 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game are about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. And the reason I wrote the books is to inspire greatness and excellence in every business, sports team, school, and family potentially in the world. My special guest today is the highly respected leader and CEO of Island Energy Services, which is headquartered in Kapolei. He is John Maurer, and today we are going Beyond Energy Services. Hey, John, welcome to the show. Good morning, Rusty. How are you? Oh, John, you and I, we know each other for many years, and I have super great respect for you as a leader, and the impact that you and your team members are having in our community is incredible, and we're going to talk all about that. And if we can first start, John, if you can share about your background. Yeah, sure. No, thanks, Rusty. I appreciate the opportunity to be on your show, and really honored to have the chance to sit with you and talk today. Yeah, so I'll tell you, I grew up in California in a small town just outside of San Francisco, Pacifica, right on the coast there. Grow up playing sports and going to school and just doing what kids kind of do. I played baseball and basketball and football all the way up going up through high school, and just enjoyed growing up in a small community there. Now what college did you attend and what did you study? So yeah, I ultimately went to UC Davis. I studied chemical engineering there. So growing up in high school, kind of doing the math and science that was all kind of came a little bit natural to me, and so I found an opportunity to get to UC Davis and study chemical engineering and was ultimately led to my career. And so thinking about, where does life take you and how do you get through and find jobs ultimately? One of the things I kind of really appreciated and recognized is that if you can work hard, maybe opportunities open up. And so that was one of those things I wanted to pursue a degree in engineering, perhaps, and working hard in high school ultimately allowed me to achieve that accomplishment. Working hard makes a big difference for sure. Oh, I totally agree with you. And yeah, I mean, working hard definitely provides a lot more opportunities. And John, can you share with me about your journey in how you ended up becoming CEO of a company in Hawaii? Yeah, never in a million years that I think I'd end up living here in Hawaii and becoming a CEO. That just wasn't in the mindset. But interesting thing growing up and just a little perspective of how did I end up where I am today? Going back to even getting into the engineering school at UC Davis, it was one of those things where you're working hard in high school and never really kind of thought, am I going to be able to achieve that success? Can I get that far? And so you work hard and do the things that you can do and try and give yourself the best opportunity. And somehow I managed to get into an engineering program at UC Davis. So you get there and you go, OK, what can I do now from there and work hard and focus on things that you can do. And ultimately led me into an opportunity with a career with Chevron. And so that was another one of those kind of turning points. It was as I was thinking back and reflecting as I applied to college and was I going to get in, was I good enough? Can I work hard enough to be successful there? Kind of that same transition getting in a job with Chevron, it was coming out of college, do I have a good enough grades? And can I compete at that level for a company that's a Fortune 500 type organization? And so find your way into that opportunity and work hard and do the things you can. And that led to a career with Chevron for 28 years that ultimately brought me out to Hawaii back in 2012, working at that time at the refinery here in Kapolei. Through that course of my career with Chevron, I had another opportunity to go back to college. In night school, I went and got an MBA at UC Berkeley. And so I had an engineering background, but wanted to kind of progress my career in a direction of more business. And so having a chance to get into a business school like the Haas business school in California, Berkeley, it would open up new opportunities, new ways to think about a career and what could happen. And so ultimately moving out to Hawaii in the role here and ultimately becoming a refinery manager. So 28 years, a lot of hard work, but a lot of great opportunities along the way and just kind of taking advantage of those as they presented themselves. So, John, it's interesting. I really like how you said you went back to school. I mean, geez, I mean, you have a lot of education. And John, tell me about what Island Energy is all about and what you guys do to help the state of Hawaii. Yeah, so I went to Energy, and I'll kind of play for it. So I came here as an operations and then refinery manager when it was the Chevron business. And so Chevron ultimately left the state of Hawaii. They sold the business and our company stepped in as Island Energy services. And so that was back at the end of 2016. And so we've emerged as a company that imports and distributes fuel across the state of Hawaii. We have a large import terminal out here in Kapole and pipelines that connected to Honolulu and barge operation that takes fuel, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel to our customers and utilities and other companies, airlines that need the fuel to operate their business and provide the stable economy and growing opportunities for businesses here in Hawaii. You know, it was all that time with Chevron to learn, get those exposures of the different