, despite the technology’s broad application to biological systems. “At the moment we don’t see any ethical issues in the principles and concepts of nanotech. There will always be challenges because it’s an unknown field, but we have the principles, framework and system for that, based on the Ngai Tahu set of values.”