 This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. And welcome to Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We're a show that broadcasts every Thursday from 2 to 2.30 live from the downtown studios of Think Tech Hawaii here in Hololulu, Hawaii. We focus on success stories in Hawaii of both individuals and companies. And there are a lot of success stories here in Hawaii. There are negative news stories out there about how challenging it is in Hawaii. And that's true. There are some challenges, but of course there are challenges everywhere. And we have successes. We have people that have figured out how to be successful in Hawaii. And those are the stories we want to hear. So today I've got a guest that will probably be recognized by many people, Reisuchiyama. He and I have known each other for many, many years. He also is a frequent guest host and host of other shows on Think Tech Hawaii. And he's out making presentations and he's a familiar face. So Reisuchiyama, it's great to have you on the show. Thank you for inviting me. It's an honor to be here because you're such a proponent and advocate for a small business and for creating new jobs in Hawaii. Well, the small business environment here, which represents about 97% of all businesses in Hawaii, is a big economic engine. We really need to support it and do what we can to make it thrive and be strong and keep people working. And we can't ignore that. But you and I have gone back for 20 years. We met originally in the 1980s, believe it or not. And I've kind of followed your career and I've seen you go places and do things. I mean, you were in Hawaii for a long time and then you lived in Asia for a while and worked for some pretty well-known companies and then you just recently came back. So can you just give us a quick little background briefing on you and where you were born and how you grew up and that sort of thing just for the people who don't know you? Yes, to summarize, my father was born in Maui but he grew up in Japan and came back to Maui before the war. He was in the U.S. Army for 20 years during World War II and Korea. And during the Korean War, he was stationed in Hokkaido, which is a beautiful island in the northernmost part of Japan. That's right. Lots of skiing, evergreens, beautiful island. And that's where he met my mother. And my mother was born and raised in Hokkaido. And I was born in a city called Hachinohe, which is on the seacoast of Aomori prefecture, again, up north. But I came here when I was 10 years old and I grew up in Kalihipalama. And I went through Fern Elementary, Kalahakawa Intermediate and Farrington High School, and even went to Honolulu Community College and KCC afterwards. So I'm a very local person in that regard. And then I left for the mainland and spent about 10 years on the West Coast and the East Coast. And through a professor in graduate school who told me, why don't you go and check out computers? And that's how I got into Digital Equipment Corporation, Route 128, which was booming at that period. And then I did that, worked in computers, came back to Hawaii. And during the 80s, I was involved in real estate development for Kasselin Cook, in fact, and Mitsui Real Estate. And among many things that I did was to promote Hightech Park for Kasselin Cook at Millanian in Onahu. And also a launch that I'm very proud of, a magazine devoted to R&D and startups called the Hawaii Hightech Journal of that time. So you've got a strong history in the technology side of things in business development. That's right. So I combined what I learned at DEC, but also I learned how to sell real estate, which I did on Kapilani and King and Mapuna Puna in warehouses. But I left in 91. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology wanted me to run their Asia office in Tokyo. See, MIT, now that's Ivy League stuff. This is some of the top universities in the world. And they brought you on board to do exactly what in Japan? Corporate relations. MIT is an unusual institute in that 45% of the university is a school of engineering. It's very big. So one out of two students is an engineer at MIT. And MIT is famous for entrepreneurship. In fact, there's more startups in Silicon Valley launched by MIT graduates than Stanford and Berkeley. Because Stanford and Berkeley are more normal universities, maybe 15%, 70% are engineers when you think about it. So they've had a rich history of interacting with business, with corporations, with lots of R&D, so that these corporations see the future at MIT. And MIT faculty and researchers see what's going on at corporate labs at Fujitsu, Toyota, Hitachi, Sony, Mitsubishi, the leading edge companies in Japan. And this is where success breeds success. I mean, when you've got MIT and they've got this focus and they're good at it, it's going to attract those types of people to come back and or to go there to learn these skills. When you were traveling throughout Asia, working with MIT, what were you doing there? Were you looking for opportunities? Were you working with MIT to kind of plant some development seeds, or what was going on there? I was involved in a quid pro quo where corporations pay a fee to access research and development at MIT and also to identify areas of interest for MIT professors to go in and begin dialogue with companies because when you think of a university anywhere, the best are global. They really have to know what's happening in materials in Toyota or semiconductors at Hitachi. They have to know the best. It's global when you think about it. So MIT is unusual because they saw the future in Japan back in the 70s before it became very big in many areas. I also, after