 And welcome to this week's edition of Business in Hawaii. I'm Daelyn Yanagita, and we are broadcasting live from the ThinkTech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you want to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhoi.com. And while they're, please subscribe to our programs and get in our mailing list. The theme of Business in Hawaii is to share with you stories of local businesses by local people. And our guests share with us their journey to building successful businesses right here at home. In the ThinkTech studios today are Jamie Lum, branch chief business development and support division at the business of, at the department of business and economic development and tourism. I'm better known as D-Bed, and I think I'm going to go with D-Bed. And Hermine Katlavan, a professional fellow that's hosted by D-Bed. Jamie and Hermine, thank you so much for being with me today on the show. I think that, that Hermine, you, you have a story that tells about D-Bed in, in and of itself and, and the opportunities that we're trying to create. So I'd love for you folks to start with who you are and what you do and, and how you got here. Thank you. You want me to start and then I'll, thank you for having us, Daelyn, appreciate it. I am Jamie Lum. I've been with D-Bed for 30 years, but half that time before going to the business development side I was with tourism, handling tourism product development. So I have some of that background. But since being with the business development side, the last few years we have been concentrating on exporting and helping companies that want to export, so that's basically where I put the majority of my efforts right now. And we have Hermine here who is with a, a fellowship program with the State Department and I like her to talk a little bit about that. So she can, she can do. Thank you. Thank you. As you introduced me, I'm Hermine from Armenia. I work here at the State Department, I am here for the State Department and American Council's program, professional fellow program. I applied to learn more about economic policy making and economic policy implementation. That's why my workplace here is Department for Business Development and Tourism. And for one month I learned a lot from the Department of Business and Economic Development and Tourism. Thank you. I think it's really amazing and it, it really drives home what D-Bed is, is trying to do with export and encouraging our local businesses to partake in export. And by putting our money where our mouths are, by welcoming interns from other countries to learn about how, how we, how we welcome the opportunity to do business across, across the, the waters. Hermine, when, when we were talking before the show you were mentioning that Hawaii's program is, is actually one of the, the top choices, tell, tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, I only admire how, how you here treat small businesses, especially family businesses. I was in a consultation with family business consisting for members and it's actually small business, not too much importance for the country, but the, the department and the small business administrative center, they are trying to enhance the business and help the business to enter and to penetrate new markets, expert markets, and to sell globally. That was admiring. I think under the direction of you, Jamie and Mark Ritchie, who was formally on our show, you were mentioning that you're, the assignment that you gave Hermine. Right. So we asked, because, you know, we've been doing the, the step, high step program since 2011, but we really started gathering statistics, really good solid statistics, I would say, since about 2016. But we hadn't had a chance to really kind of take a broad, you know, step back and, and look at the trends and so forth and what that means for our, what we're trying to do with high step. So we asked Hermine to look at all of that and, and she did a very good job at analyzing the results and the types of companies that have participated and what that kind of means in our approach. So maybe she can share some of that. We'd love to hear about what you found and why expansion programs are important and all about Hawaii's exports and what you can tell us, please. Yes, actually, first of all, it was a honor for me to work with this program. And at the end, I decided that with the help of the debate, I will take this experience to my country and we will implement another program, the same program actually, but designed for my country. It's really nice experience, which I had here. And it actually teach me a lot how important is export expansion and export promotion for a small state or small country like my country. I am, I am just so impressed that an intern is going to come in and really dig deep and learn about what, what Hawaii's export market is like. And, and that we can learn from you about our, our own state of business. And so please tell me about your findings. Yes, first of all, I find that export expansion and promotion program is very important in improving company's capacity and company's performance in exporting through increasing sales value, acquiring new markets, increasing the quality of product, increasing the return on assets and overall contributing to profit. Really significant contribution to especially small and medium type of business. And what did you find about Hawaii's primary exports? Where are we? For the year of 2018, in Hawaiian global shipments, the highest value performed actually the, the following product, like cold water shrimps and pounds, then it comes unflavored and non-sweetened water, then fresh fruits, macadamia nuts, and beef cut. Actually, I, I would like to indicate that those products are Hawaiian made. They are not re-expert from the state. And I