CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Digital Island founder Ron Higgins, foreground, and other Hawaii business leaders met with representatives of two CEO magazines yesterday to talk about the state's business climate.
Opportunity knocked, Come December, more than 100,000 West Coast subscribers of California CEO and Washington CEO magazines will read all about what it's like to do business in Hawaii -- warts and all.
local CEOs answered
By Erika Engle
eengle@starbulletin.comThe bulk of those readers, in California, live amid a $1.3 trillion economy, the 5th biggest economy in the world. "In other words, there are only four countries in the world with a bigger economy," said California CEO Managing Editor Kenneth Joyce.
Magazine officials and the economic development organization Enterprise Honolulu assembled more than 35 chief executives for a candid talk about Hawaii's business climate yesterday morning. Other media organizations were not allowed to listen in.
Participants were invited to discuss business ideas that are working for their companies, positive trends in their industries and other sectors, initiatives they find interesting and areas of opportunity.
Organizers also wanted to hear about challenges. Nobody used the word "problems" in reviewing the morning's discussions for the Star-Bulletin.
Kitty Lagareta, chief executive officer of public relations company Communications-Pacific Inc., called the discussion "exhilarating," and a good opportunity to get out the real story about "the good things that are happening here."
Macy's West has had good experiences in its little more than a year in Hawaii. Deena Nichols, senior vice president and director of stores, shared some of those in the roundtable session.
"Using local help and local business support, we have found the transition to be a lot easier than anticipated," she said.
The most emphatic point the session drove home for Nichols was the common sense of "responsibility and stewardship" that business leaders feel toward the community.
Each executive has his or her pet cause or causes their companies will often back with funds, events, volunteers or the whole nine yards.
Roundtablers agreed education is a key community issue.
Dr. Edwin Cadman, dean of the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said one executive recalled that when he arrived in Hawaii in the political season of 1974, "the top two issues were education and the economy. Now, the top two issues are education and the economy."
Both Cadman and Mike Fitzgerald, Enterprise Honolulu president and chief executive officer, believe business has a role to play in supporting Hawaii's educational system.
"Business has to make a contribution," Fitzgerald said, to supplement education through mentoring programs and other projects.
Cadman saw three prevalent themes during the meeting, which went nearly an hour over its scheduled 2-and-a-half hours.
The state is "doing great in several areas," he said, but fails to market itself as a place in which to do business. He cited tremendous enthusiasm among those gathered who consider themselves "change agents" who want to diversify the economy, while recognizing that tourism will remain the No. 1 industry in Hawaii.
That's where Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association President Peter Apo comes in.
"I was really in awe of the intellectual capital that was here, all local," he said. The diversity of industry represented in the summit illustrated to him that "we don't have to be totally dependent on tourism."
"Business in Hawaii is alive and well and growth in Hawaii is beginning to driven from within. That's a significant shift."
Also significant to Apo was the discussion of values among the participants. He shared the benefits of folding Hawaiian values into corporate cultures. "You adopt a personal behavior system in and out of the workplace," he said. "You're creating a condition that promotes team work and individual achievement and it empowers people.
"The obvious benefit to the workplace," he said, "is it contributes to job performance." The association offers just such a training program.
Much of what is reported by mainland media about doing business in the islands is negative, as was a Forbes article earlier this year.
The summit idea was floated by CEO President and Publisher Scott Fivash, head of magazine parent company, Fivash Media Group. It is something they've done in other markets and long-time friend Fitzgerald of Enterprise Honolulu was up for it.
Fitzgerald went into it with the understanding that what was printed would not be all hearts and flowers, sunshine, sand and palm trees.
The magazine will analyze data and run assessments of the challenges faced in doing business in the islands. "It won't be a whitewash," he said.
The magazine will print an overrun of about 5,000 copies, Fivash said. In addition to the 750 Hawaii chief executives on the magazine's controlled circulation list, each summit participant will receive copies, as will companies purchasing advertising in the December issue. The magazines are not sold in Hawaii newsstands but may be available online through Barnes & Noble or Borders Books & Music, Fivash said.
On behalf of his readers, Joyce seemed interested in high-tech tax incentive Act 221, the ability to do deal with the mainland and Asia in the same business day and things he heard yesterday about education in Hawaii.
"There shouldn't be a blanket impression that education here is inferior to the mainland," he said.
Joyce was also impressed by the aloha spirit or "attitude of friendliness" he's experienced in the islands.
"You don't find it (elsewhere). In fact, they think (aloha spirit) is a pineapple drink."
State of Hawaii
