LEADERSHIP CORNER
'Right people' make difference, CEO of Maui Land & Pineapple finds
Interviewed by David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Title: CEO
Company: Maui Land & Pineapple Co.
Age: 51
High School: Kailua H.S. through junior year. Graduated from Pacific Prep.
College: B.A. in liberal studies from the University of Hawai'i
Little known fact: "I like to say that Thurston Twigg-Smith and I got started in the publishing business together: He was the CEO of The Advertiser and I was a delivery boy for many years in Kailua."
Breakthrough job: Cole spent several years as a traveling salesman and was eventually an acquisitions editor for Prentice-Hall, the textbook publisher. "I learned to work independently with a wide variety of professors on dozens of college campuses."
Major challenge: "Staying on top of the company's strong core values while pushing hard to reverse practices that have resulted in poor operating performance."
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Q. How did you go from a degree in liberal arts to running three computer companies — Ashton-Tate, Ziff Communications and NaviSoft?
A. Sometimes a background in the liberal arts can offer a broader view of possibilities than say a relentless focus on business or a narrow specialty. The older I get, the more I tend to look for teammates with uncommon "common sense." A diversity of personal experiences, including a deep appreciation for the arts, can be a big advantage for aspiring executives and leaders.
Q. What did you learn running those companies that help you at MLP?
A. Although markets and capital are needed to build businesses, you can't create great value without inspired and talented people. My personal experience is that the difference between good and great companies comes down to just a handful of the right people working in exquisite balance with one another.
Q. MLP is now a pineapple producer with a resort, residential and commercial real-estate business. Is that the right mix going forward or does it need to change?
A. We are unquestionably going to change and have pulled together some of our best people to lead a re-visioning process for the next MLP. We will have more to say about our direction in the next several months.
Q. In 1996, you bought and became chairman of 600-acre Sunnyside Farms in Virginia and turned it into an organic farm. MLP is now a conventional pineapple producer. Do you plan to turn it into an organic farm?
A. MLP already grows and sells organic pineapples, and yes, we are looking at the potential for other organic and natural products.
Q. What lessons did you learn at Sunnyside and what did it teach you about the future of agriculture? Will the big business, low cost providers from around the globe continue to grab more market share? Or will smaller, closer to the customer farms become more popular and viable?
A. Sunnyside is a response to the tragedy of industrialized agriculture and a highly visible example of a sustainable, community-oriented approach to serving local food markets. Sunnyside's proximity to Washington's lawmakers is no accident — since present farm policy runs counter to our goals of diversified, environmentally sensible, community-based regional food systems.
We are in a unique position to influence federal farm policy by demonstrating that locally grown and distributed food systems are the best way to protect our families and our air, water, soil and wildlife.
Today 86 percent of America's fruits and vegetables are grown on one third of our farmland — largely near major population centers. Current farm policy funnels most of the funding (about $20 billion per year) to producers of the few commodity crops — corn, cotton, wheat — that are generally grown in remote rural areas, thereby limiting benefits from federal farm spending to a small group of recipients. Only 10 percent of farms receive 70 percent of the payments.
These policies have led to rapid loss of farmland around cities, denying consumers the benefit of locally grown farm produce, open space and environmental protection. This has resulted in the typical meal traveling thousands of miles from grower to market with nearly a total disconnect between consumers and farmers, even while the public demand for locally produced food has increased.
Q. How does this apply in Hawai'i?
A. In Hawai'i the situation is particularly graphic with less than one-ninth of our food coming from local sources while we have over 100,000 acres of agricultural land laying fallow. We are virtually a cargo cult.
One of our challenges is to engage enough of Hawai'i's citizens to push for farmer-friendly policies that encourage the consumption of locally raised foods. To paraphrase (ecology writer) Wendell Barry, we need to have more people appreciating the fact that eating is an environmental act.
Q. What is the condition of the 29,000 acres that MLP owns on Maui? Has it been damaged by growing pineapple and what do you plan to do to protect or restore it?
A. We are presently surveying our soils and designing some trials to assess current conditions and future growing options.
Q. What are your thoughts on combining agriculture with residential real estate, so people can live near the food that they eat?
A. This will likely be a central feature of the new MLP: integrating our ag and development activities into a holistic approach for community development on Maui.
Q. You support the proposal of a farmer's market in Kaka'ako. Will MLP be putting capital into that project?
A. Yes and hopefully at many other locations. I'm happy to evaluate investments that bring local farmers and consumers together.
Q. You've straddled the business and environmental protection worlds, are they on a collision course?
A. The notion that good business results can only come at an environmental cost is a false dichotomy. In our business, sensitivity to environmental health is good business. The late Colin Cameron, a past CEO of MLP and the visionary behind Kapalua, said the essential idea of the company was a partnership with nature. We intend to build on that central idea and extend our partnership to the Hawaiian community.
Q. Do you think there is a limit to growth in Hawai'i?
A. There are most certainly limits to growth, but perhaps no limit to "wealth" if we define it sensibly. There are some communities that have learned to measure their wealth in multiple dimensions: social, environmental, as well as economic. In Hawai'i it makes sense for us to track the number of kids learning the hula as closely as we track our sustainable clean water use. Without one, life may not be worth living, and without the other, it can't be lived. Since we tend to get what we measure in life, it may make sense for us to create a wealth index that tracks what is truly unique and special about Hawai'i. That way we can collectively steer a path toward lokahi.
