Bringing Native Hawaiian values to an innovative information management and technology company at the forefront of developing federal clients’ network, software and web-driven solutions has proven to be a surprisingly winning combination for Akimeka, LLC. In 2008, the Maui-based Native Hawaiian Minority-owned company was honored as one of Hawaii’s Best Places to Work.

“From our new hires to our longtime staff, our employees are made to feel part of an organization that is guided by five Hawaiian values in our work with each other, with our clients and with the community in which we live and work,” says President and CEO Vaughn Vasconcellos, who was raised on Hawaiian Homesteads on Molokai and Papakolea, Oahu. The five are Ohana (family), Laulima (cooperation), Ho‘okipa (generosity), Koa (courage of leadership), and Lokahi (harmony).

Laulima, for example, is practiced through team-driven problem solving and facilitated by newly designed team work spaces in the company’s Maui High Tech Center facility, which feature a center table for each team that has improved interaction among members, says Vasconcellos.

The company’s philosophy that emphasizes professional growth through personal enrichment, caring leadership to achieve teamwork, and cohesion through sharing aloha extends to all its 132 employees in San Antonio, TX; Alexandria, VA; Fort Detrick, MD; Orlando, FL; and its Kihei headquarters with the most employees (56).

Harnessing the talents of highly skilled and diverse professionals, Akimeka provides cutting edge technical/medical information systems to the largest U.S. military branches of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Its JMAR (Joint Medical Asset Repository) program tracks military medical supply inventory worldwide, from cotton swabs to blood. Medical units in Iraq and Afghanistan use Akimeka’s JMEWS (Joint Medical Work Station) surveillance software to track systemic outbreaks, such as rashes or critical diseases, among troops. Transfer of technologies from its federal and commercial projects to communities in Hawaii and the Pacific is a long term company goal.

Innovation defines Akimeka’s many community outreach projects and enhances employee voluntarism activities. The company-created Maui Digital Bus is a retooled Handivan, filled with company-donated laptops, science kits and still/video cameras, to teach curriculum-based science and technology to kids in public schools without technical tools. Two Akimeka staff teachers and employee volunteers have taken the popular roving lab to schools on Maui and Molokai.

“Our employees have built our reputation and commitment as a producer of quality tech-driven services and solutions for our clients, as a company of aloha to its staff, and as a contributor to improving our quality of life in Hawaii,” says Vasconcellos.