MIT, began to go into semiconductors, joined a startup, which became part of AOL and AOL Time Warner. There was a great merger as you. Spend a minute on that for a second. That's intriguing. So there was a company that you were involved in a little bit through MIT that morphed and grew eventually into AOL? No. What happened at that point is that I left MIT to join to go back to the private sector and I joined analog devices, which was in chips, semiconductors, digital signal processors. Digital signal processors are the heart of a chip set for mobile phones. So I began to become part of the mobile phone revolution of that time, the mid to late 90s. That led me to a startup, TGIC, communications that was doing mobile phone software and they were based in Seattle. And they wanted me to run Asia to start the Japan operations. So that's how I got to become part of a startup. But when I joined, little did I know that six months later, AOL would acquire the company. And so we became part of AOL. Within another year, AOL and Time Warner would merge. And I became colleagues with people from CNN, Warner Brothers, films, Time Inc, all kinds of people and, of course, Cartoon Network. So all of a sudden I was part of a giant conglomerate in media. And there was a giant experiment led by a person from Hawaii, actually, Steve Case. But there was another person from UH named Dick Parsons, who got a degree from UH and he was from New York City, who would later be the CEO of Time Warner. And I worked with him also. Very good. That's a very intriguing and interesting background and experience. I mean, you must have picked up some pretty interesting skill sets along the way. I mean, working with all these diverse companies in the high tech industry and with startups and some of these are well known large companies. What are some of the experiences that you've had that adds to your skill set that would make you such a valuable person today? Well, I think, number one, I look at products from a global viewpoint. That's number one, that if you're going to have a product, how can that sell in different markets? And again, it's not so simple going to a new market and then launching a product in India or China, Africa, Russia. And the dynamics are different in every country. And how do you identify the right person to run your operation? I went out and went to China and hire people in Shanghai, Beijing, in Hong Kong. I visited companies throughout handset manufacturers from Dalyan, to Senzen, to Nimbo and did deals. And I do not speak Chinese, but I had enough background and negotiation skills to really negotiate with anybody. And I would, of course, later on go to Southeast Asia, to Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore set up operations and hire people in India and so forth. So I'm a person who really can go out and really analyze the market. But again, it's something that I was doing way, way back. In fact, I was studying about China in the mid 90s and published an essay for the Pacific Telecommunications Review on the mobile market in China and published it, but I had never been there. But I was thinking ahead. I was thinking ahead that I should be part of that revolution. Yeah, and you bring up another interesting point, is that you've been published a number of different times. And has that helped you in building your skills and, I guess, your brand, so to speak? You're correct. I really go out and try to find problems that businesses face in other parts of the world or in product development, leadership in the internet or telecoms market, and make it easy and simpler for people to understand. I think that that's where I come from. And I've been a blogger for Forbes.com. I've published in New York Times. I've been quoted in the Financial Times and Newsweek. And also, I've been writing for Civil Week on all kinds of issues, too. So I think I'm unusual in that I can write for an audience in Hawaii, but also for an audience in London, New York, and Tokyo. Maybe it's about time you consider writing a book. Yeah, you've done so much writing, and you've got so much experience, and you've seen so many different things. You could actually write a book that would be a great, I guess, map on how to approach getting a business set up and operational in a foreign country and what are some of the risks to avoid and what are some of the best practices. And you could look at things in a fresh way and provide that advice on how to expand internationally. I think you have a good idea. And looking at, you know, from the Hawaii viewpoint, there are companies like Uber or Airbnb or Amazon or other companies that come out of nowhere and really grow so exponentially and globally. But I don't think it's just technology. I think it's like Airbnb or Uber, flexibility and customer service. They're giving customers more choices and so forth. So it's not technology alone. It's thinking for the customer and solving problems and issues. And I think we think too much about technology. I think, you know, we do need to stay focused on the customer, but let's loop back on that right after the break. We're going to take a short 60-second break and we're going to come back and continue our discussion with Ray Tsuchiyama on some of the international aspects and mentoring that he has that can help companies out there. We'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Hi, I'm Pete McGinnis-Mark, and every Monday at 1 o'clock, I present Think Tech Hawaii's Research in Manila, where we bring together researchers from across the campus to describe a whole series of scientifically interesting topics of interest both to Hawaii and around the world. So hopefully, you can join me 1 o'clock Monday afternoon for Think Tech Hawaii's Research in Manila. Aloha. I'm Marsha Joyner, inviting you to navigate the journey. Spend the time with us as we look through and discover all of the ins and outs of this journey through life. We're on Wednesdays at 11 a.m., and I would love to have you with us. Come navigate the journey. Aloha. