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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Hirano’s business
succession plan is
succeedingAMY Hayashi Hirano has been such a behind-the-scenes force behind Pacific Management Consultants Inc., that most people don't realize it is her company. She founded it in 1988.
Her late husband, Steve Hirano, was the visible one, handling the media aspects of their business.
His most memorable visible moment was on the video seen 'round the world in 1994. Hirano was shown trying to lock a rampaging elephant behind a chain-link gate and subsequently getting trampled by the elephant, which had already killed its trainer.
A seriously injured Hirano insisted the incident was a fluke and continued to represent a circus company.
He died Dec. 19 of pancreatic cancer that had been diagnosed only weeks earlier and Amy still gets calls asking if the company is still in business.
It is.
"When Steve was ill I took off two months. The staff held the business together for me ... and in January I had to jump back into a lot of the lobbying (activities)," she said.
Pacific Management has lost no clients, though people tell Amy they hear on the street that the company is being sold, or that clients are leaving.
Amy Hirano is no quitter. She is a five-year cancer survivor. "I tell everybody," though some people don't know how to take it, she said.
Clients include NCL America, an arm of Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceanic Institute and Aloha Petroleum.
Some clients hire the company for projects that become controversial, such as Hawaiian Electric Co. for the Waahila Ridge power-line issue. Steve Hirano was a well-known political strategist, working for both Republican and Democratic party candidates.
"We market to the legislators, the general public; you market to a client base, rather than just advertising, public relations and legislative lobbying," she said.
One client is the Hawaii Independent Insurance Agents' Association, a trade group.
"The organization is geared toward lobbying in the best interests of our producers and that's why we have Amy as our lobbyist," said Sonia Leong, executive director.
"The thing about Amy is, she has credibility. She says something and you can trust what she says. Other lobbyists have come and gone because they don't have that credibility," Leong said.
Amy Hayashi Hirano commands respect within local business circles, a customer says.
Wayne Hikida, executive vice president of Fairmont Specialty Group, also used the word credibility in describing Steve and Amy.
"Steven obviously was Mr. Outside, but Amy in her own right is Miss Inside. With a number of contacts, she commands respect within her circles," he said.
"They are decent, honest people. That's very important to me that I can trust someone," said Hikida.
Steve Hirano had done advertising and public relations work for the company before its name change from TIG Crum & Forester.
"It's tough to make insurance people look honest and they've done a good job with me," Hikida laughed.
Hikida says the company stayed with Pacific Management out of a bottom-line sense of loyalty and honor.
The couple knew each other 15 years and would have celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary yesterday.
After loving one another, living with one another and working with one another, carrying on since her husband's death has not been easy.
"I've gone to the fund-raisers and functions and carried our name out there and some people have actually looked at me funny, like 'gee, it's only been a couple of months,'" she said. It is as if it is too soon for her to laugh about anything, she said.
"We're in the business. You do what you have to do outwardly and then you go home. You can wallow in (grief) but it's not going to do anybody any good."
In the weeks that followed the devastating diagnosis, they discussed succession "and the fact that we need to mentor other people to come into the business. We felt like what we were doing brought credibility and trust to the industry ..."
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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
