2008-07-10 News

The Maui 10

Who's the county's most powerful player?

July 10, 2008
TWO FOR ONE

RANK	PREVIOUS	COMPANY
1	2	Alexander & Baldwin
2	1	Monsanto Hawai`i
3	3	Maui Land & Pineapple Co.
4	4	Weinberg Foundation
5	5	Dowling Co.
6	6	Wailuku Water Co.
7	9	Matson Navigation Co.
8	7	Goodfellow Brothers
9	NA	Maui Electric Co.
10	NA	Hawaiian Telcom

Alexander and Baldwin rises to the lofty heights of number one on our list this week for two reasons. First, the glowing article about them in Monday's Maui News and how the mega-corporation donated $25,000 to Maui's Kaunoa Senior Services. It's certainly a nice gesture that will garner good press anytime. Nice to see them keeping up their public image and helping out kapuna at the same time. In other news, A&B subsidiary Matson Navigation (the island's largest shipping company handling over 70% of sea transport statewide) just struck a five-year deal with a couple hundred of its union employees, ensuring they'll have plenty of deckhands to help rake in their ever rising shipping fees.

EXECUTIVE DECISION

Hawaiian Telcom makes a comeback this week with news they'll be adding on three new executives to their senior management staff. According to the Pacific Business News, John Komeiji, Craig Inouye and Stephen Golden will be the latest addition to the telecommunication company's top brass. They must be doing alright if they can afford these guys' salaries. Seems strange though that they'd be adding executives after reading another article in Pacific Business News reporting CEO confidence is plummeting. Citing several indicators such as employment and investments, the article sates confidence in executives is near all-time lows. Publisher of Chief Executive Magazine Edward Kopko is quoted as saying, "CEOs are clearly negative on the economy and they expect things to get worse before they get better." Maybe these three are optimists. MTW

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Feedback

New editor asked for feedback
July 18, 2008 | 08:30 PM

Well, I have a suggestion:

Completely revamp this piece. It doesn’t make sense.

Take this week for example, why does donating $25k to a senior center make an organization a “more powerful player” in Maui County? If you just want to update of the latest activities of large corporations or organizations, do it; but the ranking system should go. It appears to be illogical and arbitrary.

How can a subsidiary of A&B even be on the same list as its parent company? If nonprofits are included, where’s MEO? Why aren’t the hotels included? Four Seasons is a pretty big corporation. Why not Verizon, Starbucks or Safeway, or whatever other arbitrary corporation with some level of operations occurring in Maui County? Why aren’t the unions included, I believe they’re incorporated. They’re definitely powerful.

How does the ranking system work? Is there even a system? Is it based on revenue, number of employees in Maui County, acres of land used? Or is it just based on their name being mentioned in other media sources?

#1. Monsanto 2007 net income $993 million
http://monsanto.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=542

#2. A&B 2007 net income $142.2 million
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2008_Feb_5/ai_n24247726

#3. Maui Land & Pine 2007 net income $8 million
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Mar/01/bz/hawaii803010321.html

#4. The Weinberg foundation is a nonprofit…

Any way, I’d just like to see the spot in the paper used for something I’m actually going to take the time to read.

Aloha Airlines CEO (retired)

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