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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, September 29, 2003

LEADERSHIP CORNER
UH business program director navigates in new culture

Interviewed by David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer

Tusi Avegalio

Age: 51

Title: Director

Organization: Pacific Business Center Program, College of Business Administration, University of Hawai'i. The program does business consulting projects in developing countries and low-income areas throughout the Pacific.

High school: American Samoa Fia Iloa

College: Emporia State University; Truman State University; Brigham Young University.

Breakthrough job: Went to work as a teacher in American Samoa after graduating and soon became assistant superintendent.

Little known fact: "I like to sew. I'm learning. My goal is to make my own shirt."

Major challenge: "Getting more students out to the project areas. Knowledge, unless it can be applied, is of very little value. The investments that we make in these young people by sending them full of energy, enthusiasm and idealism to help developing areas is far less expensive than sending young people in uniform and with weapons of destruction to enforce some kind of dubious political settlement."

• • •

Q. What are the lessons Polynesian culture can teach students today?

A. To answer that, you almost have to go back to Isaac Newton. He used the analogy that the universe is like a sealed clock, a mechanism. He inferred that nature and the universe itself is like a collection of passive rocks. That would influence us to select the most powerful machines and technology to dredge up, to extract, transform, use and discard the energy and useful materials from our environment.

The example I use is operating a locomotive or train from A to B. It's very straight, you can schedule, you can plan, you can organize, you can predict, and you can control. This sense of predictability plays havoc in an environment that is not linear.

In our (Polynesian) world, I use the example of a sailing canoe. We will get to B, but it requires a completely different set of knowledge, skills and experience because the wind is unpredictable; the waves are unpredictable; storms are unpredictable. There are hidden reefs.

That rational world is giving way to the world of the canoe. I think 9-11 is an example of how irrational the world can be and has always been. We are being forced to think out of the box because what was inconceivable, we now know can be everyday.

Instead of developing skills of control and predictability, we need to develop the skills of a navigator, which are how to adjust your sails, how to adapt, how to deal with constantly emerging new realities. The world that we are entering is the world of turbulent, dynamic changes. The world of the comfortable, straight-line locomotive, I think, is over.

Q. You are taking business school students to work on projects in developing countries in the Pacific and teaching them how to navigate in a new culture. How do they respond?

A. At one time, business schools had a reputation for attracting students who were interested only in the bottom line, learning skills and abilities that can maximize opportunities and profits as quickly as possible, so they can enjoy the quality of their individual lives. I think we have a different generation. They are more aware and more responsible. I think this generation has the spirit that I saw in the '60s: a real focus on the environment, on balance, on social responsibility, not so much on personal wealth.

The students we've been working with are so bright. They have the opportunity to find very gainful employment and make lots of money. I like to think that after this experience it helps them to realize you have two things that you can do with knowledge that you acquire from the university: you can make lots of money or you can make a difference.

Each one will have to make that decision on their own. This is the kind of experience when you realize how knowledge can heal, rebuild, grow and open doors for those who are less fortunate than yourself.

An architecture student who was planning to work for a major firm after graduating, joined us on a project, and it changed his life. Now he wants to use his skill to help people in developing countries.

Q. Is there something business owners and managers in Hawai'i might learn from the Pacific Island experience?

A. Many of the island cultures believe that the only material form in this world is relationships. They don't know individual existence that is absent of such relationships.

For example for Hawai'i there is the Kumulipo, and they call it the myth of creation. I like to think of it as the wisdom of creation. It is very similar to all the wisdoms of the region that life is seamlessly connected, man is seamlessly connected to all things. It is when we behave in a manner that doesn't acknowledge these relationships that ultimately we will create self-harm, ultimately self-destruction.

That principle applies the same way to businesses. Do you fit? Do you see yourself as fitting into the larger fabric of not just market, but also community. If all these considerations were in alignment, the business has a greater chance of being more effective and enduring.

A lot of organizations look at just one set of variables or just look at market potential and move in. But in no time at all they are no longer there. I believe 65 percent of all new businesses close within five years and something like 90 percent disappear after 20 years. Why is that? I think it's that level of understanding and fitting into the flow and the pattern of the community. It is when we become detached from them we don't know when or how to adjust our sails and run into hidden reefs.

Business planning processes encourage and focus on profits and opportunities, but don't like to use the word consequences. As a result, people will organize their financial packages, develop their mission statements and haul on down the road and not be aware that the consequences that follow in the wake of their thrust into the economy and the community can not only be very severe to the community and the environment but ultimately will overwhelm them.

Social responsibility is giving back to the community with the assumption that the source of your welfare and organizational health is the community. So you need to give back to the very source from which you derive your wealth. That is a means of balance.

If you are sensitive to giving back, in many cases you are sensitive to problems you are causing. Are you helping the community or are you harming it? The exclusive focus on maximization of profits means there is no attached moral responsibility.

Q. Is Hawai'i seen as a model for other developing Pacific island economies?

A. Whether Hawai'i wants to be or not, it is the model. They look to Hawai'i as being the example of what they can be. But then the focus has always been on the good things. What we need to do is provide a balance of understanding. Hawai'i has much to show of what is possible, but we can also learn from some of the consequences of some of the decisions.