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The great thing about being part of a big family that runs a wide variety of businesses is the sharing of ideas. And if it's the right family, it is a lot of fun too, says Kathy Loui-Yasui.
For the Loui family, combining
business with family is, well, just
part of being a big, happy ohanaBy Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.com
Her husband, Michael Yasui, has caught the entrepreneurial spirit of the extended Loui family over the years.
"It's nice to have family get-togethers where we talk business, but we talk about the kids too," Yasui said in an interview at Corporate Environments International, a dealer in high-technology office furniture.
Yasui is founder and president of that business. Kathy is a vice president whose focus is planning and market strategy. Kathy is also vice president, corporate and administration, at the Loui family-owned Pacific Marine & Supply Co., now headed by her brother Steven, who is chief executive officer.
Pacific Marine headquarters are across the 11th-floor hallway in the Davies Pacific Center from her husband's business. In between is Omnitrak Group, an international market research and consulting firm headed by President Pat Loui-Schmicker, Kathy's sister. Pat's husband, Michael Schmicker, is vice president of business development, at Pacific Marine.
He said the family businesses all moved into close proximity a couple of months ago, because their individual leases were coming due and they could get an advantageous rental rate by taking a large amount of space and dividing it.
But that is by no means the only advantage. There is constant communication among the family members. They look after each other's kids in emergencies. They have a joint lunch room where they get together.
"It's a wonderful exchange. We share the kitchen here. We can carpool if we want. We've been trying to convince my mother to come in and cook for us," she said, but matriarch Alyce Loui took the position that it is a bit too much of a jump for someone who has been president and chairwoman of Pacific Marine to switch to cook.
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She stepped in as Pacific Marine president when her husband, Fred Loui, who founded the business in 1944, died in 1969. She ran the business until her son Steven was able to come in as president in 1972. And, of course, she has a huge role as grandmother, mother, sister to the older generation, and all-round head of the family.The family's business activities range from developing and selling some of the highest-technology ships in the world -- including the SWATH vessels such as Navatek 1 and the more recent SLICE design, which can do 30 knots in the open sea -- through the advanced-design furniture business to sophisticated market research for major companies through Omnitrak.
As this story was being prepared, Pat Loui-Schmicker was in the Far East doing research for Coca-Cola.
Flight to furniture
"Our Knoll line is one of the top furniture lines in the country," said Michael Yasui, pointing as an example to complex desk and partition structure that had been opened up to demonstrate how complex communications, lighting and computer cables can be placed out of sight between panels.Yasui's background was not in furniture. His life was aviation. He has a degree in aeronautical science from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and was in the Air Force for 12 years, where as a flight engineer he flew the commander-in-chief Pacific and his staff.
"I met and fell in love with a local girl (Kathy) and knew that sooner or later I would face transfers. I wanted to make a family so flying was out," he said.
Flying is certainly technical but Yasui was surprised to find how technical the furniture business can be.
His business has exclusive rights to the Knoll brand out of East Greenville, Pa., which has won design awards and has 30 of its best designs in the permanent design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Yasui started developing that business at home when Kathy was pregnant with their first daughter, Kiana, who is now 6.
"Soon we couldn't manage the business there," he said. Kathy said it was great that Michael could be at home to enjoy his daughter all the way through the toddler stage but she acknowledges it was hectic, particularly when the nanny they waited a long time to hire quit after her first week.
By 1998 the business had grown too much and Yasui moved it into the downtown financial district. CEI sells to the business community and government agencies.
In addition to Knoll, it represents furniture brands such as Kimball and David Edward; all of them, he says, representing original design work and the highest quality.
The company is even doing business with the city bus system, supplying benches for the new bus shelters. "They're made from recycled plastic and recycled aluminum cans," Yasui said.
The Loui family got started through a business transaction, Kathy said, so it is not surprising it has kept on developing businesses.
"My maternal grandmother, Shizuko Katashima, owned a large market in Kapahulu. Shizuko sold her market to my paternal grandmother, Alicia Loui, a mother of 13 and an entrepreneur," she said.
In the natural course of events, Shizuko's daughter Alyce met and married Alicia's son Fred and a new dynasty began.
The family business Pacific Marine -- now a $63 million-a-year marine design and engineering, shipbuilding and shipyard business with 10 divisions -- also includes Kathy and Steven's brother Brian Loui, a vice president of the company and president of CAP Insurance, the company's captive insurance company.
There are other entrepreneurs in the family too. Sue Watanabe, who runs Watanabe Floral Inc., is Alyce Loui's sister.
Alyce's brothers include Henry Loui, who started Henry Loui's Famous Ribs, and Ka Duk Loui, owner of the now-gone Yong Sing Restaurant. Other brothers Gordon and Norman Loui operate Hawaiian Rent-All.
"We really try to keep business separate. We try to get together and have fun," Kathy Loui-Yasui said.
There are formal board meetings for Pacific Marine but the rest of the time the interaction is pretty informal, she said. They go on family outings, such as a skiing trip to the mainland last year.
What's great about the family is that it is all together, at home in the islands, she said.
"Everyone worked their way on the mainland. We were all away some of the time, at school or working," she said. "Everyone has an opportunity to be somewhere else, but this is where we want to be."
