Where we see black asphalt streets, Elisabeth “Betsy” Wilson envisions green roads. As president of family-owned Alakona Asphalt Paving Specialists, Wilson hopes the state and counties will share her vision of increasing the amount of recycled asphalt in our roads…
3 reasons why these Top 250 companies beat the odds No. 1 Reason for Big Gains: Strategic Growth Many Top 250 companies are Hawaii institutions that have defined local business culture for decades and employ the most experienced and talented…
High unemployment causes spike The smiling folks who work the counter at Don Dymond’s stores in Kailua tend to stay around a while. Dymond, who runs Kalapawai Market, Kalapawai Café and several other small businesses, rarely lays people off and…
My son and his friends are leaving home and I fear they will never truly come back. Nothing is set in stone, but of the thousands who fly off each summer to enroll at colleges on the Mainland, too many…
Send letters to feedback@hawaiibusiness.com Flaws in how Top 100 Realtors were picked Let me preface by stating there is probably no perfect system for judging who the Top 100 Realtors (June 2009) are in Hawaii. I do feel, however, that…
It’s a workday morning late in the week and attorney Ellen Carson is at her home computer, in her pajamas, working on affidavits. She’s been at it for three hours — since 6 a.m. — but by 9 she’s able…
Something major is happening. Women everywhere are mobilizing — themselves and each other — to get into the community, grow their contact lists and build meaningful relationships to advance their careers. This new age of wahine networking is a far…
Melissa Teves Pavlicek has fought for the interests of small businesses at the state Legislature for the past five years and became state director of the National Federation of Independent Business in 2006. HB: How can small businesses gain influence…
“A crusty, irascible, cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas” Life at work is never easy. We are often confronted with situations we don’t know how to handle. Each month, this retired senior Honolulu executive offers his take on how…
When will it recover? Just about everyone in the Hawaii housing sector – brokers, lenders, economists, appraisers, analysts – says the crystal ball on prices is murky. A lot of outside factors make it difficult to predict where prices will…
What makes commercial real estate so complicated? “Downtown” Jamie Brown, a CRE All-Star and president of Hawaii Commercial Real Estate, looks puzzled by the question. “Have you ever seen a commercial real estate contract?” he asks. Fishing out a thick…
Will commercial real estate be the next crisis? “There’s an old adage,” says Steve Sofos. “Pigs get fat; hogs get slaughtered.” Sofos, president of Sofos Realty, Hawaii’s largest independent commercial real estate brokerage, is discussing the possibility of a collapse…
> Send letters to feedback@hawaiibusiness.com Citizen Economists not paying its writers I’m a freelance writer living in Bellingham, Wash. I recently ran across the December 2008 issue of Hawaii Business at my local library. I took a look at it,…