'Life will be very different' - Business leaders offer ideas on surviving the next 12 months

by Bret Yager

Don't cut back on advertising or marketing, keep giving to community groups, and reap the benefit of the good public relations that brings. It's a great time to take advantage of tax credits available for renewable energy and avoid some of the high costs of conventional energy sources.. A panel of business leaders gave tips to Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce members Wednesday on ways to ride the economic tsunami bearing down on the island and the state. Their message: Don't cut back on advertising or marketing, keep giving to community groups, and reap the benefit of the good public relations that brings. It's a great time to take advantage of tax credits available for renewable energy and avoid some of the high costs of conventional energy sources. And there's opportunity amid peril for those willing to get aggressive with marketing and strategy just as others are pulling back. Panelists said businesses should be looking to ride a wave and come out on top. "Businesses look where they can cut back on marketing. That's not wise. It's time to increase your marketing budget, if anything," said Barbara Hastings, president of the HICC and principal of Hastings & Pleadwell, a public relations firm with offices in Hilo and Honolulu. Hastings -- who recently had to lay off an administrator and arrange for another employee to work as a contractor -- said businesses need to choose wisely how to spend their advertising money rather than cutting back. Panelists Barry Taniguchi, president of KTA Super Stores, Marco Mangelsdorf, president of ProVision Solar, and Hastings addressed a room of about 50 people at a luncheon at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel. Yuka Nagashima, executive director of the state's High Technology Development Corp., moderated the discussion. Taniguchi said he's had to cut back employee hours -- overtime in particular -- and make sure managers only order goods that will move through the store quickly, without going to waste in a back room. The supermarkets, which employ 800 people, have avoided layoffs so far, though the company has left some positions empty as employees leave, and it's scrutinizing the best way to spend advertising money. "Our ad budget is pretty big. In times like these, we have to look at productivity," Taniguchi said. "Someone once said that sales hide all evil," he added. "In good times, the guy who's screwing off in the back room, you don't pay too much attention to it. Now, they get more scrutiny." Mangelsdorf's solar electric business is exploding at a time when other businesses are shrinking. With 10 employees, ProVision provides photovoltaic systems on the Big Island, Lanai, Kauai and Maui. While the company struggled five years ago and dug deep into a credit line, business has increased seven-fold since 2004. Mangelsdorf plans to use that momentum to position his company as a major solar energy player, using the fact that he's established and locally-known to compete with other better-financed companies eyeing the Hawaii market from the mainland. "When others are pausing, cutting back on their marketing budgets, I see this as a time to really double down," Mangelsdorf said. "Very few people believe the price of gasoline and electricity is going to go down over time." New state and federal renewable energy tax credits effectively cut the cost of a new solar systems in half, he said. Nagashima urged businesses to take advantage of cost-savings available through new energy-efficient technology and to "embrace the current economic situation rather than complain about how bad it's gotten." "It's a trend going on around the state," said Judi Steinman, HICC executive officer. "Communities are getting together and figuring out how to ride this wave of change." Panelists seemed to agree the changes in the air will be nothing less than transformative, and said that cashed-strapped federal and state governments likely won't be able to do more than they already have to provide incentives or bail out businesses in other ways. "Life as we know it is going to be very different in the next five years," Hastings said. E-mail Bret Yager at byager-@hawaiitribune-herald.com. For more solar and renewable energy news [SolarAccess.com]