Author: Jerry Burris

Lawmakers Fundraise During the Legislative Session

The annual session of the Hawaii state Legislature is when issues are debated, compromises are forged, new laws are created – and legislators ask for your money. An analysis by Hawaii Business magazineshows that during the 2011 state Legislature, 14 of the 25…

Lessons Learned: Expanding in the Pacific

Lyon Associates, Inc. is a Honolulu-based, father-and-son engineering firm with projects from Micronesia to Bahrain. Jim Lyon, 45, was born on Okinawa, when Frank, now 82, was working for another engineering company. After retirement, Frank realized there was more work and…

Moving Your I.T. And Data Into the Cloud

Our scribe explains the practical pros and cons of cloud computing, while our artiste tells the same tale as an epic quest for the holy grail of computer nirvana   Arnold Domingo, operations manager of HawaiiPrint, a graphics and textile…

Syngenta Agrisure Artesian Corn is Drought-Resistant

For a farmer, water is king. But rainfall is fickle and even irrigation systems can falter. That’s why scientists and technicians atSyngenta, a Swiss-based agricultural-technology company with seed operations on Kauai and in Kunia, have developed a new variety of…

Business Executives Sign up to Lead Nonprofits

As a former top executive at Aloha Airlines, Aloha Island Air, Roberts Hawaii and theHawaii Superferry, Neil Takekawa has had more than his share of high-flying corporate jobs, with their big salaries and big headaches. Now, as COO at the nonprofit Japanese Cultural…

APEC: Is Your Business Ready?

The people planning Hawaii’s role as host for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting this November have crucial advice for local businesses hoping to get in on the action: “You snooze, you lose.” They don’t use exactly those words, but…

Big Box Stores

The critics' story is familiar: Giant stores move into an American community and destroy its small businesses, local values and sense of place. The same story is being told now in Hawaii, as shoppers abandon longtime neighborhood businesses to buy…

What it's worth?

What it's worth? $1,500 Hawaii’s royalty were prolific writers, penning official orders, personal correspondence and literary efforts in their elegant, old-fashioned script. While much of this written history is in museums and other collections, a fair amount remains available for…

Obama’s Kailua Stimulus Program

There’s no question that business booms at Kailua’s Island Snow shave ice and surf wear store whenever President Obama and his entourage are in town. But those well-publicized visits have left a long tail of increased year-round sales and revived…

Talk Story with Peter Ho

Ho is also chair of the Hawaii host committee for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Honolulu this November. The weeklong series of APEC meetings and seminars will be capped by a summit of the 21 leaders of Asia…

The New Culture of Giving

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…

Can Hawaii Capture the 2024 Olympics?

You’ve seen bumper stickers with a variation on this theme: “Tokyo, Paris, London, Waimanalo.” Now, a new one might soon appear: “Bejing, London, Rio, Honolulu.” The reference is to the Summer Olympic Games, which – if a group of planners…

Pro-Business Legislators

Some Republicans and Democrats stand out as best, but when we tried to ID the worst, business leaders were reluctant to name names. In this time of severe budget cuts, lots of people are unhappy with their state lawmakers. But…

Seeking the Business Vote

Top candidates for governor explain how they would make it easier for businesses to succeed. Those in Hawaii struggling to maintain a business or start a new one can rest easy on one thing: Our next governor has no plans…

Honolulu International Airport by the Numbers

4# HNL’s runways – two pairs of parallel runways that are among the nation’s longest. 60# Percentage share of statewide airline passengers. 25# Rank among the busiest airports in the U.S. 16# Millions of passengers who traveled through HNL in 2009.   Source: State…

Whats it Worth?

Primo Beer is back, but to aficionados of the blue-collar brew, the new version isn’t the real stuff. The real Primo — not all that good, really — is spiked by memories of backyard luau, garage talk-story sessions and pau…

Waikiki Au Naturel

There are plenty of great restaurants in Waikiki where you can eat lunch, enjoy the view and remind yourself you are lucky you live Hawaii. But for a cheaper and shorter Waikiki lunch break, pack up the car with your…

Tourism Forecast: More Visitors But Storm Cloud Looms

Waikiki and other resorts statewide are more crowded these days. Visitor arrivals are up while beaches, stores and restaurants are filling again with tanned people spending their money. But there is a cloud on the horizon: Union contracts covering most…

Illegal Sex, Drugs and Gambling

A vast, illegal economy operates just beneath Hawaii’s legitimate society, and many people who earn their money in the legal economy spend part of it in the black one. The narcotics trade serves both street-corner junkies strung out on crystal…

This is a Tourist Spot?!

When Mitch D’Olier left Honolulu’s Victoria Ward Co. to lead Kaneohe Ranch, the largest landowner in Kailua, on Windward Oahu, he thought he would see few tourists on the job. “When I was at Victoria Ward, about 30 percent of…