parts of the business and gave me the opportunity to actually just step into the role as CEO with Island Energy. So I've been very grateful for that opportunity. We've done just some amazing things here as a company. And just really proud to serve in this role to help ensure that the economies and the people here have the fuel they need to go about their lives and have successful businesses. Now, John, a lot of us, we know about Texaco gas stations. And how is Island Energy connected with Texaco? So Island Energy, we own and operate and have associations with, there's nearly 60 Texacos here across the state of Hawaii. And so when that transition back with Chevron, the Chevron wouldn't allow us to keep the Chevron brand, but they were willing to license us the Texaco brand. And so we went through a process to convert all of the Chevron stations to Texacos. And so now we proudly fly the Texaco Hallmark providing the high quality fuels, the Tecron additive and everything that comes with the top premier gasoline brand in the state. So very proud to represent that and provide that service and that quality of fuel to all of our customers. So John, you mentioned Tecron at Texaco, that additive. Why is Tecron such a superior additive to the gasoline? Yeah, so a lot of people think gasoline is all the same. And trying to explain it to family and friends and everyone I come in contact with, it does make a difference, right? So that Tecron additive, it's like that little bit of extra something that goes in. It really helps keep the engines clean and running very, very well and very efficient. It actually leads to lower emissions. And so if you're worried about how your car performance can impact the environment, but also get better gas mileage and all the things that come with running at a very clean and highly tuned engine, make sure you're using the Texaco with Tecron fuels. It does make an absolute difference. That's why you guys have superior products and John, I know that your team members. I mean, you appreciate all of your team members. And you guys, I mean, throughout our conversations, I know that you really, you want to be a great reflection of your team and you want your team to be a great reflection of you. Tell me the importance of your team and how many employees do you have together? Yeah, so for Ion Energy, we're about 220 employees. So we're not a huge company, but I think we have a huge impact. And what I mean by that is we've got just a really strong organization of people. They care, they put their heart and soul into the business and do it every day to make sure that we can safely and reliably supply fuel to all the customers across the state. There's a lot of responsibility that comes with that. If the fuel supplies aren't where they need to be, you can imagine we all see that when hurricanes start to show up and there's long lines of fuel and things get very concerned about that. And so it's not something you think about every day. But if you don't have it, then suddenly there's a certain amount of concern and panic that sets in. And so we take our responsibility to make sure that things are operating safely and reliably. And people can depend on us for having the high quality fuels and making sure it's always available when and where they need it. So it all starts with our people though. We have a very great team. They work hard. They're highly motivated. They want to do the right thing. And it really comes, it's that culture that you have that says we can do this and we can do it in a way that recognizes value of our customers and wanting to be there for them in every facet of their business. So John, how has the pandemic affected your business? Or, and we're still in the pandemic, but how has it affected you? Yeah, so if you think back when the pandemic first, we were first starting to have to deal with that as an island community and our business itself, people don't really realize they see us as Texaco, but we also have a very, very large part of our business is jet fuel that we sell fuel to the aviation industry, not just around a lot, but neighbor islands as well. And you think about the amount of reduction in air traffic during that time, about half of our businesses in the jet fuel segment and it went from 100% one day down to less than 5% the next. And so we had to pivot a bit and readjust and make some very difficult decisions about what we could afford to do at that time and how we had to continue to operate our company. And so we had very candid conversations with our workforce about what that might mean and how we would have to make some changes at least on a temporary basis. And frankly, got a lot of support for making some hard decisions. In the end, we didn't have to let anyone go. We kind of tightened up our belts a bit and made sure that we were being very cautious with the things that we were doing and how we were spending our money in terms of investments and kind of keeping things going. And we found a way to kind of navigate through the pandemic. And now that we've seen tourism rebound fairly strongly, actually. We find ourselves in a much better position than on the onset of the pandemic. Clearly, we're still dealing with it every day and trying to make sure that we're keeping our workforce very safe, keeping our customers and our vendors and our suppliers, everybody, we're kind of all working around this to make sure that we can do everything we need to do. But again, safety is paramount to our business and wanting to make sure that our employees, their families, everything that we come in contact with, we can do it in a very safe way so that we're not having any