Photo: David Croxford Thursday, 10:46 a.m. Waialua Emily Richter, part of a team of eight agronomists, is covered in pollen as she works from dusk till dawn to inspect the characteristics of non-GMO sunflowers grown each fall in Waialua. DuPont Pioneer grows 4.8 million sunflowers here to ensure the varieties of sunflower seeds they sell produce plants that conform to…
Randi Song had just begun working in the nonprofit world when she started looking for ways to get more involved as a volunteer. “I surfed the ’Net and landed on HIHO’s Facebook page,” she says. It was just what she was looking for. Hands in Helping Out recruits and trains volunteers, matches them with appropriate service opportunities and helps nonprofits…
Another arrow in the quiver. One more tool in the toolbox. A vehicle for change. That’s how Hawaii lawmakers and business leaders recently described a state law that in 2011 created a new business registration category for company founders and investors interested in more than just turning a profit. Known locally as a sustainable business corporation, and nationally called a…
If it’s been a long time since you colored outside the lines, visit Clay Cafe Hawaii, where children and adults paint on premade pottery and flex their creative muscles. “To think outside the norm, we encourage that here,” says manager Jamie Reza. Reza says customers with a range of skills enjoy painting on pottery and find it a great way…
It’s three years into the state’s Business and Information Technology Transformation 12-year plan and some improvements are becoming noticeable. This year, the newly redesigned hawaii.gov website won seven awards, including the Center for Digital Government’s top award for 2014, best website in the state portal category. Utah’s and California’s websites “have huge staffs working on them, so they’ve been consistent…
Dr. Kim-Ahn Nguyen has understood the importance of collaborating and adapting to change since childhood. She was just 7 when her family was evacuated from Vietnam and deposited in a small town in New Jersey to start a new life with few other Asians nearby. There, Nguyen grew up in “an atmosphere of help and support” that she says helped…
The Faith of Leadership: Insights from Hawaii’s Leaders Watermark Publishing www.bookshawaii.net Excerpt from the Book’s Introduction This is not a cookbook on leadership; there really is no such thing. There are no proven recipes that will tell you what specific steps to take, with what ingredients, in what amounts, with a predictable result of great leadership. But I do discuss…
Photo: Thinkstock Fireworks create such a magical experience that you might not realize all the work that goes beyond just igniting the rockets. Wayne Hikiji is the entertainment and production expert for Envisions Entertainment & Productions, a company based on Maui. He estimates that a standard five-minute show will cost $15,000 to $20,000, and a 10-minute show $20,000 to 25,000….
Some people think that a partial solution to Hawaii’s critical shortage of affordable housing is right in our own homes. These advocates want to boost the supply of affordable rentals by relaxing restrictions on ohana units – known officially as accessory dwelling units. Easing zoning regulations for ADUs, they say, will encourage construction of these small, self-contained living units on…
Name: Chuck Furuya Job: Master sommelier Experience: More than 25 years Chuck Furuya helps run eight D.K. Kodama restaurants, including D.K Steak House, Sansei and Hiroshi. Photo: David Croxford Start: Furuya started drinking wine while working at Bobby McGee’s restaurant in Waikiki. “I found it so fascinating,” he says. “You have to consider the growing season and how that…
I grew up in a home where mom and dad successfully owned and worked together in a business for over 25 years. As a child, I helped in the business over the summers and learned some of the most enduring lessons about running a business. It may have been inevitable, but now I am also in a business with my…
For the 18 years I worked in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s newsroom, we never used diacritical marks – the okina and kahako – in Hawaiian words. When I moved to The Honolulu Advertiser in 2004, we used them in the newspaper, though we stripped them out on the website, because the marks interfered with Google search and other Web searches. The…
As the sun rises on Waikiki Beach, some workers are going home while others have just arrived and are preparing to serve, feed and entertain up to 6,000 visitors at the Hilton. Senior writer Beverly Creamer and photographer Greg Yamamoto were given access to the entire village on the Friday before Thanksgiving. Turn the page to see what they found…
Maybe being a tree farmer means having the ability to look into the future: When Jonathan Keyser and Ethan Romanchak hold a seed, they can already see the tall, strong koa it will one day become. So although there was almost no market for native Hawaiian plants when they founded Native Nursery on Maui 11 years ago, the partners aren’t…
I’m running late. My meeting has gone over time by 45 minutes, and suddenly the cushion I allowed for catching the bus out of downtown Honolulu to pick my daughter up from preschool in Moiliili has evaporated. It’s time for me to enter the sharing economy. I pull out my phone and, instead of calling a cab, I start the…
Chief of Staff to Gov. David Ige The former CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority has also been a state senator, executive director of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, director of the state Department of Human Resource Development, CEO of PBS Hawaii and chairman of the state Democratic Party. He talks about his past accomplishments and the challenges ahead as…
Bipolar Workforce or Just Poor Polling? Hawaii’s numbers have seesawed in the workplace satisfaction rankings conducted annually for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Hawaii’s overall ranking was tops in the nation for four straight years, before falling to eighth last year. Here are Hawaii’s rankings for the past three years: Stay tuned for Gallup’s 2014 numbers, which will be released early…
Some of the most valuable lands in ancient Hawaii were located in Kaneohe, and prized by kings and chiefs. There on the windward side of Oahu, mountain springs flowed into acres of terraced loi that grew kalo in fertile soil, and then ran down to a bay ringed with two dozen ponds teeming with fish. While kalo and fish once…
Problem: You need immediate advice, but don’t feel comfortable revealing too much about yourself, so Facebook is out of the question. “Facebook is the sanitized version of our life,” says Nicole Randall, 36, above right, who has spent the last decade working in public relations and marketing. “It’s not the place to go to share embarrassing or painful things.” Solution:…
The coral reefs of the main Hawaiian Islands are worth $9.7 billion. That’s the finding of a well-known 2002 study by Dutch economists Herman Cesar and Pieter van Beukering. They created an elaborate equation that summed up the various types of added value that coral reefs contribute to the local economy. They considered the portion of visitors’ travel spending that…
A new year is a good time for reflection and renewal, including on your professional self. High emotional intelligence helps differentiate between average performers and stars, so executive coach Alison Zecha explains how to improve your EI and position yourself for career advancement. 1. Know yourself “Who am I? What’s important to me? Why am I interested in a promotion?…
Jerry Pupillo General Manager Wet‘n’Wild Hawaii wetnwildhawaii.com Question: My business has many entry-level positions, so I’m regularly hiring and training first-time workers. What’s the best way to do that? Answer: First-time workers can be a huge asset if your training program empowers them to do their daily tasks with excellence and arms them with skills to move up in the…