Name: Cara Yamaguchi Kakuda.

Age: 40.

Organization: Nextel Partners.

Title: General Manager.

High School: Punahou.

College: University of Hawai'i.

First job: Food server at Rainbow Drive-In.

Mentors: Author John Maxwell; husband Ray Kakuda.

Major challenge: Figuring out why people don't do the right thing.

Hobbies: Spending time with family, traveling.

Books recently read: "Winning With People" by John Maxwell; "Attitudes That Attract Success" by Wayne Cordeiro and John Maxwell.

Q. You've come a long way since founding your own company, Cellular Distributors, in 1989 while you were a senior at the University of Hawai'i. How did that experience help prepare you for your career?

A. When I first started I didn't really know what I was doing. It was whirlwind experience learning the technology and business end of things. I think the great part of an entrepreneurial business is that you get to experience those things right away. So out of college I got to learn about customers, I got to learn about the product, I got to learn about what people needed. From there, I gathered that information and I could put together a basic business plan. In 1993 I won young entrepreneur of the year for the state and Western Region. So I guess I must have been doing something right.

Q. What is your underlying philosophy for business success?

A. To work hard and to make sure that you take care of people. Those are the two things I think my family has taught me. The people who work for you — if you take care of them, they'll take care of you. And I think that's basic knowledge people should have no matter what business they're in, no matter what culture they're from, no matter if they're from Hawai'i or the Mainland.

Q. Did you find it difficult managing and motivating your employees?

A. I think it's a natural thing for me. It goes back to kindergarten, when I felt that the class wasn't doing what I wanted them to do and the teacher was getting upset. I would stand up and ask the the other kids to stop talking negatively. My mom would say, "Oh, no, she's going to be in sales." I look at it from the point of view that you are in control of your own destiny, even from a young age. And that's the message I would try to send out to other people. If they achieved it, they would realize that it would motivate them to move forward.

Q. Are there other resources you tapped to help develop your leadership style?

A. I read a lot of books on PMA (positive mental attitude), and the reason for that is you have to keep that going in order for you to stay motivated. Money can be motivating, but it's not everything. What I think works best is that with each individual person I pull out what's best in them and I tell them they're doing well. Then we look at how they can do better. They feel good about themselves. They know they're doing a good job in that one area and that motivates them. It doesn't cost the company any money, but it probably works better than money.

Q. Wireless companies were the No. 2 sector for complaints to the Better Business Bureau in 2003, trailing only car dealers. What are you and your staff doing to counter this image problem?

A. We really work hard on the customer service side. Many of the other communication companies don't even look at customer service because they're too busy selling. The problem is that after a while the new customers they've brought on are going to need to be taken care of. How we take care of the customer after the warranty period is something we focus on. We want to make sure that our customer knows that we proactively want to help them. I won't name other companies I've worked for, but if you make a call out to them you have a hard time getting someone to help you. A customer like myself wants to be treated decently, and that's the way we want to work. It doesn't matter what industry you're in. If you don't have the customer service piece of it, at some point you'll start losing customers.

Q. How do you think consolidation in the wireless industry is affecting competition and customer service?

A. As far as the Sprint/Nextel merger, overall it's a good thing for the consumer because we'll be able offer so much more than what we have now. Whenever two large companies come together they bring the best of what each one has and offer a product to the consumer that will be even better. For instance, Sprint customers will be offered the ability to use Nextel's direct-connect product.

Q. Do you think U.S. wireless companies can learn from their Asian counterparts?

A. Yes. Asia has set the standard, especially in cell phones. When you look at the type of technology they have, it's cutting edge. If you go to Japan right now, they have streaming video and you see phones that have really crisp picture quality. I think it fits the need of their customers. It's the same here. It's important for us to sell to what our customer needs. We have so many different products, but we don't go out and say, "Here's everything." We tailor it. We look at our customer, see what his business needs are and from there we offer what we think fits.

Q. Would you like to eventually move to a larger market?

A: When I was in school I wanted to move to New York and be a part of that whole thing. But I really think I've found where I want to be here. I think there's just so much to do here. Although we have a saturation issue here, there's so much more opportunity with broadband coming out. In the next few years technology is going to revolutionize the business. I would like to help other leaders, help communities, donating money, helping schools. We're already doing partnerships, like with Red Cross; we donated 70 phones for them so they can help with public safety in Hawai'i.