impacts on that front. No, and John, I know that you have great empathy for all of your team members that represent Island Energy. And a few weeks ago, I was very fortunate to be able to meet and talk with your executive leadership team. And you have been so excited. And you've been telling me about how proud you are of this entire executive team that you have. What specifically do you love about them? We've got a great leadership team. And what I really come to appreciate is kind of the diversity of thought and opinion that people have and being able to have some open conversations and just kind of being direct about what we're thinking and what we need to do as a company. And so I think that really helps if you can build some people around you that will challenge you and ask you what your opinion is, but they'll hold firm to their own if they have strong beliefs in that. And it helps us, I think, build better decisions and build alignment so that when we go and move forward with a certain plan or initiative that we're kind of joined at the hip and taking the actions we need to to help provide the leadership for our organization moving forward. So I think it's that challenge each other's thoughts a little bit. You don't always have the best idea. You have an idea and you kind of put it in there and get some input from others. And what comes out is often much better than what you may have come up with on your own. No, I totally agree with you. They all have so many strengths individually, which collectively as a team, I mean, it's unbeatable. And, John, I want to ask you about my book. So you've read both of my books. And what are some things that stood out to you in it? You know, I love the books, Rusty. And it it there's a few things that kind of stand out to me. And one of them in the second book beyond the game, it just continues to resonate with me. It's that one percent principle. It's kind of in the back end of the book and it just stuck in my mind. It's the whole concept of you can always get better. You can always do something a little bit better every day. And how do you find yourself just looking for opportunities to improve? And so that's one thing that I take away. I think about it's kind of hardwired into me. I'm going to blame you on this one, Rusty. I can't let it go. And so I think my leadership team kind of gets, you know, all right, John, let it go. We're working hard here. And it's just that one. How can we do? How can we get one percent better every day or one task and do it a little better each time and building that, you know, within your thought process and your culture? I think that's a big key. The other thing about the books, Rusty, is it covers everything. And it's very clear, concise. And I find myself referring back to another example, you referenced the four myths, right? You got miscommunication, misunderstanding, misperception, misinformation. And sometimes things aren't going well. Things don't always go well. And so I kind of revert back, okay, where did we, you know, what myths did we have there that caused us to not be aligned on something or not get the outcome that we were looking for? And oftentimes you can kind of type back, well, we weren't kind of, we had this misunderstanding about what we thought the objective was. And so if you go back and really kind of work on those, you start from there and you can find, how do we improve? And one of the things we can do different to get a different outcome next time. But yeah, the books are phenomenal. Obviously I, working with our leadership team and kind of using those as a tool to help, you know, get ourselves aligned and thinking about things that we could do better as a leadership team together and how do we move our company forward to be, you know, even more successful going in with different parts of our business. John, I'm impressed you named the four misses right there. And I really love that you love the 1% principle. And I know, John, that you have really high standards for yourself and for your company. And you mentioned about creating a culture of excellence. What kind of culture would you say your company has right now? Yeah, I think our company has had some challenging times, Rusty, to be frankly, about the whole thing. We started as a refining business and with this marketing and distribution of products around the islands, we ultimately made a decision to shut down the refinery. And with that came, you know, it was one of those big challenges as a leader here is how do we do that and move it forward? Recognizing that, you know, this meant that, you know, some people may not have jobs in the end or we're gonna have to find ways to help encourage and support them in the transition to some future employment, you know, hopefully somewhere else here locally. And so we've had a lot of challenge. I think we have a very robust organization in terms of resiliency. They work hard and we try and ensure that we have a plan and things that we can work on together to, you know, ensure the future success of the business. And so without over time, that kind of gets built into the culture here around, okay, we can face adversity. We may not have all the exact answers right from the beginning, but if we work hard and communicate together and work to put together our best plans and then execute those as best as we possibly can, we can achieve success. And so it's just having that mindset of we have some challenges, but we can find ways to overcome them working together. And so that just kind of, we've got a great, like I said, a great group of people and you kind of put together, here's an objective, what we wanna try