Leadership

Bill Chee CEO of Prudential Locations

A few years after Chee and his partners launched Locations in 1969, they quietly computerized the local MLS listings – giving Locations a big edge over the competition and helping turn it into one of the top real estate firms…

Talk Story with Peter Ho

Ho is also chair of the Hawaii host committee for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Honolulu this November. The weeklong series of APEC meetings and seminars will be capped by a summit of the 21 leaders of Asia…

Employing the Military

Tal Ziv lives a double life and feels he serves a noble cause in each one. He works fulltime at Sopogy, helping develop micro-concentrated solar-power technology for a renewable energy future. And several times a year, he wears the uniform…

Expansion Lessons

Chinatown Newspaper-Honolulu, published by Nella Media Group, while just 22 monthly issues old, has expanded to Portland, Ore., and Cutinella and Sanchez explain how the early stages are sometimes the best time to grow your business. HB: What did you learn…

Matson Sails Fast Boats to China

Matson Navigation Co. is a tiny blip on the radar compared to the 20 other major global transportation companies serving the China market. Still, as the first American shipper to enter the China trade, it’s secured an impressive client base…

Hawaii’s Tech Industry After Act 221

Watching the death of Act 221 was like watching the Superferry ordeal unravel all over again,” says attorney Jay Fidell, president of ThinkTech Hawaii. “Why this state continues to oppose progress and kill measures that so many people and businesses will benefit from…

Building Customer Loyalty

There are many reasons Luibueno’s Mexican and Seafood Restaurant in Haleiwa has made so many loyal customers since it opened in March 2010. The Spanish and Baja Mexican family recipes from husband-and-wife owners Luis and Taryn Silva have a lot…

Talk Story with Jim Scott

Q:How has the process of fundraising changed in your time at Punahou? A: When I first got hired, Punahou was leaning on its traditional donors, the kamaaina families that had sent their kids here for generations. But, as we expanded our…

Top-Flight Leadership

Mark Dunkerley turned Hawaiian Airlines into a world-class carrier “You’d have to be crazy to get into the airline business,” Mark Dunkerley said wryly. The Hawaiian Airlines CEO was speaking late last year to a group of young leaders from…

Hurry up and Wait on Taxes

Businesses must pay GET earlier, but state takes longer to cash checks For decades, the state has taken weeks on average – even months – to cash taxpayers’ checks. Now, with government-worker furloughs and restrictions on temporary hires, the check-cashing…

Adaptive Lessons

If the shoe fits, the saying goes, buy it in every color. And if the shoe-business model doesn’t fit right away, Teri Edmonds will find a way to make it work. In 2001, Edmonds opened her shop, If The Shoe…

Down, Not Out

There’s no denying it’s been a brutal three years for Central Pacific Bank and its parent company, Central Pacific Financial Corp. The bank’s aspiration of grabbing more market share with its 2004 merger with City Bank has all but disappeared.…

Making a Hobby Your Business

Maui Surfer Girls founder Dustin Tester proves that, with hard work, you don’t need a business degree to own one. Tester’s love of surfing and her Adventure Education degree from Prescott College in Arizona inspired her to start an all-girl…

Ask SmallBiz: Successful Women

Q. How can a woman small-business owner succeed in the male-dominated construction industry? A. Women leaders face unique challenges in the workplace, no matter what industry we are in. Yet, as women, we bring abundant talents to the table and can…