How Innovation Shapes Transformation - Kandi Gongora

Thinking Inside the Box

In today’s episode, I chat with Kandi Gongora, Chief Transformation & People Officer at Goodway Group, a NYC-based full-service data-driven digital marketing solutions partner.

In the 2+ years I’ve known Kandi, from our time together in HackingHR, to her participation at the Global HR Summit - the world’s largest enterprise virtual reality conference - Kandi has always had a passion for learning, behavioural science & innovation.

Each are foundational elements of successful transformations.

Together we tackled a lot of fun topics; beginning with her professional journey; how she stitches together experiences in operations, technology & HR to enable transformation at a rapidly-growing digital marketing organization.

We discuss her firm’s use of virtual reality. Pioneered at the Global HR Summit in 2020 - still, amazingly, over a year later, the largest enterprise business conference ever presented in virtual reality - where Kandi was one of our 60 speakers; participating via VR headset as a panellist from her home just outside of Dallas, Texas, to an audience of over 800; nearly half of which were also in VR headsets. Truly remarkable.

Today, Kandi is piloting the use of virtual reality in her own organization; purchasing over 400 VR headsets - one for each employee at the Goodway group - to enable activities ranging from team huddles, brainstorm sessions & recently, their first organization-wide meeting. New employees now receive one in their hiring packages.

Though traditional business metrics fall short in quantifying the returns from these investments. Employee Lifetime Value provides a framework to have these discussions. And it's an idea I wanted Kandi’s feedback on. As always, we had a lot of fun. And I hope you enjoy it.

Kandi Gongora
Kandi Gongora is the Vice President of People and Organizational Excellence at Goodway Group, where she leads people experience, rev operations, strategic and organizational development functions. Kandi’s passion for learning, behavioural science, holistic well-being and business has led her on a non-traditional career path into “HR”.
With over 20 years of experience, she has held various leadership positions including Director of Organizational Excellence at Park Place Dealerships, where she led the large luxury automobile group to become the recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige Award, and Quality Systems Manager at Coca-Cola Enterprises. She holds a BS, Multidisciplinary Studies from McMurry University and is a graduate of Southern Methodist University’s executive education program.
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Thinking Inside the Box
Constraints drive innovation. Each week we tackle the most complex issues related to work & culture.
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Matt Burns
Matt Burns is an award-winning executive, social entrepreneur and speaker. He believes in the power of community, simplicity & technology.
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