and achieve and turn them loose and, you know, away they go and come back and surprise you. Like I have continually be surprised at the way things get done. And, you know, I, they come up with creative solutions and it's just, you build that positive momentum and can do attitude. And it's just, you turn them loose and see what can accomplish and you get surprised every day. Some really great stuff. And John, I know that you guys are helping various organizations in our community, one of which is the American Red Cross. Can you tell me about that? Yeah, no, I've been fortunate. I've been able to serve on the board of the Red Cross for the last, you know, four, five years or so now. And then just recently, they gave me an opportunity to really become the chair of the board. And so that was also something, you know, never anticipated. A great organization, their Red Cross mission is really kind of to be there in times of tragedy or crisis, you know, whether it be a home fire or, you know, a landslide or flooding or whatever, you know, there's, these are tragic times in people's lives and to have an organization here can step in, provide support and resources and help people get back on their feet. You know, how can you not be a part of something like that? And so their mission is really around serving people and making sure that there's resources in place to help people be safe and secure and a lot of connections between our company's values and that of the Red Cross and, you know, very humbled to be a part of that organization and hopefully, you know, provide some leadership there over the next, you know, term here as an opportunity in the chair position. Again, humbling organization to be a part of and just great to serve it in any way I can. That's so good to hear about that, John. And I wanna take some time to really talk to you about leadership. And, you know, you're a great leader and you're someone that, you know, you're always constantly improving. I mean, you always wanna find ways to improve yourself and your whole organization. But John, what do you feel the best leaders do? I think the best leaders listen is really what it's about. I recognize I don't always have the best idea. I have an idea. I have an idea. But by listening to people and hearing what they have to say and pulling from their experience, I think that can really help me as a leader kind of learn, but also understand, you know, where people are coming from, what are their concerns so that you can end up with a better outcome and really kind of make sure people are engaged and involved in what you're trying to accomplish. So I go back to listening all the time. I think good leaders can listen and not just hear, but actually listen for meaning and intent of what people are trying to communicate to. No, I like that you talked about listening right there. And John, I want you to analyze yourself for a little bit. You know, if listening is a strength of yours, what would you say are some other strengths that you have that make you a successful and effective leader? I think listening is one, I want to say I listen. I'm not always perfect. I get it. We all have maybe some pre-conceived ideas about how something should be and we just want to kind of go in and get it done. But I do try and listen. I think the other thing is try and set an example of working hard and being respectful of everyone around you. Coming with that is a little bit of, I'll just call it humility and working and trying to create an organization or a way of being with your company so that everyone can kind of be involved and provide their best selves for what you're trying to do. And so I think those are some of the strengths in getting out there and talking to people and understanding what we're trying to accomplish. Obviously there's always these time constraints and can you do it enough? And that's one of the 1% more. I need to do this 1% better and we'll get one more conversation or go get a little more chance to listen with others what people are thinking about or what some of their concerns might be. So I think that's part of it. We can always get better. I think that's how I kind of get wired, wanting to improve and see what we can do next. So John, knowing all that, how would you describe your leadership style? I'm really about trying to set an objective. Here's what we've got to accomplish. And so we have a very, it's a complicated business, importing fuel and getting it distributed across the islands and making sure that it's where it needs to be and the quantities it needs to be there at. There's a lot of working parts to this and there's a lot of ways it can go wrong. And so when we're doing it, we want to be clear about what we're trying to accomplish. And so what I try and do is set in a goal or an objective, hey, this is what we need to try and do. And here's what it needs to look like generally in the end, but then turning the team loose to figuring out the details and getting their ideas and getting their input. And that's where oftentimes you get surprised. Like I had no idea that you guys could come up with that solution, but you guys have done a much better job than I would certainly come up with myself. And so trying to set objectives, be clear, be concise as you kind of articulate in your books. Again, you go back and resonate to, it's all in the books there. You just have to kind of seek it out a little bit and trying to find ways to apply it. But clear and concise, set an objective, and then turn your team loose to go out and accomplish that and find out how can you support them? What do they need to be successful and provide them what they