Posted on: Wednesday, April 21, 2004
HAWAI'I SMALL BUSINESS
UH business students bring new meaning to intern
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Joseph Ysasi, an MBA candidate at the University of Hawai'i's College of Business, signed up this semester to serve as a small-business intern, thinking he might be able to contribute his talents in sales, telecommunications or retail banking.
Instead Ysasi works with brides-to-be — and their mothers — planning weddings.
And he loves it.
"Even my classmates make fun of me and say, 'Why do you want to be a wedding planner for six months?'" Ysasi said. "I wanted to do something completely different to train my mind so that when I come up with a new experience I won't be overwhelmed with uncertainty. That's how any business owner should look at things. And listening to brides and their needs, that's definitely different."
Ysasi is one of 17 UH graduate and undergraduate business students working directly with the heads of small companies this semester to learn — and to contribute their own energy and ideas.
For the past three years, UH's College of Business has sent a total of 76 interns into the world of Hawai'i small business through a grant from the Kauffman Foundation.
The grant covers half of the $2,250 stipend for 200 hours of work by graduate students. The companies pay the other half. Undergraduates earn $1,500 per semester, which is paid half and half by the Kauffman Foundation grant and the businesses.
The Kauffman Entrepreneur Internship Program provided $63,000 to UH for the first year; $31,000 in the second; $10,000 in the third; and another $10,000 in this, the final year, of financing.
All of the money goes directly to pay for students' stipends. And UH officials believe there is enough left to continue paying for the internships — for the fall, spring and summer sessions — for the next several years.
Symbiotic relationship
Mark Elwell, the owner of Bamboo Flooring Hawaii, has hired a Kauffman Foundation intern almost every semester since the program began and expects to have even more.
Elwell has founded a long list of import businesses that have brought in women's clothing from Indonesia, refrigerator magnets from China and exotic birds. His latest company has gone from $250,000 in sales five years ago to more than $2 million last year.
Elwell tries to assign interns to tasks that complement their skills — whether it's researching new products over the Internet or preparing sales brochures or marketing plans.
The students, in turn, bring new eyes to his business, Elwell said.
"My life is one entrepreneurial venture after the other," Elwell said. "But as much as I know about business and being an entrepreneur, sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees. I might say, 'By golly that's a good idea.' What they bring me is new, fresh ideas and what I can contribute is the hard lessons I've learned through the school of hard knocks."
The internship program is intended to pair the students with the key decision makers, rather than to provide entry-level, menial help.
"It's designed to give the students an opportunity to see the positives, the negatives, the highs and the lows," said Rick Varley, director of internships and career development at the College of Business. "They get to see the inner workings of the business. We, in turn, help the company, whether it be rewriting a business plan or setting up a marketing plan."
One student overhauled the company's accounting system. Another set up a computerized inventory system.
"They're almost brought in as a consultant," Varley said.
Ravi Kumar is developing a new brand of vodka.
Kumar, two other UH MBA students and two undergraduates are all working as interns for the Brew Moon Restaurant & Micro Brewery, where owner Marcus Bender asked the students to help develop a new type of alcohol.
Kumar, who lived in Japan for four years, was particularly excited about the group's original idea to develop a Hawai'i sake. But their research suggested that a Hawaiian sake would only be seen as a novelty drink and would never be taken seriously in Japan.
They then explored making Thai wines, Tahitian rum and any other ideas that came to Bender, Kumar said.
"He has ideas bouncing around all over the place and he needs somebody to take those ideas into reality," Kumar said.
A taste of alcohol
The group has since settled on a specific type of vodka, which Kumar declined to describe — except to say that it could be available within a year but will not carry the Brew Moon label.
"It's basically meant using all of the knowledge I learned in my MBA courses and putting them into a real-life situation, like market analysis, statistical analysis and finance," Kumar said. "We started off with Japanese sake and ended up with vodka. It's a big jump but it all works out."
Ysasi also works directly with the top people in his company, Weddings By Grace and Mona. They are also the only people: Grace Yonehara and Mona Hirata, who just got her UH MBA degree in December.
If Yonehara and Hirata had more time to prepare, they would have asked Ysasi to work on big-picture projects for the company, such as developing a stronger marketing or strategic plan, Hirata said.
Instead they needed Ysasi to dive in planning weddings.
For more information about the Kauffman Entrepreneur Internship Program, contact: Rick Varley, director of internships and career development for the University of Hawai'i College of Business at 956-6972. Ysasi would someday like to run his own small business, perhaps in gene therapy. He believes that the experience putting together weddings will help.
He's learned the importance of getting small details right and the value of spending face time with vendors. And with his own wedding coming up in November, Ysasi particularly appreciates the wishes of couples to make their wedding day special.
Hirata, for her part, has learned the value of the UH interns.
"Joseph's the first for us," Hirata said, "the first of more to come."
Reach Dan Nakaso at 525-8085 or dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com .
"It's not what I expected," Yonehara said. "It was basically fly by the seat of our pants. But Joseph has been awesome, really, really helpful. I don't know what the other interns are like but he's a real go-getter and attentive and eager to jump to our aid."
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