Made In Hawaii Ambassador
Derek Kurisu’s vision is to have products from Hawaii available throughout the world. Who better to serve as head cheerleader for this weekend’s Made in Hawaii Festival?
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Derek Kurisu (right) with KTA Super Stores employees from
left Maurino Urmwoanpiy, Nora Sasahara, Jason Rabang,
Darlene Batulanon, Tim Cordero and Kristian Yogi
are locally produced. About 30 to 40 percent of beef is raised on the Big Island. Papayas and bananas are local, as is every drop of KTA’s milk.
KTA started as a mom-and-pop store by Koichi and Taniyo Taniguchi in 1916. It grew to a market chain that now has five Big Island locations. KTA was the first grocery store in the Islands to use checkout scanners and offer individually packaged meats.
Recently, the company formed a partnership with ABC Stores to develop a 20,000 square-foot gourmet market at Waikoloa Beach Resort. It will open next spring.
It’s a far cry, Kurisu recalls, from the early days of posting purple mimeographed sheets that listed grocery specials and sale items.
Mountain Apple Brand originated in 1994 with the idea of helping displaced plantation workers when the sugar industry declined. Many products are rare family recipes, and Kurisu helps to package and market these delicacies.
The arrangement is a kick-start for new products that can eventually expand to its own label and distribution outside of KTA. Big Island Abalone, an international gourmet product, had its start at KTA.
It’s not unlike many of the exhibitors at the Made in Hawaii show. From ono baked goods to clothing and artwork, it’s a kaleidoscope of Island products.
“Small vendors put their whole heart into a product,” Kurisu says.
The convivial atmosphere of the Made in Hawaii show is akin to what Kurisu remembers as community socials at the gym during “small keed time.” It was an occasion for social networking, food sampling, and chalangalang music.
Made in Hawaii offers this on a larger scale, including entertainment by Na Hoku Hanohano Award winners, like Na Palapalai and Nathan Aweau. You also can watch cooking demos by Kurisu and local chefs. All for a $3 admission; small kids, free.
Whether it’s thousands at an exhibition or an intimate classroom, Kurisu is at ease with audiences.
He is a media star who has two television programs on local cable called Seniors Living in Paradise and Living in Paradise. He also is a popular motivational speaker, doing about 50 engagements a year.
“When I speak to students, I always bring up my lifestyle on the plantation, because they need to know those same working values. Those plantation people were always on time, respected their bosses and took pride in whatever they did,” Kurisu says.
These messages also surface whenever Kurisu is on his soap box about customer service. And that’s quite often.
“If you’re living in the islands, you gotta know customer service,” he says.
“I sit in front of KTA for hours, observing customers, their facial expressions and behavior. I realize customers look for more than service, price, variety and cleanliness in our store.”
“What am I going to eat tonight? What am I going to bring to the party? What am I going to cook for my son’s excursion tomorrow?” he recites.
“The purpose of being in business is to solve people’s problems. If we can’t solve their problems, they won’t come back,” he says.
This preoccupation with customer needs is a major sacrifice, Kurisu admits.
He once told a group, “My body is a sacrifice for customers of the store. It is a hazardous job, eating all those chocolates, those hot pastries right out of the fryer, just dripping with sugar, and all that high butterfat ice cream that clogs your arteries!”
“It’s a real dangerous job, but somebody’s got to do it,” he quips.
Customer service must be an organization’s top priority and strength, Kurisu says seriously.
“When people work as a team in the area of strengths, it becomes one big awesome, unbeatable and unstoppable organization.”
That’s the way it is at KTA Super Stores, home of 750 employees, business partners, and associates. It’s also the way he will lead the 250-member HFIA as chairman.
No doubt the same principles will apply to being an adviser to the Hawaii Winter Baseball League. The professional sports league was founded by younger brother Duane Kurisu and is administered by older brother Hervy Kurisu, president.
His close-knit family also consists of sisters, Ardis Kaono and Alyn Ishii; wife Georganne, a retired teacher; and son Blake, a senior at Harvard, majoring in economics.
As Kurisu reflects on his career, he is modest about recognition, such as being named UH College of Tropical Agriculture Alumnus of the Year (2002) and Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year (1997).
“I’m just a C-student and a country boy,” he says.
That might be so, but Kurisu’s influence in business and the community is significant. He operates in three arenas: corporate business, trade organizations such as HFIA, and the mass media. In each sphere, he demonstrates the spirit of entrepreneurship, island-style.
Editor’s note: Derek Kurisu is the brother of Duane Kurisu, chairman of AIO Group and a minority investor in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin/MidWeek.
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