To solve homelessness, we need to build lots more affordable housing, but Hawaii has failed to do that for decades. Three men with very different visions are trying to fix that. It’s an improbable place to build affordable housing:…
Hawaii is ground zero for energy innovation, and the leading incubator for that innovation is the Energy Excelerator. Back in 2014, when Hawaii Business first reported on EEx, 50 startups applied to join its initial cohort. This year, there were…
When companies offer effective wellness programs, many of their employees become healthier, happier and more engaged. Here are before-and-after stories of four employees who signed up for wellness programs and turned their lives around. Does one of these "Before" stories sound like yours?
Inspiration: Farmers told Vincent Kimura they needed an affordable way to protect their crops and increase their yields. Once he had an idea to address that problem, he teamed with Ryan Ozawa, Isar Mostafanezhad and Justin Hedani to create the…
Eric Gleason President, NextEra Energy Hawaii President, NextEra Energy Transmission After a career in investment banking – interrupted by a couple of years backpacking around the world with his wife – Gleason has spent the last six years in the…
For weeks, the astronomers, technicians and support staff working on Mauna Kea watched the protesters. Native Hawaiians and others opposed to the massive Thirty Meter Telescope gathered near the 9,000-foot mark, their encampment near Hale Pohaku, the small campus where…
Hawaii’s homeless population includes thousands of working people who suffered a financial crisis and lost their place to live. Tens of thousands of others scrape by with jobs that pay little more than minimum wage, but are possibly one or…
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…
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…
With the new year, many middle managers are setting their sights on the C-suite. The stable economy and low unemployment make for the right external conditions, but will you be up for the challenge? Executive recruiter Judy Bishop, founder of…
Batteries are old. In a sense, the last major development in battery technology was the invention of the lead-acid battery in 1859 by the French physicist Gaston Plante. Earlier batteries had short lives, quickly losing their charge as their electrodes…
A young Japanese couple experiences a dream Hawaii vacation. They start the day riding horses along a dusty mountain trail at Kualoa Ranch. Then they cruise down Kalakaua Avenue in a convertible, lounge on Waikiki Beach and end the day parasailing.…
For an hour each month for the past four years, Shelley Umeda has put her face in the hands of aesthetician Susan Snyder, who steams and massages it, plucks out impurities and skims off a layer of dead cells to…
Martin uses a baseball analogy to warn educators everywhere: If a pitcher makes the same pitch to every batter all the time, he will eventually lose. Martin’s goal is to disrupt archaic methods so educators can nurture students to navigate…
It was dark and raining when my plane touched down in Honolulu for my mini-vacation, so I used my GPS to guide me to where I would spend the next two nights. But, instead of taking me to Waikiki’s well-lit,…
Savvy business experts offer advice to emerging designers on going global Talk about a left-brain, right-brain challenge. Local fashion entrepreneurs need to be innovative and continually create new looks that attract people’s attention. But, if their skills end there, they…
Retail rents on Oahu have climbed more than 50 percent in the past decade, while in Waikiki, the increase has been 65 percent. And the biggest increases have come in the primest of Hawaii’s prime real estate: a half-mile of…
Personal relationships seem more complicated today because of social media, 24/7 work lifestyles and high divorce rates, but what happens if an additional complication is added, such as starting a business with your spouse? “Being married and working together takes…
When it comes to bikini shopping, there’s a vital statistical difference between the buying habits of locals and those of Island visitors. It all comes down to cheeks – the okole, that is – and just how much a lady…
"Are you breathing?" Emergency-room doctor David Williams leans over a “patient” covered in realistic-looking ash and blood. Surrounding him in the pop-up hospital tent lie a dozen more volunteer victims, ready for triage after a plane has crashed at Kahului Airport.…
Henk Rogers, Hawaii Business' CEO of the year, does not follow conventions - he ignores or breaks them. Henk Rogers is an unusual choice for Hawaii Business magazine’s CEO of the Year. Past CEOs of the Year have led some…
YES! A Memoir of Modern Hawaii By Walter Dods Jr., with Gerry Keir and Jerry Burris Walter Dods Jr. was born in Honolulu just before Pearl Harbor, the first of seven children in a close-knit family that struggled to pay…
As we step up our efforts to reduce homelessness, we need to work harder to prevent it. One way is to increase the number of people who have enough savings to weather a short-term financial crisis – a lost job, a…
What bosses and employees should know about holiday gifts, parties and bonuses.