Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 35, Number 3, 1 March 2018 — Self Assessment: Who Is Our Primary Customer? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Self Assessment: Who Is Our Primary Customer?

j LEO 'ELELE ^ TRUSTEE MESSSAGES f

A

loha Mai Kakou! As I write this article, I am thinking back to 2015

i when our former \Chair Robert Lindsey

appointed me with the kuleana as Chair of the Ad Hoe Committee on Eeonomie Innovations. My committee included several great pillars of Hawaii's businesses who welcomed the opportunity to help OHA: Eddie Flores, Bert Kobayashi, Francis Oda, Derek Kanoa, and Ranson Kepa Shepherd. Our primary focus and intention was to maximize our trust funds. Our "mission" and purpose was to provide funds and to grow them into perpetuity so our future generations to eome will not go without. Our members spent time in deliberation, intentional listening, and making decisions that were to move OHA forward in its overall mission of carrying out our fiduciary duties. Being a newly elected Trustee, in my naivetē I thought we could accomplish our mission; however, it became apparent how complex and difficult a task it would be to work within the organization. In last year's Ka Wai OlaA December 2016 issue, I discussed the question "WhoIs OurPrimary Customer?" We don't have "Customers," that word is a Marketing term! We have kupuna, haumana, clients, recipients, patients. Rather than debate Tanguage,' I want to ask the question: "Who must be satisfed for OHA to achieve results? It's when you answerthis question doyou define

your customer. I know it is very tempting to say, "But there is more than one primary customer!" But effective organizations resist this temptation, and keep their concentration and focus on The Primary Customer. Identifying The Primary Customer Let me give you a positive example of identifying and concentrating on the primary customer in a complex setting like OHA. Right now, our focus for our beneficiaries is: To increase people 's eeonomie and social independence. OHA has more than 35 programs, whieh are in plaee to help the physically handicapped,

single mothers who want to get off welfare, older workers who have been laid off, kupuna and elderly with

no plaee to live and who need caregivers, people with persistent mental illness, those struggling against long-term ehemieal/aleohol dependency, and those in need of affordable rentals/housing. All of these people belong to the Primary Customer Group: Persons with Mukiple Barriers. Ourprimary customer is not necessarily someone you ean reach; someone you ean sit down with nor talk to directly.

Whether or not you have active dialogue, identifying the primary customer puts your priorities in order and gives you a reference point for critical decisionmaking. They are customers whieh we, at OHA, must satisfy to achieve our results. These may be individuals who really need the service, want the service, but not in the way it is available today. An OHA that is devoted to 'results'~ always with regard to its basic integrity - will adapt and change as their Customers' ( Beneficiaries ') needs do. Know your Customer. . .your Beneficiaries! Be safe, Malama until next month! A hui hou, Trustee 'Ala ■

Leina'ala Ahu lsa. Ph.D. TrustEE, At-lErgs

Trustee Leina'ala Ahu lsa wilh Ranson Kepa Shepherd, CE0 of Virtue Cannabis, and NFL player Hau'oli Kekaha of the New Orleans Saints. - Photo: Courtesy