also find like that high-stack programs really try to differentiate the expert of merchandise. And the program, the companies which are beneficial from the program, they are mainly operating in the manufacturing field. And they export different foods like coffee, tea, beverage, jewellery, apparel, and they also sell different services from the scientific and technical industry, art, entertainment, creation, and also enterprise and company management. So the contribution and the impact of high-stack program is huge for companies and for overall, overall state experts. I think what it helped show was that the kind of companies that are participating in our program are in areas that are not, you know, didn't make the top list. So it, I think it helps in trying to promote, get those companies out there. So that those particular factors can, you know, increase the, the sales globally. I, I, hopefully it shows that we're heading in the right direction with the kind of companies that are participating in the kind of shows and, and that we're participating in. What did you find out about Hawaii's export market? For the state, the main export market is South Korea. Then it's Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, China, and Taiwan. But in case of high-stack beneficial companies, it's Japan in contrast of state market. And actually for me, it's a really high standard and good indicator because Japan has really high standards for entering markets, standards for the good quality and service, quality for services. And they also have a lot of regulatory barriers for companies, like for example, certification, labeling, or licensing. And if companies which are beneficial from high-stack programs can enter and penetrate Japan market, it means that they are really able to deal with these tough regulatory barriers. And they are able to sell high quality goods and services in the Japanese market. And they're also trying to enter new markets. For example, the last three years, they tried to enter European market, Canadian market, market of Australia, which are really big markets, and give them a lot of opportunity to sell more and more. Jamie, are those results indicative of what you, what D-Bed thought you would find? I don't know that we really had any particular goals in mind in terms of what kinds of markets or what kind of products. The overall goal of the program really is just to increase the number of companies that are exporting and for them to be able to penetrate more markets. And so that's what we are aiming for. But I think that in what Hermione was able to find out is that it seems that the strategies that we're taking are helping the companies really prepare for global markets and being successful in exporting their products. Hermione, I know you also found out a few things about why export promotion in Hawaii is so important. What can you tell us? Yeah, actually general talking export is very important for the economic development of any country because like a sustained export sale helps to keep growing a gross domestic product to provide growing employment opportunities for state and it also helps to decrease poverty. Improves balance of time and it helps to generate money for other for further development and improvement of economic conditions. It can also generate more tax income which state can use for different social program implementation. In case of Hawaii actually like import of Hawaii for example for this specific year of 2018, the import exceeded the export more than six times. And it means that crucial for especially for the state of Hawaii to continue the implementation of export expanding programs which helps companies to overcome and to deal with different export upstacles or perceived export obstacles and hard difficulties. How are the results that you found different from your country? Actually when I got my placement in Hawaii I was, it's so different state from my country because Armenia is landlocked country no access to sea but actually coming here I found out that small and medium time type businesses have the same programs like my country. They also have different problems with logistics and they are also like they don't have enough money to penetrate the market. So they have hard time with it. Also like sometimes small businesses and they don't have enough knowledge what they don't know for example. They don't realize what they need to know before starting to export. So I find these high step seminars and trainings very helpful for small businesses because they don't have their own money to spend it on this kind of knowledge so it's very helpful. We do have to go to a short break but when we come back I would love for the both of you to share really about high step and the meat of your program. I know that there's going to be some exciting rollouts very soon and so I'd love for your viewers to hear about that. We are going to take a short break. This is Business in Hawaii. We'll see you back here shortly. Aloha, I'm Keisha King, host of At the Crossroads, where we have conversations that are real and relevant. We have spoken with community leaders from right here locally in Hawaii and all around the world. Won't you join us on thinktecawaii.com or on YouTube on the Think Tech Hawaii channel. Our conversations are real, relevant, and lots of fun. I'll see you at the crossroads. Aloha. Aloha, my name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. My program airs every other Monday at one o'clock on Think Tech Hawaii. Most of my programs deal with my own life and law experience. Recently, I interviewed Alex Gempell who I have known for over 30 years about his voyage across the sea as a lawyer from Tokyo to Hawaii. Those are the type of stories that I like to bring and like to talk about, human stories about law and life. Aloha. Welcome back, this is Business in Hawaii. With us today are Jamie and Hermine from D-bed. Thank you for being so forgiving with my pronunciation of your last name. And of course of the department. But before we went to break, we were talking about the amazing results that you found after analyzing some data that the state had been collecting over a number of years that really called attention to export and its importance to Hawaii and really what those markets look like for us. I do have a non-scientific question for you and that would be having been born and raised in a completely different culture. How do you see Hawaii's culture and its influence on your thoughts on business and on programs? Yeah, I really feel lucky that I am in Hawaii and I had the opportunity and yet for three days I have opportunity to experience this Aloha spirit. Thank you so much. I found Hawaii very hospitable, very friendly state. Here people always helpful trying to help you, trying to share you with everything they have without like expecting anything back. I really like this culture and I think like sometimes the expert also benefited from this spirit of sharing love and friendship with others. As someone who was born and raised here and Jamie I know that you were born and raised here as well but it really makes me proud that we open up our arms to different cultures and sharing that and then taking in their expertise and their knowledge and learning from them. So that makes me really proud that the state of Hawaii is committed to that. Well, we've been very fortunate to have them. It's the first time that in our business development division that we've had a state department fellow. I know our energy office and maybe some of the other divisions and agencies have had a fellow but we're very, very fortunate to have her. And have her take such an interest in the high step. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing with me. We're everything. Jamie, when we were setting up for the show I also mentioned to you, it's surprising to me, we had Mark Ritchie on the show, we had Lyle Fuchikawa on the show that so many people are not aware of the excellent programs, support and resources that D-Bed provides. And I'd really like for you to share with your viewers about high step because I think that quite a few people may not know about it. There are a very specific group of people who understand it. But you're embarking upon exciting times. Love for you to share that with us. Sure. Well, high step is a program that's funded by the Small Business Administration through a grant that we apply for every year. The program started in 2011 and we've been fortunate to receive a grant every year except for one. So this is the eighth year of the program and our seventh year of receiving funds. So the intent of the program when the legislation was passed by Congress was to help small businesses in the US to export more. I mean I said it helps the economy if we, in the US and in Hawaii as she pointed out, we do need to close that gap between imports and exports. So that's when we see more prosperity in our economy. So the program is intended for companies that are maybe never exported before but are looking at it as a way of expanding their business to those that already export but looking to expand into other markets. It's intended for small businesses of which 98% of the companies in Hawaii will qualify for. So there are standards in terms of being able to qualify for the program but most companies can qualify. And then how we've devised the program is we have three components. So our first component is what we call our export readiness which is export training seminars and business advising. So like Hermina pointed out a lot of companies, you know, they don't have money to invest in themselves to learn about exporting so we've made that available using our partner organizations like we use the Hawaii Pacific Export Council as one of our partners but we also work with the local US Small Business Administration, the Small Business Development Center, the MINK Center which is the Women's Business Center and Innovate Hawaii. So these are our partners. So HPEC Pacific Export Council, we put together a schedule of training programs and those we carry out monthly from January through June. They're various topics, export related either by issues involved in exporting like logistics, financing, so forth, or market specific, Japan, Korea, and so forth. So we have those and then we utilize our partners to be business consultants for companies. So they can take a company that's very new and maybe needs help more with establishing their business all the way to those that might have very specific export related issues and help them to develop an export plan or maybe help refocus their export plan. So that's our export readiness. We also do what we call Hawaii Pavilions where we organize a group of Hawaii companies and we take them to trade shows and we exhibit under the Hawaii banner. So we find that that's very powerful to use the Hawaii brand to bring companies together. And so it's usually buyer shows. So they're looking for buyers to take their products into various markets. And then the last component is what we call our company assistance, which is funds that we make available for companies that want to do other types of activities outside of what we have as part of High Step and implement portions of their export plan. Maybe go to a different trade show or do some sales calls in another country. It is a competitive basis. It's working on a competitive basis. So we have that going on right now. So if we can put up the slide one, it just shows the three components and kind of how everything overlaps. Basically what we're trying to do is build a pipeline for companies starting out with just getting them ready for exporting or tooling up. And then once they go through the export training and the business advising, then they can participate in any of the other components, the Hawaii Pavilions, which are the trade shows and consumer shows, and then our direct financial assistance. If you go to the slide two, it'll show our website. So if a company is interested in High Step, they would go to our website and we have an online registration form. Basically it's not an application, so in the sense that you're not going to get rejected, unless somehow you don't fit the qualifications. But it's so that we can get information on your company, find out where you're at in terms of being in your exporting, if there are particular issues and so forth, and that way we can help direct you to the right partner for advising. And then once you submit that, then the process kind of starts in terms of getting them connected with one of our partner organizations. And it also is an indication of what they want to participate in if they want to go to particular trade shows. So we use that to then go out and start recruiting when we start recruiting for our trade show. So we use that for a lot of different. Is there a fee to application or a fee to any of the classes? No, everything is offered at no cost for the classes or the advising. I should say that with the trade shows, there is a participation fee, but we try to keep it to at least a third or less of the cost of what it would be for that company if they were to go into the trade show on their own. So much of it is subsidized, but yeah, there are no fees. The other thing, the company assistance, that is a separate process. So I just want to make that distinction between the online enrollment form for High Step and company assistance. There's a separate process for applying for that. That, we do it through a request for proposal that is already issued and the deadline is January 6th for that. So companies can go on to our website and download the instructions for that. When would be the next time that we would see new analytics out of the High Step program? I think that would be interesting and definitely serve as a way to entice more businesses to participate. We're in the process of gathering all of our 2019 data. So we'll take that and then add that to what Hermina has already put together and see what the trends are. We're still heading in the right direction. Do we need to tweak our program at all? So probably early 2020 into mid 2020, depending on when we can wrap up those 2019 statistics and see where we can add that in. What are some of the trade shows that you already have scheduled to go to? We have coming up in January, actually, we're going to the surf expo, which is in the US, but there are international buyers. So we do trade shows in Japan, but we have a couple that we do in the US that are international trade shows. In January, we're doing the surf expo that's geared towards not only the sports surfing and other related types of water sports, but also they promote a lot of the resort and lifestyle products. So that's where a lot of our companies fit. We have apparel companies that go, skin care product companies, jewelry, so a whole range of those kinds of companies. In March, we're doing for the first time the natural products at West, which is a show that many companies have asked us to do. It's a really huge show and it's difficult to get space. So we're fortunate that we do have a few booths. So it's for natural and organic products. So there are a lot of different types of companies that fit under that umbrella. And then in April, we're doing a food show in Japan. So those are the first three that are coming up in 2020. I think what's really nice about the partnership between your program, the high set program, and of course the businesses that do want to export to these shows is that they have someone to go along with, right? I mean, it becomes this group endeavor, so that's really nice. So I know Armina mentioned that earlier about sharing in Hawaii. We see that in business too, and I think that's another outcome of the trade shows is actually that the companies help each other. They learn a lot about what each other is doing and a lot of them have suggestions for companies. A lot of them have even partnered on certain things. So a lot of that kind of cooperation comes out of these trade shows. We're just about out of time, but I do know that High Step is going to do a big launch. Tell us about your events. So on Tuesday, November 19th, that's next week Tuesday at 9 AM at the foreign trade zone. We have our big kickoff for High Step, so we invite companies to come and hear about the program and learn a lot more. As well as meet our partner organizations, they'll all be there and introduce themselves and talk a little bit about their organizations. And we've already done the Neighbor Island kickoffs, we did that last week. But we expect, we have over 75 companies already signed up, so. Fantastic. We have a slide that we'll share with your viewers where they can find you. We could get that up. And while that's there, I wanted to thank Hermione for joining us today. But more importantly for allowing us to share as a state our Aloha spirit with you and that it's obviously touched you and that makes me such a proud resident of Huy and thank you to D-Ved for championing that. I wanted to thank both of you for being with me today. Unfortunately, we are out of time. Thanks to our guests for being here. Amazing production staff in the studio. If you would like to be a guest on the show, please like us and subscribe. Leave a comment below. Business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2 PM. We look forward to seeing you here next week.