PMI Hawaii In-Person Luncheon 

Title: From Delivery Support to Value Creation - A Journey Through Projects, Processes, Programs, and Systems

Speakers: Mel Horikami, Founder of Optimum Business Solutions LLC and Laulama Schools

Date: Monday, July 6, 2026, 12:00-1:00pm

Location:  HMSA Center, 818 Keeaumoku St, Honolulu, HI 96814, Logistics and parking information will be available upon registration.

Topic Description: LearnProject management has increasingly expanded beyond delivery execution toward a larger question: How does project management create organizational value?

While the profession continues to emphasize outcomes, benefits realization, and value delivery, the pathway from project success to organizational results often remains difficult to see in practice.  This presentation shares a personal and professional journey spanning project management, process management, program management, executive leadership, and systems improvement—exploring how understanding of value creation evolved across each stage.

Beginning with managing one of the company’s largest and most challenged university telecommunications projects, the journey continues through process improvement work during the telecommunications industry transition, enterprise transformation efforts supporting Verizon FiOS, and later systems improvement work in education.

Across these experiences, a deeper pattern emerged:

- Value creation expands as capability expands
- First through project delivery
- Then through operational improvement
- Later through enterprise integration
- And ultimately through understanding the systems and conditions that shape performance.

Central to this perspective are four interconnected dimensions:

Mindset — how challenges and possibilities are interpreted
Skillset — how people reason, diagnose, and learn
Toolset — the methods and structures applied to the work
Condition-set — the organizational environment that determines whether
improvement can be sustained under real-world pressure

The session explores how professionals often begin by learning to succeed despite the condition-set, and eventually learn how to influence the condition-set itself.

Because lasting organizational improvement does not happen through tools alone - it happens when conditions begin to support new ways of thinking, working, and creating value.

Learning Objectives:  

• How value creation evolves from project delivery to organizational and system outcomes
• The relationship between projects, processes, programs, operations, and results
• Why organizational conditions influence performance and sustainability
• Practical lessons from large-scale transformation and enterprise improvement efforts
• A systems perspective for understanding value creation beyond methodology alone

Speakers Bios: Mel Horikami is the founder of Optimum Business Solutions LLC and Laulama Schools, and the creator of the ADEPt Framework, a systems-based approach to improving organizational performance.  With decades of leadership experience in large, complex organizations - including serving as President of Verizon Hawaii - Mel has worked from frontline roles through executive leadership, with experience spanning from Hawai‘i to New York and back, bringing a practical, real-world perspective to performance and transformation.

In his current phase of work, Mel focuses on applying his experience to support leaders, organizations, and communities in navigating complexity and improving outcomes, including authoring a forthcoming book on systems-based improvement for educators.  He is a former Executive in Residence at Hawai‘i Pacific University and currently serves as a Virtual Professional in Residence with the University of Hawai‘i’s Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship.  His work spans
business, technology, and education, with a focus on building the capability that enables organizations to reach their full potential and establish a foundation for long-term sustainability.

PMI Talent Triangle: This event qualifies for 1 Power Skills PDU to be reported by PMIHI for chapter members (no self-reporting needed). 

Lunchoen Information: Lunch will be provided as part of the event.

Questions: For any questions, contact: communications@pmihi.org