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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, April 17, 2005

Humbling experience

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Glenn Furuya, who teaches a "Leadership Local Style" seminar, continues to see newly arrived managers stumbling over local customs and colliding with their workforces.

PM Realty Group vice president Scott Kuklish, left, and marketing and graphics specialist Mark Chin review a presentation for a client.

Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I always tell new leaders, 'Whenever you enter a foreign land, walk softly because the land reflects the wisdom of the ages,' " said Furuya, the president of Leadership Works. "A lot of these guys are just stomping all over sacred grounds. They just don't know how to behave."

Long-standing Island businesses and institutions — and new companies hoping to gain a share of Hawai'i's growing economy — continue to import managers, often from the Mainland.

Hawai'i's largest airline, Hawaiian Airlines, soon will be taken over by San Diego-based RC Aviation LLC. The Islands' major telephone service provider, Verizon Hawaii, is poised to switch hands to The Carlyle Group of Washington, D.C.

And with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, Kathy Inkinen of executive search firm Inkinen & Associates said Hawai'i will rely even more on newcomers to run Island businesses and institutions.

"We're going to have to continue to look to the outside," Inkinen said. "I would hope it's our community's challenge to embrace people who are coming and help them succeed, because it really is for our own good and for the betterment of our economy."

Malihini, or newly arrived, managers fresh off the jet often struggle to adjust to a more passive workforce they don't understand, a subtle — often silent — communication style and a business culture immersed in long-standing, sometimes family-based, relationships.

It's a culture clash that dates back at least to Hawai'i's plantation era when Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and Hawaiian workers reported to haole bosses.

But many Island business leaders, sociologists and scholars say that the miscommunications and cultural mistakes repeated by newcomers go back even further, to Hawai'i's first contact with Westerners and the arrival of Capt. James Cook in 1779.

Native Hawaiians greeted Cook as a deity, the personification of the god Lono, then later killed him in a dispute over a boat.

Like the more recent leadership failures of University of Hawai'i President Evan Dobelle and former state Schools Superintendent Paul LeMahieu, Cook was initially idolized by the local population, said Karen Knudsen, who was chairwoman of the Board of Education during LeMahieu's tenure.

"Hawai'i is so good to these people," Knudsen said. "We treat them like rock stars and I think it can go to one's head very quickly. Some of them start to think it's all about them — the incredible news coverage, the hospitality, the graciousness, being on everyone's invitation list, constantly being asked to be keynote speaker everywhere. Some people actually start to believe how important they are and it can become a real problem."

There are plenty of examples of transplanted bosses who have won praise for easing into their new jobs with little effort.

Many of the successful ones — such as Dobelle's successor, Interim UH President David McClain, and Andrew Rossiter, the new head of the Waikiki Aquarium — worked in Europe and Japan before coming to Hawai'i.

They believe their experiences overseas made it easier to fit into Island culture.

McClain, who is of Scot-Irish and German descent and was raised in the Midwest, sat in his Bachman Hall office in front of a bookshelf filled with titles such as "Essential Kanji."

In Japan, McClain learned the importance of humility, along with social nuances such as waiting to be introduced, rather than introducing himself.

"You have to learn to be comfortable in the ambiguity of not knowing everything," McClain said. "You're a guest in another culture and obviously you need to be sensitive to that. ... One of the things you learn in a Japanese environment is that listening is a big deal. Respect is a big deal. Consensus is a big deal."

Rossiter, who was raised in Wales, came to Hawai'i in April 2004 with a simple philosophy: "Be patient. Honor tradition. Respect the people who are already here. Listen to their advice."

Soon after Rossiter arrived, the aquarium was hit with about 40 telephone calls from people complaining about a rise in ticket prices. Some of them blamed the aquarium's malihini director.

Rossiter took each call himself and explained that ticket prices had not risen in nearly a decade and that the new prices went into effect 18 months before he even joined the aquarium.

Rather than get upset about the rash of calls, Rossiter said he was pleased that so many people "are so concerned about the aquarium that they're willing to call and express it."

Robert Kritzman, executive vice president and managing director of Hawai'i operations for Norwegian Cruise Line's NCL America, came to Hawai'i 18 months ago from Miami. Like other recent arrivals, Kritzman was stunned by all of the interest in his company, himself and his family.

Kritzman was immediately invited to balls and charity events, Fourth of July family celebrations and speaking events on every island.

"We were absolutely surprised by all of the media attention," Kritzman said. "My family and I were greeted very warmly by people that have grown up here, people who have gone through similar experiences of moving here, neighbors and people that we met through our kids' school friends."

He also got plenty of advice from business advisers and U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who urged Kritzman to become involved in community groups.

"I interpreted that to mean not to sit in the four walls in my office and look at the view of Aloha Tower and the ocean, but to really get out and get involved," Kritzman said. "I quite frankly have never seen so much involvement in the business community in charitable efforts, primarily, and also community organizations, in general."

Keith Kashiwada, an associate professor of humanities at Kapi'olani Community College, argues that Hawai'i employees have a love-hate relationship with their malihini bosses.

