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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, April 28, 2003

LEADERSHIP CORNER
Director helps balance business, Samoan culture

Interviewed by David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer

Leusogafofoma'aitulagi "Bill" Emmsley

Title: Executive director
Organization:
Samoan Service Providers Association
High School:
Marist Brothers school in American Samoa
College:
University Hawai'i, BA; Hawai'i Pacific University, MBA
Breakthrough job: Hired as executive director of SSPA in 1993


Q. Define the activities at your O'ahu Business Incubator?

A. Someone will come to us with a business idea. We offer them technical assistance. We also offer the environment. We offer shared services, a fax machine, a copy machine, computers, publishing. You also have a cubicle that is assigned to you as an office. We provide you with a telephone, a computer and a desk. More important is having a business coach. That person stays along with you on almost a weekly basis to see what progress you have made.

Q. What is the budget for your business incubator and who funds it?

A. We were fortunate to be funded by the Administration for Native Americans, a federal agency, for three years with almost $1 million. We have two years left.

Q. What type of businesses have you had working in the incubator?

A. Travel agents, legal assistants, events planners, graphic artists, any business that can appropriately operate within an office space. We have on-site incubation and affiliates, who are not necessarily housed here.

One of our very successful guys is Marvis Tauala (president of Maximum Impact Sports). He's an example of an affiliate. His business takes old football equipment and refurbishes it and sells it to schools. Right now he is serving 14 public high schools.

Q. Culturally, what kind of barriers exist for Samoans doing business here?

A. I have to be very careful how I tell this to you so I don't come across in your writing as anti-culture. The nature of our culture is collectiveness. Everything is done for the sake of the group.

In almost every entrepreneur class that we have taught, the first question we ask is, "Why do you want to go into business?" And the guys who are non-Samoans will answer it this way: "Simply to make money." Almost all the time the Samoans will say: "To help my family and my community."

That very response will tell you who's going to have problems in making the money. It means you are putting a greater emphasis on relationships than the success of the business. And that is an inherent barrier.

Q. When family or friends come to a Samoan business owner to ask for free services or products, what will he or she do?

A. The tendency is always, you'll grant the wish at the expense of the business. Part of our training course here is to create what we call cultural reconciliation methods by which they have to set money aside for those kinds of issues without interfering with the business.

I'll tell you a story. An auntie of mine in Samoa had a business. She went to the development bank and borrowed some money. It was a mom-and-pop store. The business was not there for her per se to make money, but for her to support the family and its obligations.

Her grandmother passed away. In Samoa, when you have a funeral, every available resource of the family gets thrown into the funeral. Well, she shuts the whole store down, everything on the shelves, everything in the freezer gets made part of the funeral. The development bank shows up a week later and says, "What happened to the store?" The auntie says,

"I gave everything to my grandmother's funeral." The development bank officers says, "No, you can't do that. You've got to pay us back the money." And she says, "In due time I will pay you back, but right now I'm meeting my obligations to my family."

So you see the dilemma. For those Samoans who are traditionally strong in the culture, they are most likely not to succeed.

Q. You said you don't want to be viewed as anti-culture, but you want to support businesses?

A. I know the realities. I value my culture a lot. The ongoing struggle is how to balance this out.

Q. What are the things of value in the Samoan culture that you would like to see Samoans bring with them when they set up businesses?

A. The sense of family. The sense of trust. The sense of respect. Those values do not necessarily belong only to Samoans. Those are old values that you see re-emerge in the world of business. For example, the sense of family network. If you have a strong family network, you are able to connect with many people, and that can be a positive. Sense of loyalty to a company is a positive thing, too.

Q. Is there a threat of losing the culture if people focus primarily on succeeding in business?

A. Absolutely. There's a great potential and we have seen it. Culture can easily be disbanded or banished simply by losing focus on what it is.

My way of rationalizing this thing is: If I want to see my culture survive, I have to adapt somehow in the modern society to be around to talk about it.

Q. What is the image of the Samoan worker now, and is it a fair image?

A. No, it is not a fair image. We are often viewed as unreliable as workers. In other words, they would show up one day and would not show up another day. They are also viewed as sort of inefficient, ineffective. But, see, all of these things, the reason why they view it as such is because you are looking through the lenses of the Western perspective and business perspective.

Q. What advice would you give to a manager who employs Samoans?

A. There are certain things Samoans do that are second nature. It is an unconscious thing. See the unconscious acts of people and ask them why they do the things they do. Then you can begin to understand the frame of mind that they operate on, then you can tweak it from that point on.