Posted on Saturday 23 May 2009
Les Hewitt
Yesterday was the culmination of several months of intense work by Maui marketing consultant Kirk Heiner. Several hundred gathered at the Grand Wailea Resort and Spa to hear Les Hewitt, author of The Power of Focus and for Heiner to release his first book, Three Great Secrets and give a talk "Show Me The Money". Big Mahalo to the Grand Wailea which donated much for this event to happen. Also to the Bank of Hawaii, and Maui County and over thirty-two individuals and organizations who contributed to get the word out and make this happen.
Hewitt gave a 4-hour explanation on his "Power of Focus" fundamentals: goals, priorities, relationships, and habits–with the key matra being "Focus and Follow through".
Heiner had a much shorter time to give a teaser on his "Three Great Secrets" and did not give them all away, but shared as central King Solomon’s saying, "Wisdom is to know and to do what is right", or to study and practice "pono" as we say here in Hawaii. Heiner also made a case for balancing "right brain" or the creative side, with "left brain" or the analytical side–but emphasized his agreement with Daniel Pink’s belief that it is the "right brain" that is going to dominate in the future. Heiner is also very interested in "the power of threes". I look forward to reading Kirk’s book.
This is all good stuff and is needed on Maui, especially the focus and follow-through disciplines, but also the need to remember the idea of pono in all our actions–it is after all the centerpiece of our state moto: "Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono" which means "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness". "Pono" which is most frequently translated as "righteousness" can also be translated as "balance" or "harmony". The "life of the land", which we are striving to perpetuate, is a subject for further focus. I think this includes both the environment…and the people who come from, are nurtured by, and eventually return to the land
I did my own little creative exercise with this material, integrating my own concept of the management "trinity": marketing, finance, operations. This should be seen, like most things, as a work-in-progress:


