Q. Your new $8 million facility in Mapunapuna, which opened in May, includes an 11,000-square-foot showroom that looks more like a high-end hotel lobby. What was the philosophy behind the design?

A. The feel we tried to create by working with our architects and design team was a very open, welcoming, hospitality type feel. When you say it reminds you of a hotel, it is a compliment because that is what we were trying to design.

Q. But you can have a nice water feature and a nice showroom that looks like a hotel lobby and also fill it up with lots and lots of cars to encourage car sales.

A. We usually only have two or three vehicles in the lobby. If it was cluttered with a lot of vehicles, then it has a different feel.

Q. On July 1, you were promoted to your current position. It seems that your career has taken a non-traditional path.

A. I actually have a background in finance and accounting and prior to joining Servco 21 years ago I was with Deloitte & Touche, one of the large CPA firms, and Servco was one of my clients. When I first joined Servco, I was the treasurer responsible for cash management type things and taxes. I was offered the opportunity to move to operations at the age of 44, later than most people. Servco encourages its management and executives to try new things. I left being senior vice president and chief financial officer to become senior vice president in charge of auto distribution. It was a lateral move on the flow chart but for me it was a big switch. It was scary after 20 years of being in a field that you were successful in and I was CFO of Servco. It was a great job. But I had this opportunity in 2000 to go play with cars. Car people are very different: Highly motivated, very individualistic, very smart and very driven and they like cars, toys and playthings.

Q. When you moved over to the car side, did people say, "Let's see what the bean counter can do?"

A. They still say that.

Q. Any regrets?

A. My only regret is not doing it earlier.

Q. Just how large is Servco?

A. Our major brands are Toyota, Lexus, Scion, Chevrolet and Suzuki. The majority of our operations revolve around those brands, but we have a tire business and some ancillary auto businesses. We have the Toyota dealerships on this island. We've finished a new service building at our currently named Waipahu Auto Chevrolet and Toyota store and we're building a new showroom in Waipahu, as well. We are working on a satellite service center in Kaimuki.

Q. There's a large sign in the lobby for the public to see of your "shared value statement" and employees carry miniature versions in their pockets and purses. Why?

A. In 2000, each employee had an opportunity in a four-hour session to talk about what was important to them and a volunteer committee of employees sifted through the suggestions. George Kanahele, a well-known consultant in Hawai'i, worked with us and boiled them down to our employee values that everybody agreed to live by. If we don't start with employees who are happy and engaged and love what they do, they can't provide great customer service.

Q. The one you're holding looks pretty worn.

A. Our general managers will sometimes walk around and say, "Everyone who can show me a card right now out of their wallet — let's go do something fun." Or they'll hand out movie tickets or something that they feel is motivating. We actually have an officer level position with the title of vice president and values champion. She works to make sure that we consider values in the way we do business and in the decisions we make. I'll give you an example: We were switching our 401(k) plan that was directed by an administrative committee. The decision we faced was whether to continue to administer it with the admin committee making investments or go to a 401(k) program where each employee would be allowed to make their own investments. Mark Fukunaga, our chairman, said, "What would the values tell us?" It was decided the best way was to hold sessions with all of our employees and ask them the question. You don't make a decision like that overnight, without a lot of background. We flew in a consultant to hold 40-something sessions of four hours each to give background and then ask the question. We decided we would do whatever a majority of the employees wanted. In the first session, 98 percent wanted to self direct. We knew what the answer was but we had 39 more sessions scheduled. But Mark made us think about respect and giving employees ownership of their own plan.

Q. As someone who has been trained to watch the bottom line, it sounds like following the "shared value system" can sometimes be costly in both employee time and actual dollars.

A. It does seem a little touchy-feely, warm and fuzzy. But in the long run it works. You don't use it every time. If the building's burning down, somebody better get a fire hose and not take a consensus view on how to put out the fire. But we do use it in our decision making every day.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.