Photo: Courtesy Disney When you buy a stake in Aulani, the Disney resort at Ko Olina, you can enjoy your week there every year or use your points to stay at one of Disney’s other resorts. Here’s how it works: Prices fluctuate a bit, but, in June, for $48,600, you would get a deeded real estate interest in Aulani that…
Newlyweds Carey and Brandon Bennett were living on a budget, but still liked to go out, grab a drink and hang with friends. However, finding information about happy hours in Hawaii wasn’t easy. “It was difficult to find out which restaurants had them, what time they were, what their menus were,” says Carey. “It was frustrating.” Instead of just complaining,…
As the state director of the Trust for Public Land, Lea Hong spends most of the workweek poring over tax maps, talking with attorneys and raising money for land acquisitions. No wonder she likes to detach on weekends. For Hong, who grew up in Wahiawa, there’s no better way to unwind than surfing. “I just love the water,” says Hong….
Sam Craig thought it would be a great team-building activity for his HMSA colleagues to compete in last year’s Startup Weekend Honolulu. He didn’t expect to win. “We came in on Friday with a team and that’s it,” says Craig, 30, the solution delivery manager for portals at the healthcare provider. “We had no idea what we were building and…
Why do some smart people keep repeating their mistakes and how can they stop such foolish behavior? Clinical psychologist Rosalie K. Tatsuguchi addresses those questions in her new book, “Why Smart People Do the Same Dumb Things: Causes and Cures from Buddhism & Science.” Tatsuguchi, who has had a private practice in Honolulu since 1983, says the smarter you are,…
The next time you forward an image to your communications person or a magazine editor, have a heart. Even though publication professionals often can make something wonderful with very little raw material, they can’t create a story where there isn’t one, and they can’t publish a beautiful centerfold image from the thumbnail you pulled off the Web. Resolution Basics…
Like other innovative companies, Upspring Media saw how technology could help organizations improve services and increase efficiency. However, in this case, the clients are homeless shelters, which means that, though the need is great, there’s little profit to be made. Upspring’s solution for the shelters: CentroCare, an affordable, subscription-based management system. The software was originally developed for the Institute of…
When Denise Albano and Patti Chang founded Feed the Hunger Foundation in 2008, they had one goal: end poverty and hunger by providing low-income people with loans and other support. Though the foundation started with microloans to the poor and underprivileged in Africa, Asia and Latin America, it expanded to include the Food for Thought program administered in Hawaii and…
Name: Nelson Nakagawa Current Position: Assistant VP, Card Services Division Started: Feb. 19, 1962 Total Jobs at FHB: 12 Why did you join? “It was a stable company, something I thought would provide me with a springboard to better things.” First day: “I was nervous. It was the first real job for me with a large company. To top it off, the HR person…
Photo: Courtesy Deanna Moncrief “In this day and age of trying to eat fresh, there are some neighborhoods where there just aren’t a lot of options,” says Lesa Griffith, director of communications for Honolulu Museum of Art. Except for the museum’s own café, she points out, Burger King and McDonalds are employees’ nearest alternatives. That conundrum – wanting to eat…
Q: One of the key, long-term managers at our family-owned company – someone who is not a family member – is asking for an “exit package” in the event she is terminated or decides to leave the company on her own. We don’t know what to do. The company will really suffer if this employee leaves. A: There are several things the…
Owning a franchise is always hard work, but here’s how to avoid the hellish pain and reap the heavenly rewards David and Carla Lehn were first-time franchisees who hoped that by purchasing the only Quiznos fast-food restaurant on Kauai, they could supplement their income with the profits. Three and a half years later, they’re still at least a year away…
11:07 am, Monday Iwilei Photographer: David Croxford >> John Tau, a Reyn Spooner employee for more than 25 years, is “pinking” sample fabric on a commercial pinking cutter. Unfinished cloth edges easily fray and, while the sawtooth pattern created by pinking does not prevent fraying, it limits the length of the frayed thread and thus minimizes damage. Categories: Media, Parting Shot
The App: HealthCare Alert is a free app created by a Hawaii physician, Dr. Alfonso Jimenez, who has an Ewa Beach practice. The app has iPhone, Android and Mobile Web versions that are all designed to alert users of preventive medical screenings via their smartphones or online. How does it work? After downloading the app to your smartphone or accessing…
Spend any time with Hawaii executives and chances are the discussion will turn to leadership and community. The business leaders I know take a broad view of their responsibilities regarding public welfare, and are always looking for new initiatives to help make Hawaii a better place. And while it’s great to see innovations, it is just as wonderful to see…
Kuriyama has served as A&B CEO since 2010 and previously served as president. He talks about the recent separation of the company’s transportation and land businesses. The split, announced in December 2011, is one of the most historic events in A&B history. What needed to be done in the six months before it was finalized on June 29? It has…
Much more than just HI-5, the economics of recycling is about fluctuating market prices for metal, glass and paper, and about jobs, electricity, carbon footprints and the cost of landfills Hawaii got a basic lesson in the economics of recycling starting in 2005 when the state imposed a 5-cent deposit and 1-cent fee on each beverage container. As the lesson…
And How Their Pay Is Determined There is always a collective gasp and some outrage when the pay of top executives is publicized. In these economically challenging times, many people are angry that the CEOs of big corporations are paid so much more than the average Jane and Joe. However, leading a large company or serving on its board comes with…
Patrick Novak, CEO of The French Gourmet, a Hawaii company that specialized in artisan frozen pastry dough, reflected on the issues that killed his once-thriving business and kept coming back to the Jones Act. The company was featured in the August 2010 issue of Hawaii Business as among the small, local companies flourishing on a global scale. Novak launched French Gourmet in…
A look at what fed or ate away at the bottom line Well-run and innovative companies are usually profitable, while mismanaged and stagnant companies often lose money and go out of business. That’s easy to understand. But equally important are forces outside a company’s control, including energy prices, unemployment and interest rates. How an organization responds to these outside forces…
Log in to view the Hawaii Business Top 250 – 2012 list. Not subscribed? Sign up here. Welcome to the Hawaii Business Top 250, the most comprehensive ranking of Hawaii’s business elite. We list local companies based on annual gross sales, and include the number of full-time employees, names of key executives, a description of the business, parent company, website…