Well, it’s January 2022 otherwise known as the 25th month of 2020. Our high hopes for a complete return to normalcy may have been naïve but achieving significant milestones within the skills and competency management space, despite the ebbs and flows of uncertainty is a testament to the strength of our people and our incredible customers.
Our financial performance was strong including the following highlights:
Why This Matters Even More
In 2021, the real effects of “The Great Resignation” could be felt in the form of supply chain disruptions due to the lack of skilled trades and the strain on our healthcare delivery with nursing resignations. This is forcing organizations to think and act differently.
Validated skills are the new currency for the workforce. This is even more important for the “deskless” worker in highly specialized operational roles. Skills data is at the intersection of workforce management, development, planning, and compliance, all of which are paramount for the new reality organizations are facing.
Operational Skilling In Action
The skills and competency conversation is ever-evolving and confusing. Recognizing this early on in 2021, we set out to further refine our mission, brand identity, target market, and differentiators. This was a very instructive process that paid big dividends in focus and value creation for skills initiatives across our core verticals.
Josh Bersin provided great context in his report, “Operational Skilling as a Business Imperative.” The use cases cited here highlight the value Kahuna is bringing to its customers. One of my favorite highlights of the year was exploring this important topic with Josh in a joint webinar. It’s always fun to discuss important topics with people who share a passion for the evolving technology ecosystem and its opportunity to solve real problems.
Healthcare and Manufacturing
Our continued focus on Energy was strengthened greatly throughout 2021, emphasized by significant deployments and customer wins. The year also brought about a tremendous interest in Healthcare and Manufacturing as organizations finally began to focus more on the “deskless” worker, or as Kahuna has always thought of these workforces, “the people who get stuff done!”
The validation we received for our solution from leading organizations in both Healthcare and Manufacturing was welcomed through several successful deployments and remarkable pipeline growth in these areas. It’s going to make 2022 a very busy, yet rewarding year.
Continuing To Execute...Remotely
Even with the persistent uncertainty and volatility caused by COVID, the Kahuna team has continued to execute on complex rollouts and global initiatives. Breakthrough deals in energy and manufacturing are a true testament to the flexibility, thoughtfulness, and commitment each of our team members has when partnering with our customers to help them solve real challenges within their organizations. This commitment comes from team members across Kahuna and is reinforced by the ongoing praise of our customer support initiatives, product enhancement and optimization efforts, and conversations that inform the true value and business impacts of standardized skills management.
For one customer in the oil and gas industry, changing regulatory requirements incentivized the need for more consistent, safe, and efficient operations, as well as multi-skilled resources that could be dispatched when and where needed. A lack of competence across their workforce was costing the organization millions, and the system in use for skills management had a poor user experience, resulting in low user adoption and inadequate skills and competency data. Adopting Kahuna as their skills and competency management system enabled a more streamlined and user-friendly approach to skills management, as well as measurable metrics that inform talent decisions, regulatory compliance, and business outcomes for current and future state. Delivering on this project remotely was a testament to the power of collaboration between the Kahuna and Customer deployment teams!
Some Additional Highlights in 2021
Hackathon 2021
Kahuna made a significant investment in building our onshore Engineering Team in 2021. We could not be more pleased with how that team is shaping up with expertise in the full stack of technology that we utilize. An emerging area of focus is data analytics and visualizations as we ready ourselves for new supporting infrastructure.
To “test drive” this infrastructure, Kahuna held its first annual Hackathon consisting of multiple teams developing data visualizations. The teams were given 2 days to complete their activities as we wanted to prove “speed to market”.
The Hackathon was a great success with participation across the entire company. It was great to see teams formed across organizations and different focus areas. In the end, we developed over 70 assets including several live dashboards, many of which will form foundational elements for our new analytics release in the first half of 2022.
Holiday Gathering in Memorial Park
Simply spending time together in person as an organization has become a luxury, so it was very special to have the opportunity to do so at the end of the year in such a beautiful place. The new Eastern Glades in Memorial Park was the perfect setting for the year-end celebration. In true Kahuna style, we had lots of great food, drink, and laughter. Personally, these moments are the most rewarding, as they reinforce the sense of community and purpose that is so often lost in the new world of virtual work.
Cheers and keep well!
Jai Shah, Kahuna Cofounder and CEO
