Steve Jordan says sharks are often misunderstood. “Sharks are not the big, mean monsters they’re made out to be,” says Jordan, the owner and CEO of Hawaii Shark Encounters. His company’s two-hour tours teach customers about shark species and ecosystems, and they get a clear view of live sharks while protected inside a 10-foot-by-10-foot steel cage with a Plexiglas window….
While describing the values that have carried KTA Super Stores to its 100th year as a family-owned business, president and COO Toby Taniguchi brings up traditional Japanese concepts. “The organization has been able to survive because our focus is not solely on the bottom line. Our focus is also on honoring the people, relationships and partnerships that those before us…
“It’s really like walking into someone’s home that you’ve been going to for a long time. Not like some other places where they just stare at you,” says Lester Peetz, a customer of The Pillbox Pharmacy for 24 years. “It’s like a 1940s drugstore, complete with jazz music and ice cream. They’re extremely friendly, extremely efficient. The best pharmacy in…
Friday, 7:30 pm Oahu Transit Services, Inc. Middle Street Photo by Mathew Ursua It takes about five fluid ounces of soap and four gallons of recycled city water to wash one of Honolulu’s 540 city buses, says Oahu Transit Services, operators of TheBus. OTS has two vehicle-servicing locations: Pearl City and Middle Street, which collectively employ 45 attendants. Categories: Media,…
Meredith Mawhar says she settled on her new career because she was excited by the Research Challenge, a prestigious competition for college students sponsored by the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute. Mawhar is a student at UH Manoa’s Shidler College of Business who already has a degree in zoology. “I actually chose to become a finance major because I heard about…
Brian Kajiyama, an instructor in UH’s Department of Special Education, who has cerebral palsy, has an undeniable need for his trained service dog, Zeus. Such dogs get years of training so they can help their human partners, and Zeus can pick up things when Kajiyama uses sign commands. Together, he says, they have encountered dogs whose owners masquerade them as…
Native plant restoration is an ongoing process at the Kaupulehu Dryland Forest in North Kona – one of more than a dozen projects by the nonprofit Hawaii Forest Institute. “Not all (Hawaii) forests are native forests,” notes Rob Pacheco, who helps raise money for HFI and is the founder of the tour company Hawaii Forest & Trail. In addition to…
I’m hearing a lot of buzz about cause marketing. How do I get my small business started on it? Cause marketing aligns a brand with a cause in the community, such as sustainability, helping children or homelessness. When executed strategically, cause marketing can have a measurable impact on the business, cause and customers – building goodwill and loyalty. In fact,…
We may buy that clamshell of beautiful, ripe strawberries with the best of intentions – pancakes! cobbler! fruit salad! – but when the end of the week comes and they’re getting soft and fuzzy in the back of the produce drawer, we’re likely to throw them in the trash. Multiply that process by several thousand households, and you’ll get a mountain…
It’s an economical and eco-friendly way to eliminate overgrowth on land, and the workers are cute and quiet. Chris Wilcox, then a boat captain for a fish-farming operation on Hawaii Island, switched gears in 2013 and started Big Island Goat Dozers, which uses goats to clear land for homeowners and homeowner associations. It takes three to seven days for his…
There are a million stories in the white-collar gig economy. Let me introduce you to one. Alison Chock has two jobs: One is in retail, where she works nights at a boutique. Her other job is more unpredictable. The work is seasonal – there’s more in fall than in spring – with each stint lasting no more than a few…
How a public-private program called Creative Lab accelerates entrepreneurs in six creative areas: screenwriting, broadband, interactive media, fashion, producing and music While Hawaii is known worldwide for its rainbows, aloha spirit and beautiful weather, Georja Skinner hopes to add “creative entrepreneurs” to the list. Both words are crucial, Skinner says. Hawaii has long nurtured young people’s creative genius, but the…