Lyon Associates, Inc. is a Honolulu-based, father-and-son engineering firm with projects from Micronesia to Bahrain. Jim Lyon, 45, was born on Okinawa, when Frank, now 82, was working for another engineering company. After retirement, Frank realized there was more work and…
Q. How much business income insurance coverage do I need? A. We’ve all heard stories about businesses that suffer a fire loss, take three months to rebuild and struggle to survive because of income lost during those months. That is…
What do you really know about your customers? Do you know their ages? Where they live? How much money they make? How many kids they have? Do you know where else they shop? How they make buying decisions? Why they…
Problem: Piracy costs the U.S. movie industry more than $20 billion annually, according to industry experts, who say illegal downloads and bootleg copies prevent many independent filmmakers from turning their passion into a livelihood. Solution: EggUp.com is a platform created in Hawaii…
Some pet stores in Hawaii have stopped selling cats and dogs, and are instead partnering with animal shelters and rescue groups to offer adoptions of homeless animals. The unusual marketing strategy may be partly due to more pet-store owners’ concern…
Each person’s road to success is unique, but these four women shared similar challenges and goals. Each explains that success has never been about money or power, but about personal goals and helping communities. • Attorney Crystal Rose, chair of Central…
Capital is essential to all small businesses. It allows owners to launch their companies and invest in their companies’ growth. Elizabeth Echols, regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, provides tips on how to access capital and make it…
For a farmer, water is king. But rainfall is fickle and even irrigation systems can falter. That’s why scientists and technicians atSyngenta, a Swiss-based agricultural-technology company with seed operations on Kauai and in Kunia, have developed a new variety of…
As executive VP and GM of dck pacific construction since 2008, Roger Peters has guided the company through one of the worst building climates in memory. With few major projects (except for rail) on the horizon, we ask Peters for…
By any measure, Kukuiula on Kauai's south shore has been an ambitious undertaking. When Alexander & Baldwin first proposed the private golf club and master-planned, luxury community in the early 1980s, it…
After more than two miserable years, many in Hawaii's construction industry think the near future will be brighter because of the Honolulu rail line, planned hotel redevelopments and other projects. "It's cautious optimism," says John White, executive director of the…
As a former top executive at Aloha Airlines, Aloha Island Air, Roberts Hawaii and theHawaii Superferry, Neil Takekawa has had more than his share of high-flying corporate jobs, with their big salaries and big headaches. Now, as COO at the nonprofit Japanese Cultural…
You can see from his face that Miles Hashimoto loves working, whether it's assembling mobile-phone kits or shredding documents. Both jobs are at Goodwill Industries, and Hashimoto is no ordinary worker. Like an estimated 1.8 percent of Hawaii's population – about 24,500…
When we went looking for Hawaii Business magazine's Best Dressed Executives and Professionals, we got more than a hundred nominations. It was a huge challenge – and a lot of fun – narrowing down that group of stylish people to…
In some ways, construction and Waikiki go hand-in-hand. After all, the pleasure palaces along the beach have provided many of the largest recent private construction projects in the state. By some counts, more than $2 billion has been spent over…
Since it opened in January, Podium Raceway has been packed every weekend with screaming kids and screeching tires. The presence and popularity of the indoor electric-go-kart track signals a new plan for Barbers Point, at least for the short term. Until recently,…
It's Monday morning and Melissa Chang has gathered her laptop and smartphone, and is on her way to her "coffice," a comfortable setting likeBlue Hawaii Lifestyle, Burgers on the Edge or Good to Grill. There she can settle down with coffee, free Wi-Fi and her…
Clyde Tamaru, an aquaculture specialist atUH Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, is on a mission: putting marginal land to good agricultural use with aquaponics. Along the way, Tamaru helps enhance the reputation oftilapia, a fish that many…
For 28 years, Hawaii Business has been publishing a list of Hawaii’s Top 250 organizations based on gross revenues, because we think that’s the most effective way to measure a company’s size. However, there have always been critics in the…
Armstrong Builders and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands have partnered to create housing communities that are both energy and water efficient. “We’re always looking for new opportunities and are committed to building as many green projects as the market can absorb,” says Daniel…
Kahala Caterers had difficulty recruiting dishwashers and general laborers for its chef staff a few years ago. “People were coming in but weren’t motivated,” company president Winston Gample says. “They all just want to be executive chefs or the next TV…
Smart email marketing makes the difference between emails that are read and those that go straight to the trash. Damian Davila, online marketing consultant and CEO ofIdaconcpts.com, explains how to make it work: 1) Short and focused Content is crucial,…
Q. I set up a Facebook page for my store. What should I do to engage customers and bring them in? A. With more than a half billion active users worldwide, Facebook is the major social-network player. The average Facebook user has about…
Problem Hawaii spends $5 billion a year on imported oil, but biofuels that can replace oil usually require a lot of agricultural land. Solution Using its library of algae strains, Kuehnle AgroSystems says it can select, analyze and optimize algae for specific…