Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 11, 1 November 1989 — Riding the crest of a wave of success [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Riding the crest of a wave of success

Robert Kalikolehua Burns

By Ann L. Moore He was your average two T -shirts and slippers kind of guy. He loved to surf and was a good, all 'round athlete. Popular with his classmates, he had a quick friendly grin and a wholesome air about him. Tall, dark haired, with a twinkle in his eye, he was a happy combination of the genes of his Hawaiian mother and his Scots-American Dad. He had just barely graduated from Kailua high school. He didn't spend too mueh time on school work. His love was surfing, and any other sport that involved the sea. He had no business schooling and, as he says, "not many Hawaiians are interested in business." But at 18 he had to get a real job. He figured he couldn't just shape surfboards

and be a surfer forever. He had good memories of the oeean liners at the piers in the late 50s, the happy faces, the streamers of paper and the lei sellers on the docks. So, he went to Sea Flite and got a one-hour-a-day job asa baggage handler. He worked hard. "The boss figured I'd quit after a week of working 6 to 7 in the morning. But I didn't. 1 worked. Some guys looked askance at me. They'd run a baggage cart into a wall and think it was funny. They wanted to talk story and fool around. I kept at my work, in my own way, and asked for more to do." His plan worked. Pretty soon he was given another shift, then put on full time as a handler. Next eame taking reservations by phone, then full time work as a steward aboard ship. Meanwhile he kept up his surfing and honed his skills as a surfboard shaper. Surely and slowly he built a reputation as a dependable worker. Then, as he says, "1 decided, onee I'd made it with Sea Link, that 1 wanted to do something else." He quit the job, packed his "two T-shirts" and went to visit his unele, Allen Burns, in Hollywood, Calif. lt was an eye-opening experience. "I'd never seen so many stores. People were either out buying clothes or at home talking about buying c!othes. They bought clothes for the fun of it." Back in Hawai'i, he began to plan. He drove around until he found a plaee for rent in Kailua

with 500 square feet of space. He took out a peneil and a pieee of paper and started to figure. "I added up the rent, materials, the help, all that, and figured out 1 could made a go of it if I sold $25 worth of stuff a day. I thought 1 could do that." His next step was to write and ask his unele for a $3,000 loan. His unele eame through. His family pitched in with chores ranging from sweeping and painting to making the clothes he and his sister designed. He opened his first surf shop, shaped boards in the back room, and sold surfing accessories and clothes in the front. At first just about every extra penny he made went back into the business. He took about $100 a month out of the profits for pocket money. That was in 1977. Last year that small business, called Loeal Motion had sales of over $16 million dollars. And, as Robert Kalikolehua Burns himself says, "lt is still growing." In fact, there are Loeal Motion shops in Windward Mall in Kaneohe, at 1714 Kapi'olani Blvd. in Honolulu, at Koko Marina in Hawai'i Kai, at Pearl Center in Aiea, at 1295 Front St. in Lahaina, and at Kukui Mall in Kihei on Maui. Plans for another shop, in Nawiliwili, Kaua'i are underway. The rules for success that Rob Burns started with are the rules that govern Loeal Motion today: "One, service the customer first. Two, never

spend more than you take in." Burns has never forgotten his beginnings. He works with Alu Like's entrepreneurship program, talking to kids in schools about business. "I tell them, 'Business is not a four letter word. And whatever they do, they are going to be involved in business. If you grow taro you have to sell it. One of the problems is that Hawaiians don't want the business label. They're not always positive about business or they feel they couldn't leam it. "I try to explain that business is just business and the size of a business is the same numbers with more zeros added on. It is all the same. Being an owner may not be for everyone but if people work well for the boss, they have a right to expect the boss will do right by them." Burns says he is always on the lookout for applicants who have a positive attitude and want to serve the customers. "I would be thrilled if more Native Hawaiians would apply," he said. Burns is himself, one quarter Hawaiian. His mother was born Bobbie Holt in Kailua. She still comes to the factory and helps out in the shop. Burns has seen a lot of change in his scant 35 years. He feels strongly that as Hawai'i becomes more and more commercial, Hawaiians will have to be in the business world to keep Hawai'i as Hawai'i. He asks how many buildings ean be built before people ean no longer see the mountains. "That is Hawai'i," says, "being downtown and looking up and seeing the mountains. if you look up and see nothing but buildings you might as well be in Phoenix!" Mainland people eome to Hawai'i, he says, fall in love with it then the first thing they do is try to change it. "They build shops of adobe with tile roofs. That isn't Hawai'i, that's New Mexico. If we don't keep to our Island style pretty soon we will look like everyplace else. Then who will eome to visit Hawai'i?" It isn't expensive to build a plantation-style store, Burns says. "A metal roof and wood sides is island style, and they are about the cheapest there is to build. Even if it's just the facade of a building, it's better than nothing." Hawaiians have to become more invoived in business, Burns says, "The reality is that if Hawaiians don't become involved in business we will all end up in Oregon. For 20 years that has been the loeal exodus because Hawaiians can't afford to live here. "But that ean change. With basic education and on the job training I was blessed with success. It ean happen for others, too. But you have to know the game (of business) or you'll be moving out of state. And it is going to get worse," Burns warns. Burns makes the point that everyone ean choose their own path. "Whether you are washing cars, shaping surfboards, selling real estate; farming, or running your own store, it is all business. How far you want to go is up to you." "Loeal Motion could grow a lot more but we are about where we want to be," Burns said. "As it is now everybody gets respect, works reasonable hours, has time off to enjoy life." He says he never wants Loeal Motion to be so big he can't take time off to surf and spend time with his wife and their two adopted daughters. He doubts if the company will take the necessary steps to make it the $ 100 million a year business it could be. Burns says Loeal Motion wants to remain true to its Hawaiian roots and to reflect the Hawaiian lifestyle. The present size of the business gives him time to work with the Hawai'i Surfing Industry Association, better known as the "Save the Waves" group. "We have to protect and enhanee the oeean parks. On a weekend, if you look down at Hawai'i from the air, you'll see more people in the water than on the beach. "Every kid in the islands ean use the water. They swim, paddleboard or surf. A baseball park or a continued on page 15