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We just took a short break speaking with Ray Tsuchiyama. We're getting a little bit into the international area. Ray, your experience is extensive in not only the technology side, but also in the international side. And we were talking a little bit about customer's focus and needing to have a balance in there. For a company that wanted to expand and move internationally, what are some of your thoughts on how they should approach this? I think, number one, they need to identify maybe two or three customers in that market first and really use them not to sell, but to give advice back. Nobody wants to be sold on something, but everybody wants to give advice and be an expert. And the questions to ask are, if we did this, A, B, and C, would you buy it? And say, yeah, I would. At what price? Yeah, and then you would come up with the product and your developing product, and you really have a customer already made in that market. Now, another one is to test it out with people, with consumers or B2B customers, big companies in a foreign market. And finally, to get some kind of channel. Are you going to go direct? Are you going to go through a distributor? Do you go to set up a joint venture, a partnership? There's many, many forms you can, channels you can go through. But again, that is another analysis you can take. And who do you, what are the right profile of person that you hire for that market? Well, and these are all things that, because of your background experience, you could probably help a company go through this process. And that sounds like a very exciting type of a career to have, as well as a very valuable service for companies that are thinking about going international. You seem to have a teaching element in you somewhere, in your DNA somewhere. You like to share this information, you like to write about it, you like to talk about it. I mean, you could probably be a very valuable mentor. I mean, do you see yourself as mentoring people and helping them through this process? Currently, I mentor several UH MBA students, in fact. And one of them is in Hong Kong today, studying Chinese and attending classes there. Another one studied Japanese and starting out more in that direction. I also mentor a woman who's a graduate of Molokai High School at Columbia University. Super. And she's gonna be studying mechanical engineering. And there's another young man also from Molokai High School who I introduced to people who helped him in advancing his math and science credits. And he's now entering as a freshman at the Syracuse Engineering Bachelor. So I try to go out, but I think what I try to do is that I am from Kalihi. I'm from Kalihi Palama. And that I feel that there's a reservoir of people who really can go up several levels. But there's a lot of things to do. And in terms of attitude, in terms of mentoring, in terms of programs and so forth. So I see that partly as my payback, back to my community where I grew up, but also I enjoy working with young people to really let them see a bigger world and get them going on that role. Because it's themselves in the end who really are going to be making a mark on our society. Now you've been successful. You've come from the Kalihi environment. Others have come from the Kalihi environment and become successful. What do you think the secrets are to their success? What do they have that's different that makes them a success? Interestingly, I tell people, and people get very kind of surprised when I say this, I did well in global markets in India, China, Africa, Russia, or Southeast Asia, or even Europe because of my background in Kalihi. Because in Kalihi, you're taught to respect others. That's something that comes naturally to me. So I don't impose my culture or where I come from. I ask questions and kind of understand where this person is coming from, what language, what culture, what religion, what background. And so in Kalihi, there's all kinds of people and people who've been there for ages or people who just came as immigrants very recently. It's a dynamic mix. And I think that is what really was a factor for success, speaking for myself, but other people also. And they know that they're going to be coming head to head with other people from better schools, better backgrounds, better language. But I think our feeling for or drive for respect for others is something that I take from my Kalihi background. And that's all kind of folds into that attitude of respect, listen more, talk less, find out as much as you can about something before you act on it. I mean, it's the attitude of can do, but let me do it right. No, you're absolutely right. Mentoring especially, it's not just listening. It's great listening. Because as a mentor, you have to really be quiet because automatically you wanna give a story of the past. It may or may not help at that instance, but you have to get more out of that mentee in order to frame the story that helps that person. And it's a actionable response. That's what I wanna say, an actionable response. You can say, oh, do this, do that, but it may have worked some time ago. It may not work today, but that's the focus. I don't care where you came from, but we're talking about today, now, and where are you gonna go in the