Hawaii Business Magazine - September 2013

Ask the Expert: Motivating Salespeople to Sell More

Question: I have six salespeople: four veterans and two who are quite new. While they are all selling, I know they could be selling more, and I’m amazed that the new ones are outselling the experienced ones. Any suggestions? Answer:…

5 Steps to Negotiating Conflict

Conflict negotiation arises in many contexts, both business and personal, but successful negotiation does not just happen. Sharon V. Lovejoy, litigation attorney with Starn O’Toole Marcus & Fisher, offers these tips to help you negotiate a successful resolution. 1. Improve your…

Winning Play

Football season is prime time for sports bars' bottom line Baseball may be “America’s pastime,” and basketball and soccer reign as the most popular sports globally, but for sports bar owners in Hawaii there is no dispute: Football reigns supreme. “Football is crucial for us,” says Mike…

Tugboat Captain

Name: Ben Isabel Job: Tugboat captain for Young Brothers, the main shipper of cargo around the Hawaiian Islands. Experience: Started with YB in 1994. START: Isabel served as an E-5 second-class boatswain mate in the U.S. Navy. But, to work for Young Brothers,…

Students and Lovers of the Ocean, Rejoice

Around 4 most mornings, I wake up and switch on my laptop. The first site I click is PacIOOS.org, an interactive and informative website that gives me all the real-time information I need to decide which surfboard to take to the beach that morning or whether I should stay in…

Local Tech Firm Goes Global

For those who believe Hawaii’s economic future lies with innovative technology and global thinking, DataHouse can be a poster child. The Honolulu-based company, with offices in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco, this year signed a contract to design and…

Hawaii Leads Nation in Steel-Framed Homes

More than 70 percent of new-home construction in Hawaii uses cold-steel frame studs in place of traditional wooden two-by-fours. “No other state comes even close,” says Tim Waite of the Hawaii Steel Alliance. “Second place goes to Australia.” On the mainland, steel framing is frequently found in multifamily…

From Around the World, At a Fair Price

Nandini Bhattacharjee is not your typical retailer. Her Kailua shop, Nomads Hawaii, abbreviated as Nohi, is based on her personal philosophy and approach to life. “I would not have done this if it did not allow me a way to help people,” Bhattacharjee says. “At…

Tiny Cameras

Maurice Kondo has been collecting things since he grew up on the Hamakua Coast. “My elementary school teacher would tell me, ‘Small things entertain small minds,’ ” jokes Kondo, a principal at INK Architects, whose office at Dole Cannery is a menagerie of treasures,…

Luxury Double-Penthouse

When one penthouse isn’t enough, why not combine two? That’s what’s happened at One Ala Moana, the luxury tower being built above Nordstrom at Ala Moana Center, where a pair of condos recently fetched a combined price of $17 million, according to developer B.J. Kobayashi. One Ala Moana is…

Inside Hawaii's Music Business

Henry Kapono Kaaihue was already a well-known performer, with decades on stage and dozens of best selling CDs, when he met his wife-to-be, Lezlee. She was a successful, trained-on-the-job stockbroker and he was playing at the Pier Bar at Aloha Tower…

Parting Shot: Laying the Foundation

  Tuesday, 11:50 AM Coulter Construction, Manoa Valley Photographer Twain Newhart >> A crew from Coulter Construction lays down the concrete foundation for a custom-built home in Manoa. Pouring the concrete takes a week, but site preparation starts weeks in advance. The…

Easy-to-use Pictures That Say "Hawaii"

Problem: Search online for, say, a traditional hula kahiko dancer, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a high-quality image you can easily download and use for your business. Daniel Leuck, CEO of the Honolulu-based creative agency Ikayzo, saw that need for good…

Thirty Meter Telescope could boost Hawaii Island's economy

A $1.4 billion construction project would be a big deal anywhere in the world, but for struggling Hilo and Hawaii Island’s moribund construction industry, it’s a gift from above – figuratively and literally. “It’s a huge project for us,” says…

Winners and Losers in Hawaii's Job Market

Source: Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations One way to follow a changing economy is to track the fastest-declining and fastest-growing jobs. The following infographic report outlines the state’s forecast for the biggest changes in Hawaii’s labor market, both in…

Riding the Up-and-Down Construction Cycle

The coming construction boom will be very different from the last one: different kinds of projects, new ways of financing and maybe fewer rising costs. It’s often hard to say exactly when the business cycle turns. Some date the end…

Space Wars

The most heated argument about modern offices pits the relative privacy of cubicles and offices versus collaborative nature of open workspaces When the cubicle hit the furnishings market in 1967, it forever changed the landscape of office culture and the…

Local universities not ready to join the online revolution

Thomas Friedman, global columnist for The New York Times and the author of “The World Is Flat,” overflows with enthusiasm. “Nothing has more potential to lift more people out of poverty – by providing them an affordable education to get a…

My Wish is to Create a Business

12-year-old struggling with serious illness named Entrepreneur of the Year Skylar Soares’ accomplishments are remarkable considering the 12-year-old entrepreneur created her business while contending with three life-threatening medical conditions. Make-a-Wish Hawaii helped Skylar realize her dream: designing a fashionable hat…