Just 25 years ago, Outrigger did not have a hotel outside of Waikiki. Today, it owns or operates 31 properties spread across the Hawaiian Islands and another 11 as far away as Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Quite an achievement…
Hawaii Business won two national awards and two statewide awards for its Hawaii Quality of Life Report in the December 2013 issue. In total, the magazine won 18 awards this summer from two journalism competitions that judged work published or…
Here’s what happens during a lawsuit: You pay a bunch of money to an attorney. You fight the other guy to prove you’re right and he’s wrong. You attack his credibility, and he attacks yours. What was once a business…
A 40-year veteran at HMSA, Gold has led the local insurance giant since December 2012 as the healthcare industry undergoes a sea change. In a recent op-ed, you wrote that the state should try to close part of the Hawaii…
Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Franklin. Jilly Bean, Lemon Haze and Bubba Kush. Those two types of green are flowing in and out of Colorado’s 200 dispensaries: lots of cash to buy potent strains of cannabis. Nearly $19…
Thirteen years after he and his partner, Kaleo Taft, founded their fuel cell startup in a Waikiki apartment. Nine years after he put the company on NASDAQ in a $21 million IPO. Seven years after he and his colleagues gave…
Photography Courtesy of Northwest Energy Innovation Devices to measure wave energy and convert it into electricity will be deployed in Kaneohe Bay near Marine Corps Base Hawaii starting this year, say the Navy, state Rep. Cynthia Thielen and a…
In last month’s edition, Hawaii Business published a conversation with seven of Hawaii’s best-known leaders: George Ariyoshi, John Dean, Walter Dods, Mark Dunkerley, Constance Lau, Kathryn Matayoshi and Colbert Matsumoto. They discussed the qualities of great leaders, the role of…
Photography by David Croxford In April, the state Public Utilities Commission ordered Hawaiian Electric’s utilities on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii Island to take action in four ways: “aggressively pursue energy-cost reductions, proactively respond to emerging renewable-energy-integration challenges, improve the…
To learn about leadership in Hawaii, Hawaii Business senior writer Dennis Hollier interviewed seven of the state’s most powerful and effective leaders, past and present. Among the questions he asked: What are the key attributes of great leaders? How do…
Hawaiian and English are both official languages of Hawaii, but most government services are available just in English. We tried to find out what it would cost for the state to provide most of its services in both languages. Hawaiian…
GMO has been a divisive issue on the Neighbor Islands. Is there a further role for GMO agriculture on Oahu? I want to preserve as much of our agricultural land as possible outside the urban growth boundary, and I want…
From July to December, customers crowd a classroom-size room at Kahuku High School where almost everything is red. Kahuku.org, which has made over $1 million in revenues since 2001, sells Kahuku High T-shirts, hats and hoodies while also teaching students how…
Young professionals often think volunteering is something they’ll do later in their careers because they’re too busy now. But James Chan, a Realtor, a partner at Prudential Locations and a Big Brother, says, “Do it!” and he means now. “Maybe…
2014 appears to be a crucial year for the Neighbor Islands. The future of agriculture is being passionately debated, tourism is at a crossroads, and the sources of county revenue are up in the air. Hawaii Business interviewed the three Neighbor Island…
As Abercrombie heads into an election year, Hawaii Business met with him and Young to ask how their policies affected local businesses and about their plans for the future. In our December 2013 BOSS Survey, we asked business leaders if your policies helped…
Godsey, 41, acquired ProService with Dustin Sellers in 2005, with both serving as co-presidents until Sellers left the company at the end of 2013. Born and raised in Ocean Springs, Miss., Godsey has worked on Wall Street and as a biologist studying…
You may have seen Kathy Sills selling her Aloha Pops frozen treats in front of the King Kamehameha statue or at Honolulu events such as Eat the Street. Her distinctive tricycle is tricked with a cooler packed with dry ice and $3 pops…
A lot of changes are happening at the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, but the most important is probably the chamber’s proactive approach to its legislative agenda. This year, for the first time, the Chamber is drafting its own package of…
Kosasa, 56, has been at the helm of the family business since 1999. His parents, Minnie and Sidney Kosasa, opened the first ABC Store in Waikiki in 1964. Kosasa talks about the future of ABC, which has about 1,000 employees at…
“Have I got enough rope to hang myself with here?” Venture capitalist Timothy Dick jokes about the length of the microphone cord as he stands in front of 100 entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-to-be at the Waikiki Yacht Club. Dick came to…
Stanley Kuriyama did something all too rare for a CEO: He put his company's success ahead of his personal interests. A lot of people think Stanley Kuriyama is a local hero. As chairman and CEO of Alexander & Baldwin, he…
The president of one of the largest charitable foundations in the state talks about how and why corporations give the way they do. Why would a company like Island Insurance create a foundation rather than just give directly to charity? Before, a…
Imagine a retail business in which one key measure of sales growth was up 42.2 percent last year, with similar growth this year. You’d be on Easy Street, right? Except this same business is plagued by a perennial problem: Customers…