future? Exactly. That's where the key is. Well, and on that theme, you've got this international perspective. You've worked with very successful individuals and businesses in the past. Now bringing it back to Hawaii for a second. In my opening monologue, I mentioned that we've got challenges here and it's not an easy environment, but there are people who have made it. What are your thoughts? What do you think Hawaii needs to do in order for it to move in the direction that's gonna be, I guess, positive for the economy and positive for the state? Do you have any thoughts on that? I think we have to leverage what is Hawaii, first of all. And Hawaii is, indeed, a melting pot of languages, of cultures, of all kinds of different people. And yet, if at UH or even at Bishop Street, what we don't do is to combine these strengths in an innovative fashion. For example, if I was a leader at UH, I would take the best in software engineering, best in Chinese and Japanese languages and the best in travel management and come up with new mobile apps for the tourism industry globally. You see what I mean? But that's all here, but they're unconnected with each other, you see. But it needs a vision to propel for innovation because we cannot compete on those things by itself. We cannot be like Stanford in computer engineering or software engineering, but we have different elements that we can really count on and be advancing in environmental, in coastal areas, maybe become a center for disaster management training for the Pacific. We have all kinds of different elements in Waikiki for training. We have people at East-West Center. We have people to put them all together. Right now, they're very different. There's a lot of things at Paycom also. And the DOD that we're not leveraging also, they should be in a normal society, a ring of high tech startups around Camp Smith and Schofield and others getting off of leveraging DOD research for commercial use, for products to export. Well, especially on Kauai. I mean, Barking Sands is a perfect location for this type of high tech development presence. And we seem to be missing that opportunity a little bit in some respects. But I think that's a very novel insight is because sometimes I hear solutions to diversifying the economy in Hawaii. What I feel is some unrealistic expectations. I mean, we have to realize that we do have limitations and there are some challenges here, the cost of living, the availability of resources. So we gotta take a look at what we're good at as you've already said and capitalize that and expand on that. We don't have to create something new. We just need to do what we're doing now a little bit better and smarter. Correct. What are our strengths in Hawaii? That's the first thing. We cannot go off and do better on weaknesses, the strengths. And how can we combine the strengths and make it ultra strong? And of course, the other element is what we talked about before is customers. We have to be customer-centric. And the history of Hawaii is that people came here, we didn't go out to knock on doors and say, well, how can we solve your problem in Japan or China or Southeast Asia or Europe or Latin America? I think that's an area where we really have to do a lot more training. But you see, in the late 19th century, Kinkalakawa sent dozens of young people, Hawaiian people, to study Japanese, Chinese, go to Italy, go to the UK. For sustainable agriculture, for exports. He was thinking back then. It is not something brand new. It is something in our- Is that a radical thought? No, no. I mean, something's been around. And he was very technologically savvy. He put in electric lights in the Elani Palace before the White House. So in the first car in Hawaii was an electric car, not a gasoline now, a car. So these are a lot of things in our history that we can point to. Like Governor Burns said in the early 60s, he desired a Hawaii economy, quote, based on research, unquote. This was barely five years after statehood. Look what a vision he had. He will be admonishing us to take advantage of our state to go ahead. I was just gonna say to look at the lost opportunity. If we had gotten started back then, I mean, the research capabilities we would have in oceans and astronomy and other different areas, it is perfect for us here. We just don't seem to be, have taken full advantage of those. To commercialize it, that's the key. I'll give you an example, Gatorade. You drink that, you know where it's from? University of Florida. They developed that, it's from the Gators, the football team. And now they get millions of dollars in commercialization and licensing royalties back to that university. Again, that's a product. So we are not looking at research as a way to create products to sell and get revenues. That's a culture of innovation that we should have in UH and all throughout our society in Hawaii because that's where we're gonna go because you said at the beginning, this is a small company, small business town in many ways. But that startups are the same. The startups are identical. But Ray, I wish we had more time to talk but we've reached the end of the show. I think the next step is to you write a book that gives us the map on how to make this happen here in Hawaii. And then maybe after the book gets published, you can be our next governor. Well, thank you and in the meantime, I'll be happy to help out any organization in Hawaii. Super. Thank you very much, Ray. This is Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from two to two 30. And we focus on successful individuals and companies that have made it work here in Hawaii. So hopefully I'll see you next week. Until then, aloha.