Steve Petranik has been an editor and reporter for almost four decades and now is the editor of Hawaii Business. Before joining the magazine in 2009, he spent 18 years as an editor at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and five years at the Honolulu Advertiser. He’s reported from six countries on three continents and his stories have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
What has been your nonprofit’s latest pivot or innovation? We are seeking to convert, in a compressed time frame, from on-site clinical visits to remote tele-health visits. We have trained 100 medical providers in four weeks. We have developed daily…
Hawaii Business Magazine has asked each of the county mayors how their government is supporting local businesses and how businesses are supporting the county. Hawai‘i Island Mayor Harry Kim was the first to respond to our emailed questions. Here are…
We are continuing to publish stories researched and written before the COVID-19 crisis, such as this one. The BOSS Survey interviewed 433 company representatives statewide; the 808 Poll reached 473 adult members of the general public statewide. These surveys…
What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? We are creatively trying to help our island go virtual! What has been your company’s latest opportunity or opportunities? From hosting virtual craft fairs to helping spread messages about free food…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? So far, we’ve been fortunate to have things be fairly business as usual. There are many other industries that have to cope with far more than us. We have been 100% remote…
What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? What has been your company’s latest opportunity or opportunities? We feel fortunate to be able to continue pushing toward our mission during these challenging times and remain agile as the situation…
What has been your company's latest pivot or innovation? The foundation of our company for the last 50 years has been to “make business simple” for Hawai‘i, and we are working tirelessly to do just that in response to the…
What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? Zippy’s Restaurants latest pivot is our No-Contact Pickup Service, which was recently rolled out for social distancing precautions as well as the safety of our customers and staff. We piloted this…
What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? A big part of what we do is provide energy efficiency education and professional development training. Like many faced with adjusting delivery models during this pandemic, we have had to transition…
What has been your company's latest pivot or innovation? At Coldwell Banker we have always had one focus: helping people live exceptional lives. The COVID-19 crisis has shifted how we deliver on that promise. First and foremost is the health…
The high-tech company says it will start testing the therapy and, if successful, make it available quickly Patrick K. Sullivan, the founder and CEO of Oceanit, says the local high-tech company has developed a potential therapy for COVID-19 using an…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? COVID-19 has changed the security posture for our company in many ways. First and foremost, we have had a major ramp-up in new applicants from 55 applicants per week to over 130…
AlohaTrace offers a simple way for people in Hawai‘i to help fight the spread of COVID-19. The online platform asks you up to six confidential and anonymous questions. I completed the survey in only 20 seconds because I have no…
Hawaii Business virtually interviewed Ron Vance, President of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, Hawaii Region, and Chris Hause, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer and VP of Marketing, Sales, & Business Development at Kaiser Permanente. How are you coping…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? Our mission of raising money to support University of Hawai‘i students, research and programs is more critical now than ever. Knowing how important and impactful our work is, provides fuel to our…
What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? There are obvious and less obvious pivots that we’ve made as a result of the COVID-19 situation. On the visible end, we transitioned to working from home the week before the…
How are you coping with the COVID-19 crisis? The RevoluSun business model is based on Smart Home Specialists meeting with clients to discuss their needs and gather information about their home energy use. As an essential services business, RevoluSun’s focus…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? This is an unprecedented global health crisis that is changing the way we live and do business in Hawai‘i. The dramatic change in demand for the products we provide, such as jet…
Did your business continuity plan work, or were there surprises? The magnitude of this crisis, and the way it has affected every region across the globe, is a situation that I don’t think any leader could fully anticipate. Although you…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? Ensuring the safety of our employees and our community has been our highest priority amid the COVID-19 crisis. Enhanced safety plan protocols, with an emphasis on personal hygiene and overall job-site sanitation,…
How are you maintaining your company culture? In times like this, we lean even more heavily on our Core Values, which really do define how we do things and treat each other. We have four (Respect, Service, Teamwork, and Continuous…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? Our office remains open as we are considered an essential service, however, the majority of our employees are working remotely. Our employees are connecting to our network via VPN. We do have…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? Pono Pacific took the approach from the outset of trying to be as informed and prepared for this situation as possible in order to make the best decisions for our team’s safety,…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? As an organization, we came together to establish three major priorities to help us rise to this challenge. First, we are stewards within the community, so we need to be responsible and…
How are you coping amid COVID-19 crisis? As a nonprofit organization with a social enterprise model, we are in the unique situation of having to deal with the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on both sides of the spectrum. On…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? Like many companies, we will be working remotely for the foreseeable future. While telecommuting has its challenges, we feel fortunate to be able to work from home and continue serving our clients.…
How are you coping with the COVID-19 crisis? We have switched to telework for everyone, even our part-time interns. In our electronics work, we do need access to specific hardware from time to time. Some of this can be done…
How are you coping amid COVID-19 crisis Biki has been deemed an “essential service” by Honolulu’s mayor and we will continue to operate to meet the transportation needs of Honolulu. All Biki Stops are currently in service, even those in…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? Barbers Point Aviation Services has remained open for business as an essential operator at Kalaeloa Airport. We’re adapting and talking about the virus daily. We are sharing methods we’ve heard or read.…
How are you coping amid COVID-19 crisis? HI Tech Hui is weathering the storm well. As an IT and cybersecurity consultant, our services are in high demand as our clients and non-clients move to the work-from-home scenario. We’re busy configuring…
Have you found silver linings in these difficult times? There are always silver linings in everything; we had everyone list “catch up” projects and since we were heading into spring we conducted spring cleaning and project clean up. We also…
ProService Hawaii says local companies and nonprofits should apply soon. Applications for small business loans under the new federal CARES Act are being accepted starting today and ProService Hawaii says local companies should act quickly. “We’ve been working with all…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? Keeping connected is so important, especially in times of change and uncertainty, and we take our role as a provider of essential communications services seriously. Our employees know that our customers –…
How are you coping amid COVID-19 crisis? We are coming up with new ways of safely meeting with clients to notarize documents. Since we do not have e-notary, we instituted a way of signing clients at their car if they…
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? At DTRIC Insurance, we recognized early that we needed to play an important role in “flattening the curve” of the COVID-19 community spread. We proactively implemented preventive measures in the workplace as…
Have you found silver linings in these difficult times? Locally owned small businesses in Hawai‘i are being hit especially hard. A silver lining we found is our Mana Up ‘ohana and founders supporting each other. Now is the time to…
Two major federal laws passed in March have changed the landscape for Hawai‘i businesses. Emily Marr, assistant general counsel at Hawaii Employers Council, answers important questions about how the new law affects employers and employees and provides useful links. …
How are you coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? We are coping well by implementing several initiatives to ensure our continued service to our associates and clients. Also, by focusing on what we “can” do has allowed us to remain open…
How is your company coping amid the COVID-19 crisis? COVID-19 is a very unexpected world situation. We are extremely proud of our Atlas team and the flexibility they have demonstrated. It’s because of their agility in this unique situation that…
Did your business continuity plan work or were there surprises? There is NO planning for an event of this magnitude. There is no continuity, there is no governmental plan and therefore we have to literally over communicate on a daily…
