Archives: April 2014

How Local Businesses Use Pinterest

If you’ve heard about the social-media site Pinterest but are wondering if it’s worth your time, consider these statistics from the social marketing company Piqora: The average order value generated by Pinterest is $169, compared to $95 for Facebook and $71 for Twitter. That makes Pinterest another free tool worth considering for your business, especially if you use high-quality pictures to draw in customers. Pinterest calls…

Not Your Parents’ College Degrees

The world will always need people trained in traditional fields such as education, medicine and law. But many college students today are looking to emerging fields where the number of jobs are growing, not shrinking, or careers that seem more meaningful or more fun than the average 9-to-5er. Hawaii’s colleges and universities have responded with innovative majors in fields such…

Aloha Medical Mission Heals the Poor in the Philippines

For a week in February, a team of 28 volunteers helped heal some of the poorest people in Tuguegarao and the surrounding region of the Philippines. The visitors from Hawaii’s Aloha Medical Mission and their local partners saw 1,300 patients, performed 22 major surgeries and 67 minor ones, conducted 275 dental extractions, and dispensed drugs and medical advice to those who could…

Best Places to Work in Hawaii 2014

The list is based on a confidential survey of employees and an extensive questionnaire about benefits and working conditions.   Large Companies (250 or More Hawaii Employees) No. 1 HawaiiUSA FCU U.S. Headquarters: Honolulu www.hawaiiusafcu.com Employees: 322 (Hawaii) This credit union not only offers free movie nights for employees and their families, it sponsored a “Harlem Shake” style video contest with…

Talk Story with Mayor Kirk Caldwell

GMO has been a divisive issue on the Neighbor Islands. Is there a further role for GMO agriculture on Oahu? I want to preserve as much of our agricultural land as possible outside the urban growth boundary, and I want to see more food grown on Oahu for local consumption. Ultimately, it’s a security issue. We are dependent on shipments of…

Talk Story with Susan Murray of the Queen’s Health Systems

Twenty years into a high-powered career as a hospital executive, Murray got tapped for the opportunity of a lifetime: Overseeing the $70 million opening of The Queen’s Medical Center’s 17-acre campus in Ewa Beach, on the site of the former Hawaii Medical Center West. She talks about the challenge of creating a community hospital in the fastest growing part of Oahu. You…

Ecofriendly Wrapping Paper

Problem: After years of attending weddings, birthdays and baby showers, Sara Smith had reached a tipping point. “I was feeling the weight of all the rubbish that was created by gift giving,” the Maui resident says. So she founded Wrappily last year and offers a product that is gentler on the environment: wrapping paper made of newsprint and created on local presses….

Million-Dollar Business Runs Out of Kahuku High

From July to December, customers crowd a classroom-size room at Kahuku High School where almost everything is red. Kahuku.org, which has made over $1 million in revenues since 2001, sells Kahuku High T-shirts, hats and hoodies while also teaching students how to run a business. Five community members founded the store in 2001 because people were making and selling T-shirts that…

5 Steps to Becoming a Better Public Speaker

Public speaking is a great way to build your business by educating the community on how you can serve it. Motivational speaker and speaker trainer Annette Lynch shares these steps to help you overcome nerves and engage your target audience. 1. Prepare Mind and Body Being prepared will give you confidence, so have your presentation completely ready and rehearsed, and…

Building Personal Bridges Around the Pacific

Before the young business leaders from Hawaii started their intensive three-day journey to Japan, they did not get an ordinary pep talk or briefing. Instead, Glenn Furuya, founder of Leadership Works, talked to them about “Leading from the Heart.” To be a good leader, Furuya explained, “You must lead yourself to happiness first.” Being happy and fulfilled revolved around three…

She Trains Dogs (and Owners, Too)

Name: Karen Hashimoto Job: Certified dog trainer Experience: 27 years START: As a teenager, Karen Hashimoto spent summers volunteering at a dairy farm in Waianae, cleaning the milking parlor and feeding calves. So when she enrolled at UH-Manoa, she intended to become a veterinarian. But, for a final lab credit, she took a class studying dolphins and cognition, and decided…

Do You See Yourself in This Picture?

About the time this issue reaches you, I will be emerging from a digital detox center known as Haleakala. My daughter and I will have spent four days hiking in the crater without our phones, laptops or any other devices that would connect us to the outside world. We will be experimenting with a radical means of communication that’s called…

Demystifying Lawyers

Blogging has evolved as a writing style that conveys intimacy and immediacy on any subject imaginable, from travel and childcare to national security and economics. Now add to the list: Hawaii- centric legal blogs. Four attorneys with the Honolulu law firm Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert blog regularly on their areas of expertise. Robert Thomas, Mark Murakami, Anna Oshiro and…

These Kids Needed Them

Young professionals often think volunteering is something they’ll do later in their careers because they’re too busy now. But James Chan, a Realtor, a partner at Prudential Locations and a Big Brother, says, “Do it!” and he means now. “Maybe people think they want time to hang out with their friends,” he says. “But there are people who need them…