Lanning is the SBA’s State of Hawai‘i Small Business Person of the Year for 2020 What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? Our latest pivots have been a second…
What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? At Shifted Energy, we primarily do three things: enable utilities to stabilize the grid, accelerate renewable energy integration and engage customers in innovative programs. We do that by making a smarter…
What has been Weddings of Hawaii’s latest pivot or innovation? The Hawai‘i wedding industry is at a complete standstill. As a result, our team is taking this time to revamp our social media, website, marketing campaigns and all other forms…
How are you coping with the COVID-19 crisis? Being a company full of safety and health professionals, we were fortunate to recognize the potential impact of this crisis early and began to talk to our team and clients in late…
What has been your company’s latest pivot or innovation? Two days after our farmers markets were shut down, we started running a CSA Program (Community Supported Agriculture) through our business. We launched the website and took orders as we were…
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…
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? Creating an online ordering platform and our own website. Updating our menu to more premium items and lowering the pricing. What has been your company’s latest opportunity or opportunities? Using the…
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…
What been Gecko Girlz's latest pivot or innovation? Just as we were finalizing the creative details for opening our newest Gecko Girlz Shave Ice store in a busy marketplace in downtown Kailua-Kona this spring, we learned of the stay-at-home mandate.…
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…
What has Mochi Foods’ latest pivot or innovation? We recently introduced a gluten-free mochi donut mix for customers who want to experience the taste and texture of our original mochi donuts but are looking for a gluten-friendly product. What has been…
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…
How is Infinium Interiors coping with the COVID-19 crisis? How we are coping is an interesting question. The situation we find ourselves in, by many accounts, has never happened before. Some businesses had plans in place for dealing with different…
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…