KEY POINTS:
Aucklanders need to realise that many of their bright young future leaders will be Maori or Pacific Islanders, says trends expert Jude Hoosen.
Hoosen has found many Auckland businesses are ill-prepared for the major demographic changes that will take place in the next 10 years.
The 2006 Census threw up a major divergence between multicultural Auckland versus bicultural New Zealand. In Auckland just 56 per cent are Pakeha - compared with 69 per cent for New Zealand as a whole.
In Auckland Asians now out-number Pacific Islanders and Maori are a clear minority. Nationwide Maori are almost twice the combined percentage of Asian and Pacific Islanders.
There are Middle Easterners (2 per cent), Latin Americans and Africans.
In 2001, 32 per cent of the region's population was born overseas. By 2006 that figure had grown to 37 per cent, compared with 22 per cent for New Zealand.
These major demographic changes have taken place in a very short time.
The effects of Auckland's changing ethnic make-up has implications for businesses, which are already facing difficulties coming to grips with diversity in the workplace.
Pakeha are not reproducing at as fast a clip as others, and immigration patterns exacerbate the trend as many make Auckland their first staging post on arrival in New Zealand.
Forecasts for 2016 show that Pakeha children will be just 38 per cent of 0- to 14-year-olds in Auckland. Pacific and Asian groups will each have 23 per cent - with Maori at 16 per cent. At national level, Pakeha children will still dominate at 55 per cent, but Maori children will make up 22 per cent of the age segment.
Hoosen, and two other high-profile researchers, Sandy Burgham and Sandy Callister, interview many people for their Providence Reports.
Hoosen says that while more Maori and Pacific Islanders are getting university degrees they often feel excluded from top jobs and business is not doing enough to nurture local talent. There is also a danger that ethnic groups become segregated or ghettoised in various suburbs, increasing the difficulty disadvantaged children face in trying to move up or out.
The Metro Project has brought together a leadership group headed by Auckland businessman Peter Menzies which is trying to encourage continuous skill-building by providing lifelong learning to parents and families.
Menzies' group wants to get business people down at the coalface to help inspire success in low-decline schools. When the proposal was first announced it received a negative backlash from nay-sayers.
But acceptance is growing that there needs to be a better match between what schools teach and what businesses need so that disadvantaged children are better placed to get jobs when they leave school.
One of the shortcomings of the Metro Project, suggests Hoosen, is that its own leaders do not reflect the ethnic composition of Auckland, and nor do they have enough representatives from the creative sectors. "The original Metro symposium itself was very white and very male."
Part of the problem may also be that the Metro Project champions and teams have been hand-picked.
One way to overcome this perception would be run a more inclusive approach in future - perhaps mirrored on the successful Toronto model - where the "unusual suspects" can invite themselves into the tent.
The Providence Report's research indicates that bringing the arts, cultural, design and creative sectors to the fore will go a long way to defining the personality of a city.
"It provides the colour, vibrancy and creative edge that inspires innovation," says Hoosen. "This needs to filter through to the business community."
The Metro Project is working on a new regional brand to replace the "City of Sails".
Again, this proposal ruffled feathers when announced last October. But the Metro team took the view that the harbour image was just one facet of modern Auckland.
An AucklandPlus team has been gathering material to gain a better understanding of the city, its ambitions, it stakeholders, competitors, and its current positioning versus the ideal. A brand strategy is now being developed.
Hoosen suggests the image of Auckland that will speak to those offshore needs to wrap in the creative side of our character and love of the land. Companies like 42 Below and Icebreaker are the way to go.
