Yarnteen is an example of an organisation with effective, legitimate governance for economic development. It operates in a complex urban community environment and national context, where the challenges facing Indigenous businesses are substantial, and their corporate governance and financial failure is common. The Yarnteen family of organisations has an extremely high reputation in the wider private and public sectors, where it is seen to be a model for other organisations, and a sound investment opportunity. Its economic and strategic success is durable, and raises several important implications for other Indigenous organisations attempting to develop robust governance for sustained enterprise and cultural development.

First, the cultural ‘self’ in Yarnteen’s governance is a complex pastiche that is a product of the Aboriginal history of Newcastle and its early organisations. This history is one of regional mobility and resettlement, long residence in the town by a core group of extended families, continuing strong cultural identities, and the incubation of a network of service delivery organisations in the town and surrounding region. The corporation’s governance strategies and tactics have been based around understanding and managing both the constraints and benefits of that community environment and cultural identity.

Second, Yarnteen’s leaders adopted a deliberate and effective strategy to insulate the organisation from debilitating community conflicts and jealousies by keeping its representative structure tight and sticking to its core enterprise development goals at the same time as ensuring that the organisation positively contributes to wider community cultural and social goals. In this way, the organisation manages to maintain a delicate balance between ‘family’ and ‘community’. Alongside these structural strategies, the strength of its internal culture and institutional capital has enabled the corporation to create a set of workable limits and constraints on individual self-interest and family factionalism. Other organisations might consider the benefits that seem to flow from establishing a legal and structural demarcation between business and social/cultural initiatives, and from developing their governance representation and membership to support that distinction.

Third, fundamental to the organisation’s economic success has been its internal governance culture and institutional capital. Effective governance is a prerequisite for mobilising other forms of capital and provides better conditions under which that capital can be developed and sustained. An organisation’s institutional environment is a major driver of competitive commercial advantage. The leaders of Yarnteen Corporation have actively managed both their internal and external institutional contexts, and progressively built up deep reserves of regulative, normative and cognitive capital that have enabled it to remain proactive in assessing, taking up and managing economic opportunities.

And fourth, organisational leadership is essential if well designed governance and economic success are to be developed and sustained. Effective leaders are the fundamental drivers of institution building within an organisation. Without their commitment and demonstrated practice in this fundamental area, an organisation will lack the institutional environment that promotes flexibility, resilience and collective performance.

There is little doubt that it is the combination of governance, leadership, organisational flexibility, and institutional strength that has sustained this extraordinarily successful urban enterprise. Furthermore, in achieving this success the organisation has not had to turn its back on its cultural identity, its community and family relationships. Yarnteen not only works in an Aboriginal way, but also meets external demands for effective corporate governance, business standards and financial accountability.