Why cultural diversity makes sense
In the second of a series on New Asian leaders, Ranjna Patel tells Fiona Rotherham New Zealand needs more cultural diversity in workplaces and boardrooms.
RANJNA PATEL is a mother, grandmother, founder and director of one of the country’s largest private primary healthcare providers, chairwoman of the NZ Central Indian Association Women’s Group, a board member of the Lottery Auckland Distribution committee, on the Counties Manukau South Asian Police Advisory Board, chairwoman of the MIT Indian Community Advisory Group, a director of Bank of Baroda, a Justice of the Peace, a marriage celebrant . . . the list goes on and on.
The 59-year-old likes to keep busy and cares deeply about both her local community and the Nirvana Group, the primary healthcare provider she and her husband Kantilal took over as a sole doctor’s practice in South Auckland in 1977.
The group now caters for 174,000 patients through a network of 23 clinics across Auckland, majority-owned by the Patels and the remainder by doctors working in the clinics. They like the doctors to have skin in the game.
Ranjna Patel doesn’t have a formal title with the group although she started off as the receptionist/cleaner and is now the one who signs the cheques. Asked how she found time for her job and all the community work she does, Patel said work ethic was one of the areas where there’s a different way of thinking between Asians and some Kiwis of European descent.
‘‘It’s a cultural thing,’’ she said, shrugging her shoulders. ‘‘We put in 15-to-16-hour days.’’
Patel is of Gujarat descent though she was born and raised in Herne Bay and is still close to many of her Auckland Girls’ Grammar school friends. Her Indianborn grandfather held a banana licence in Fiji and came to New Zealand in the early 1900s, settling in Auckland with other Gujarats. Her parents arranged a marriage in India for her when she was 18, and she and her doctor husband settled in South Auckland, where the genesis for the healthcare group was Dr Patel’s surgery in East Tamaki.
Patel’s view is that New Zealand companies could improve their connections with Asia if Kiwis stopped viewing those who are different as a threat. Cultural diversity in the workplace and on boards would help provide fresh thinking, particularly when it came to breaking into new markets, she said.
She cited the example of a Global Women’s leadership course on cultural diversity where she asked why people didn’t hire Asians. Some
‘It’s a cultural thing.We put in 15-to-16hour days’
attendees said they were put off simply by the different ethnic names from job applicants, while some were worried about the authenticity of overseas educational qualifications, the latter being something that could easily be checked, she said.
In her own company Patel said there were 26 languages spoken, reflecting the diverse Auckland community they served.
‘‘The more diversity you have gives you a different perspective on things, not just ‘my way is the only way’.’’
Kiwi companies need to look overseas to grow and India and China were the world’s fastestgrowing markets, she said.
She also advised tapping into the in-market knowledge of international students here who could provide valuable contacts in their home countries.
Patel said Asian women needed to put their hands up to be considered for board roles and to persevere if not immediately successful. ‘‘It took me five years before I got rung,’’ she said. ‘‘Many boards are not looking for diversity but Asian woman are not putting themselves forward either.’’