Sitting at a computer for eight hours or more can lead to bad posture, eye strain, fatigue and mindless eating. Avoid these risks with tips and simple desk exercises from Balance Core Fitness personal trainer Eric Yamashita. Set a timer and encourage your office mates to join you for a mini-workout and energy boost. Proper Posture • Position your chair…
From the first time he saw the iPad, Shacked Software founder and amateur photographer Chad Podoski knew it was the ideal way to consume photos. So, when he and his partner, Dustin Bachrach, decided to create an iPad app to manage the onslaught of photos from Facebook and Flickr, they knew it had to be both powerful and intuitive. “After…
Location-based advertising is creating a lot of buzz, but how do restaurants, stores and other small businesses get on board without breaking the bank? Conversely, how do creators get paid for mobile apps that can cost thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to launch? Milan Marketplace acts as a middleman between the two groups: Small businesses benefit because…
Hagadone, a company synonymous with printing in Hawaii, is now offering its clients a broader marketing reach plus a carbon-offset program. Its new H1 division offers e-solutions like development for mobile phone and computer tablet apps, website refinement, and an array of social media solutions. To provide these services and others, Hagadone has partnered with six local companies that specialize…
The Hawaii Community Foundation is the best big charity in Hawaii and the Contemporary Museum is the worst, according to Charity Navigator, a national organization that rates more than 5,000 charities across the country. The ratings are based on a complex formula that takes into account the type of charity and issues such as how much working capital it has…
Who would have thought that a company started in the middle of a recession could succeed so quickly? Hawaii Human Resources, or HiHR, has been growing steadily since its start in early 2009. A provider of human resource needs ranging from payroll to health benefits, HiHR recently tallied 118 clients on all major islands, representing more than 1,300 employees. “Our…
Warren Haruki has seen his share of companies in transition. The current CEO of both Grove Farm and Maui Land & Pineapple, Haruki was also at the helm of Verizon Hawaii as it morphed into Hawaiian Telcom. Here, he gives advice on how to deal with change. How do you build trust in the midst of big changes? Employees can…
Q.We have great employees, but everyone seems to operate from a different agenda. How can we create a team approach? A. Employees are willing to collaborate when they have the necessary tools and work environment to support and reward teamwork. Managers can take these five steps to increase collaboration within your company. 1. Communicate a crystal-clear vision of your company, its…
If the shoe fits, the saying goes, buy it in every color. And if the shoe-business model doesn’t fit right away, Teri Edmonds will find a way to make it work. In 2001, Edmonds opened her shop, If The Shoe Fits, on Market Street in Wailuku, Maui. She has been adapting and changing ever since. HB: You were in the…
Manny Miles and Cheryse Sana were nominated for an award for “Employees that support farm owners and contribute to farm excellence” at this year’s Hawaii Agriculture Conference. Both are in their 20’s and co-managers at an organic farm in the community in which they were raised. They also represent an important path to the future of small-scale farming in post-plantation…
6:32 a.m. Thursday Basement of Gemini Observatory, Mauna Kea summit, Hawaii Island Photo Courtesy of Gemini Observatory >>Technicians from Hawaii and Chile combine forces about every four years to resurface this 24-ton, 27-foot mirror from the Gemini North telescope. Hawaii engineers were in Chile last month to help resurface an identical telescope there, but this picture was taken during the…
If I promised you an extra hour of productive work time or leisure every day without cutting back on sleep and family time, would you take it? By the way, this productivity boost would also reduce your stress, save you money and protect the planet. I’m talking about riding the bus to work. If you don’t already, you probably have…
Appointed board will help schools I attended the symposium sponsored by the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs and Hawaii Business magazine on the topic of appointed vs. elected school board (Sept. 30, Waikiki Prince Hotel). As I listened to both sides, I felt the key issue was the bottom line. Are our children well served? The system is clearly not…
The hotel owner waited patiently to chat with Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle in the steel-and-glass enclosed lobby of the Kai Wah Plaza International Hotel in Kunming, China. When they met, Chau Lai Kai thanked Lingle for staying at her property and then surprised the governor by announcing she was very interested in buying Hawaii hotels. Lingle and her aides recount…
When geothermal steam was first harnessed to generate electricity on the Big Island almost three decades ago, the project left many residents with a bitter taste. The technology was substandard, the community wasn’t consulted and environmental protestors became fixtures outside the plant. Some residents still see the Island’s volcanoes as a sacred power that should never be commercialized. But today,…
“When I look back on it,” says John D., the former executive director of a small but prominent nonprofit in Honolulu, “the board of directors just really didn’t understand what their role was.” He pauses for a moment, his face assuming a pained expression. “In some cases, they made their job more difficult by micromanaging the staff. But they also…
Hawaii’s people and businesses are as generous as ever, despite the economic slump. But how local people and businesses give is rapidly changing and that transformation has some nonprofit leaders heartened, while others are worried. Optimists welcome the decay of what they saw as paternalistic philanthropy – where nonprofit leaders told contributors: “You donate the money and we’ll figure out…
Hawaiian electric industries has maintained the remarkable record of paying dividends to shareholders for more than 100 years. But, lately, there’s something else that people may find remarkable. For the past three-and-a-half years, HEI has paid more in dividends than it has earned in profits. A review of HEI’s dividend payout shows the company earned $1.03 per share in 2007,…
There’s no denying it’s been a brutal three years for Central Pacific Bank and its parent company, Central Pacific Financial Corp. The bank’s aspiration of grabbing more market share with its 2004 merger with City Bank has all but disappeared. A once-promising foray into loans to California home builders and developers turned disastrous when the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit, while…