Dear Members & Supporters of the HJCC,
A year has now passed since assuming the role of President & CEO. I am happy to report that together with Chair Myles Shibata a number of key initiatives have been accomplished.
In early 2022, as the in-coming chair, Myles was assigned the task of leading the refresh of the 2017 Strategic Plan. This was accomplished through the efforts of a Strategic Planning Task Force that included key Officers, other active members and past Chairs. After several meetings, the result was reconfirming our seven pillars of the original plan with the elevation of Communications & Marketing as an eight pillar, overarching the seven pillars.
This then led to the assignment of each pillar to an executive committee officer who in turn selected Standing Committee Chairs to each of our committees. The “bench” was further deepened with the selection of one or more Standing Committee Vice-Chairs depending on the tasks at hand. While it’s always been our plan to fill-in all these positions, this is the first time we’ve accomplished it.
Executive committee officers were also invited to a management session on Design Thinking hosted by Oceanit Hawaii. Some of the problem-solving techniques learned were incorporated into our process.
With the Strategic Plan refresh and the Standing Committee Chairs and Vice-Chairs in place, each committee then proceeded to complete their committee’s Program of Work [POW]. The POW is the core of prioritized activities aligned to each of the eight pillars’ goals and objectives.
All of the above was accomplished in time for Chair Myles Shibata’s first official Board Meeting held in July 2022. Having been in private business my entire career, witnessing the above was simply amazing! The process now serves as a “template” for future in-coming chairs as a pathway to assuming the role of Chair of the Board.
The first three-months [July-August-September] of the new fiscal year was devoted to planning and organization. The following three-months [October-November-December] towards planning for execution. The remaining six-months [January-June] is focused on execution of our committees POW and our major events.
I hope that all that were involved gained some experience and insights into one of the Strategic Planning processes that can be applied in their jobs.
I look forward to the next six-months as we begin to execute on our plans and welcome all members to get involved and participate to realize the maximum value you can get out of your membership with the HJCC!
Steven J. Teruya
President & CEO
Honolulu Japanese Chamber of Commerce
808-949-5531 Ext. 1
[email protected]

December 2022