Hotel guests are important but so are the employees – including those with disabilities,, according to Apoorva Gandhi, SVP of multicultural affairs, social impact and business councils, Marriott International.
WorkingNation sat down with Gandhi at 2022 Disability:IN Conference in Dallas.
The hospitality provided guests should not be dissimilar to the way associates are treated. Gandhi says there is an increase in employees with disabilities in response to the company’s inclusion practices. “With our self-identification campaigns at Marriott, we have seen an increase, but we also know that success is never final and there’s always more to go. We want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to have an environment where people feel comfortable and that they belong and know that we will accommodate so folks can do their best work and feel part of the company.”
“We have been at this for 95 years,” says Gandhi. “It’s the spirit of hospitality. That’s the business we do. We welcome all, no matter who you are, where you come from, what your abilities are, or who you love. It’s crucial to how we do business. And it’s part of our culture of putting people first.”
In his personal life, Gandhi says, “I have been around dear friends and family with disabilities. My best friend is here with me at this great conference. He’s deaf. I’ve known him since we were tots. My youngest daughter wears cochlear implants. So, this is very personal and very important to me. I want her and my good pal to be able to have great opportunities to do great things because I know that they have the ability.”
Learn more about Marriott International.
Watch more interviews from the Disability:IN conference.
© Copyright 2024 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