need to get there and sometimes be careful what you ask for because they'll come back and over deliver it. And then you just, they'll blow your doors away. So it's a really good stuff, exciting to see. That's part of what makes my job so exciting and what I love about it. No, that's so good. And that's so true, John. I mean, everything you said there, I mean, you're such a great leader and you're building other great leaders within your organization and I love that. And John, there's been numerous businesses that have operated in Hawaii that have failed. And I think that a lot of those businesses, they don't really truly understand the people of Hawaii and the culture of Hawaii. But you do and your company, you guys have some really good core values. What's one of the most important core values you have with Island Energy? So yeah, we have four values. The one that I kind of think supports and underpins everything, it's Kinole. It's doing the right thing at the right time with the appropriate intention and trying to live that. And that really underpins what our company is about. We wanna make sure that we're doing the right thing, no matter what it is. And so if you have that value embedded in your organization, it makes it easy to turn people loose because you don't have to worry that they're gonna make a misstep. They're gonna be doing the right thing for the right reason and the right intentions. And so it's so important that we focus on it that way. And then if you're doing things with that intent, good things will tend to happen. And so it actually unleashes you as a leader a little bit because you don't have to worry about micromanaging because you know people are gonna be doing what you're expecting of them. It's just really a core to our business and how we're trying to operate as a company. And sets the foundation for what we expect people to do. And I think people, it resonates and it helps us be, I think, a very successful company, not just internally with our organization but externally as well. Our customers, our suppliers, they wanna do business with us because they know we're gonna do things the right way. No matter what the occasion is, we're always gonna do the right thing. It goes back to the pandemic scenario here and you think a little bit about, the rules are all changing, it's changing every day. And you go back to that and say, okay, well, we're not sure what tomorrow is exactly gonna be but we're gonna do the right thing. And the right thing today may be different a few weeks from now as we get more information or the situation should change but we're always gonna anchor back to that. And it just provides a good internal calibration point so that you can feel assured that people are gonna take the right action and leads to the right outcomes at every turn. You can't always think about everything that might happen. And here's a way that we can communicate internally or just non-verbally, hey, we're gonna do the right thing here and it makes a huge, huge difference. John, a lot of people who succeed, they take risks, they're never complacent. So personally or professionally, can you give me an example of a time that you took a risk? Yeah, I think when I took this job, frankly, I had been working with Chevron 28 years. I came out here in 2012 and was on, on Island for about five years here with Chevron and they were ready to pull me off and say, John, we've got another job for you here and they had a few different options they were thinking about and they were all fantastic opportunities for me. And so just very grateful of that. But at the time I felt, I really love living here. I love what we're doing as a company. I love the people I work with. And I think there's a big opportunity here but it came with a risk because it was all new. It was working for a different organization. It was a new owner of the business. It really wasn't clear how this was all gonna turn out. But it was a risk and it was a risk in terms of how is this gonna go as an overall company? How is it gonna go for me personally in a new leadership role? I hadn't had, I had a number of leadership positions across the course of my career but nothing in terms of being a CEO of a company. And so in that role, there's a lot of new things that I hadn't a full appreciation of yet. And so taking the risk and thinking in terms of I'll work hard and I'll try and figure this out. I've got great people around me. I've got support and we'll kind of work together to make this all go. It was risky and there was a period of time, frankly, I wasn't sure we were gonna make it as a company. And so we had to make some adjustments and make some very difficult decisions but always doing it with the right intent to get to the right outcome and do it respectfully and do it in a manner by which we're trying to make sure you're taking care of the people as much as you absolutely possibly can. No, John, and I remember you telling me some years ago, I mean, how the company could have not survived and how stressful that was. But man, sometimes setbacks are opportunities for comebacks. And John, what you're doing with Island Energy and everything that Island Energy does for the state of Hawaii, it's absolutely incredible. And I just wanna thank you for taking time to share your insights on today's TV show. No, thank you, Rusty. A great opportunity. I know we've talked about doing this for a little while now and getting a chance to do it. Spend some time here with you this morning. I really, really appreciate it. Thanks, John. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that John and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.