"We want that outside influence, the New York, L.A., Chicago, Mainland executive style," Kashiwada said. "But we want them to accept this local, Asian-style, cultural thing. There is this kind of self-hatred that we've adopted, almost an inferiority complex: Everything from the Mainland is good, but we hate it and we loathe the haole overseer. We hate you for being white, for being from the Mainland, for having the competitive edge. But we need you, especially if we want to do business with other white people on the continent."

Newly arrived bosses often face a workforce lying in wait to tally their social mistakes, Kashiwada said.

"Eventually you move from being just a visitor to being a kama'aina," Kashiwada said. "In that transition, you can't usurp the community's power to give you that designation. You have to say, 'I don't fit here,' until somebody tells you that you do. You've always got to humble yourself, even though you're the important person."

It's a dynamic that Kashiwada remembers from small-kid time, when his father would watch him struggle for hours to fix his bicycle. When Kashiwada finally gave up and asked for help, his father quickly jumped in.

"We snicker behind your back for not knowing the social morays and the cultural dynamics," Kashiwada said. "We sort of sit back and watch you fail. We won't tell you what to do, but if you ask us, we'll help you. But you've got to ask. If you don't, we figure it's not our place to tell you."

Scott Kuklish, senor vice president of Texas-based PM Realty Group, a commercial real-estate investment management company, arrived in Honolulu in July and has begun using mauka, makai, 'ewa and diamondhead to understand driving directions.

But Kuklish still apologizes for mangling Hawaiian names.

"I'm just getting used to all of the vowels," Kuklish said. Many of his 47 employees "laugh and giggle, but I say, 'I'm trying to learn, so help me,' " Kuklish said.

Kuklish quickly realized that the company's employees had bad experiences with Mainland, malihini bosses in the past.

"Some people in our company from the Mainland, frankly, are loud and abrasive," he said.

At his first staff meeting in August, Kuklish said, "you could cut the air with a knife." Only one employee asked two, maybe three questions, Kuklish said, such as, "Why did you come here?"

Kuklish thinks his demeanor is a good fit for Hawai'i, but he still feels the tug of doing business Mainland style.

An employee recently told Kuklish he was being recruited by a competitor and Kuklish reacted by picking up the phone and yelling at the competitor.

"On the Mainland, you make a huge investment in people and you really guard your people," Kuklish said. The competitor said, " 'That's just Hawai'i. It's a small market and everybody knows everybody so what's the big deal?' "

The employee stayed and Kuklish is still reflecting on his reaction.

"Business people have extended themselves to me to become part of the community," he said. "They've invited me to join the Pacific Club or play golf at Wai'alae (Country Club). ... They've told me not to confront issues in such a hard way, to step back and be a little softer and try to be very aware of people's feelings. The comment I hear is, 'You never know who that person knows.' "

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8085.

• • •

Tips for the malihini manager

• Former Gov. Ben Cayetano

Cayetano
"We're no different than any other place. Can you imagine if I was appointed to a job in Alabama and the first thing I tried to do is get them to ban the use of the Confederate flag? I'd be in real trouble. ... When a malihini comes in, the ones who are successful are the ones who try to figure out the lay of the land and what's important to the people who live here. They make a sincere attempt to try and see whether there's local talent here to help them. That's important. The ones that recognize that will do well."

• Geri Marullo, CEO of Child and Family Service, Hawai'i's oldest and largest private social service agency

Marullo
"Local people communicate in various ways. Some are verbal. Some are better at giving feedback in a written way. Some prefer to do it without being identified. If you really want to find out how your new employees are feeling and thinking, you have to give them a number of ways to tell you."

Five senior managers left with Marullo's predecessor and she replaced them with Hawai'i residents from outside CFS.

"In actuality, they knew less than me," Marullo said. "I needed people who knew and understood the organization to guide me. The first question I should have asked is 'Who are the informal leaders? Who are the people that the CFS employees looked up to? Who are the people that the employees trust? Who are the ones who may not have titles but when they speak, they're respected and admired?'

"There's an informal leadership in any organization and identifying those people is one of the first things I should have done. It would behoove any CEO from the Mainland to find that out as soon as possible."

• Keith Kashiwada, associate professor of humanities at Kapi'olani Community College

Kashiwada
"The key to me is that the newcomer has to have the humility to laugh at him- or herself and, of course, apologize for small, little social indiscretions, like not taking off their shoes. If you make light of it, you'll be remembered as a good person. But if you say something like 'That's a stupid custom,' then bye-bye."

• Jonathan Okamura, UH assistant professor of ethnic studies:

"If a business person is really concerned about doing business locally, then they should focus on looking after local people in terms of the jobs created and opportunities for them, instead of focusing on sealing the deal and making the profit. ...The local way (of doing business) should give priority to local people and give opportunities for employment and promotion and certainly does not result in, say, the loss of their homes for some business coming in."

• Allan Ikawa, president and founder of Big Island Candies and a former University of Hawai'i regent when UH President Evan Dobelle was fired

Ikawa
"The ones I'm very impressed with are very good listeners and they have really good people skills. They make you feel real comfortable. The ones that don't succeed are the ones that aren't good listeners."