Robert Burns

Women of the Ojibwe tribe of Ontario, Canada, greet guests with the whirl of the Butterfly Dance whieh dips and whirls to mimie the butterf ly.

1 Navajo warriors perform the hoop dance to demonstrate their agility, strength and endurance. Usualiy five hoops are used. At the Native American-Hawaiian Culture Exchange this young warrior formed 20 hoops into a ball

| * 2! 0 1 e e <C £ £1

Loeal Motion

/rom page 12 golf course eats up the money anel it's used for a few hours at a time. "The oeean doesn't stop at the water's edge," Burns says, its effect is everywhere. The restaurants and hotels depend on it, because it's the oeean that brings the tourists. The tour boats, the fishing fleet — all depend on the oeean. lf we don't protect it. it will mean the end of Hawai'i, he warns. Burns recalled one telling incident: "Makaha was surveyed one summer by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state. They were all told by Buffalo Keaulana, the long-time lifeguard there, that in the winter the waves change and wash all the sand away.They wouldn't !isten even though he'd lived in the area all his life. So they went ahead and built the bathhouse. Sure enough, the next winter the conditions changed, the sand was washed away and the bathhouse was in ruins." "We have to leam to listen to the people who know the land and sea. The way it acts in all the seasons. We have to preserve the Aloha Spirit." Ferhaps Rob Burns, the loeal boy who made good, may be best characterized by quoting the words of another Robert Burns, the great Scottish poet, who wrote: "The social, friendly, honest man, Whatever he be, 'Tis he fulfills great Nature's plan, And none but he." Burns the Scot also wrote words that must surely speak to the heart of Burns the Hawaiian: "I'm truly sorry man's dominion/ has broken Nature's social union."

Human Resources trying to expand the kalo industry? Ching says that kalo is a crop of special • history and value to the people of Hawai'i. It represents ineome and jobs. It is nutritionally valuable and ean be used in many forms. The leaves are cooked for greens and used in laulau; the corm is cooked and eaten solid or made into poi and different poi dishes, sliced and fried into kalo chips, ground into flour, canned, or made into baby food. Kalo has many food industry uses, such as in Asian food products, in iee cream in Thailand, and the peel is even used as anthurium muleh. Kalo cultivation is also a model for other agricultural industries. The college's major mission, through its Taro Project, is to help diversify and expand Hawaiian agriculture. They see kalo as having good potential as a leading crop in diversified agriculture. Sugar is on the decline but other Hawaii crops are growing, he said. How ean the kalo industry be expanded? Ching said the first step is for the many different eomponents to recognize "We're in this venture together. The real competition is from foreign growers, not eaeh other." Next, he said, eaeh eomponent — grower, producer, broker, marketer, shipper — should get together and work for quality first. To this end, CTAHR is acting as a catalyst to identify and physically bring together producers, processors and marketers so they ean utilize information gathered by the Taro Froject. Jim Hollyer, a former Peaee Corps volunteer in Western Samoa, and now a market researcher with CTAHR, explained that kalo is cultivated extensively worldwide, to the tune of 5.7 billion pounds per year. Asia and Africa are top producers of kalo, as is the Dominican Republic. In the U.S., taro production is limited mostly to California, Hawai'i and Florida. While exact figures are a secret guarded by shippers, Hollyer estimates Hawai'i ships about 500,000 to one million pounds of kalo eaeh year to West Coast wholesalers for retail, restaurant and industry use. CTAHR has stated in its taro information newsletter, "Taro Tattler," "Given the proper marketing strategies, Hawaii could possibly supply the mainland with some of the taro products now being imported from foreign eountries." Who buys kalo? Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, Filipino, Indonesians, Malaysians, and Caribbean peoples in the U.S. Thais eat kalo in

desserts. In California you ean buy popsicles made from kalo root. Vietnamese prefer kalo stalks. Kalo nuggets like moehi are also popular as are kalo buns in Los Angeles. Hollyer says mainland buyers like Hawaii kalo because it has good flavor and color, a good shelf life and the Hawaii name. However they also say it is expensive, supply is uncertain and bag weight is inconsistent. CTAHR has begun to distribute a kalo information newsletter, "The Taro Tattler" for growers, shippers and processors. It contains tips on selling more kalo, by improving shipment to the mainland, by putting labels or recipes on kalo products, improving product freshness, keeping kalo disease-free, and grading for a consistent market size. Hollyer says CTAHR has identified many more things that ean be done but stresses that promotion is up to the industry. The most important thing is to take care of current markets with top quality products, and to plan for future marketing. Mechanization may help some farmers increase their production. Florida's big farms are totally mechanized, he noted. Dr. Ching added that as kalo production expands, it will generate more ineome and jobs and additional production information to benefit eommercial and home growers. He added it is a form of responsible land use that will lower the cost of production and price to consumers. r \ ,