Past Winner Stories
Kevin Kennedy & Associates
www.rapid-response-consulting.com
That year, he established Kevin Kennedy & Associates Inc. (KKAI). The firm is an engineering and scientific consulting organization that provides teams of world-class consultants, engineers and experts on issues of product liability, patent infringement, forensic engineering, failure analysis and related fields on a rapid-response basis. Kennedy faced a significant challenge right out of the gate: How does one attract world-class experts?
“Generally, experts are not going to be located in Indianapolis,” Kennedy says. “That's not to say people of that caliber don't live or work in Indianapolis. They certainly do. However, the number of experts any city has is proportional to its footprint. Providing world-class expertise requires a global pool.”
After recruiting relevant experts, Kennedy's second challenge was to efficiently deliver their services and manage teams remotely. Though multinational corporations have facilities all over the world, they also have local management and control. KKAI does not. Whether delivering an expert report during litigation, a rebuttal report to an opposing side's expert report or addressing a production line shutdown at a manufacturing facility, KKAI must be able to put together a team, rapidly deliver that team's services, keep team members dedicated to the task and make sure every person involved, regardless of where they are located, contributes to the project until the crisis has been resolved.
Kennedy's work with some of the nation's foremost technology leaders inspired his concept for KKAI's business model. Today, the firm has 450 experts, thanks to KKAI's proprietary, innovative and patent-pending PrimeTrack project management system, an electronic global resource for engineering, scientific consulting and litigation support services.
KKAI's telecommunications server can page one person or hundreds at any time, simultaneously. It sends a message to the work and mobile phone numbers of relevant experts. Available experts then press a key to join the conference call. “It's like a page one might hear in a building," Kennedy explained. "Except in our case, the building is the globe.”
PrimeTrack allows the firm to closely oversee project-related communication and ensure progress is being made. It eliminates confusion, enables KKAI to pinpoint the activity and accountability of project experts and provides a method for monitoring client communications and determining a project's status and details, thus ensuring the highest project supervision, customer service and rapid response.
“In the Internet age, if you're not communicating with the client or team by phone, e-mail or fax, you're not working on the project,” Kennedy explained. “It's that simple.”
Since last year, KKAI has taken on a series of due diligence consulting projects for one of the most profitable Wall Street investment firms’ alternative energy group, providing assessments of new technologies and conducting manufacturing optimization work for businesses in which they are interested. Other clients include automotive parts suppliers with manufacturing consulting needs in China, Mexico and India.
On the litigation side, KKAI has provided defense experts for medical device manufacturers dealing with alleged design and manufacturing defects; a European-based cell-phone manufacturer dealing with tower explosions worldwide; a chlorine tanker car derailment that resulted in the alleged shutdown of a manufacturing facility adjacent to the accident site, and the insurance industry in Mississippi.
KKAI has seen rapid growth — averaging more than 50 percent per year the past five years. “No other company on the planet can do what we do better than we can,” Kennedy said. “That's no exaggeration.”
Kevin Kennedy shares many attributes with his fellow entrepreneurs. He is highly intelligent and a strategic thinker, and he can quickly conjure creative ways to solve problems efficiently. The one big difference: Kennedy is blind. And though he has lost his sight, he hasn't lost his vision.
Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 1975, Kennedy functioned with decreasing visual acuity until 1992 when it became impossible for him to continue his work developing and implementing new production technologies for a major aluminum producer. While his employer was generous and accommodating, Kennedy knew it was time to develop a new career path. He had a family to support and a drive to contribute to society.
Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa in 1975, Kennedy functioned with decreasing visual acuity until 1992 when it became impossible for him to continue his work developing and implementing new production technologies for a major aluminum producer. While his employer was generous and accommodating, Kennedy knew it was time to develop a new career path. He had a family to support and a drive to contribute to society.
That year, he established Kevin Kennedy & Associates Inc. (KKAI). The firm is an engineering and scientific consulting organization that provides teams of world-class consultants, engineers and experts on issues of product liability, patent infringement, forensic engineering, failure analysis and related fields on a rapid-response basis. Kennedy faced a significant challenge right out of the gate: How does one attract world-class experts?
“Generally, experts are not going to be located in Indianapolis,” Kennedy says. “That's not to say people of that caliber don't live or work in Indianapolis. They certainly do. However, the number of experts any city has is proportional to its footprint. Providing world-class expertise requires a global pool.”
After recruiting relevant experts, Kennedy's second challenge was to efficiently deliver their services and manage teams remotely. Though multinational corporations have facilities all over the world, they also have local management and control. KKAI does not. Whether delivering an expert report during litigation, a rebuttal report to an opposing side's expert report or addressing a production line shutdown at a manufacturing facility, KKAI must be able to put together a team, rapidly deliver that team's services, keep team members dedicated to the task and make sure every person involved, regardless of where they are located, contributes to the project until the crisis has been resolved.
Kennedy's work with some of the nation's foremost technology leaders inspired his concept for KKAI's business model. Today, the firm has 450 experts, thanks to KKAI's proprietary, innovative and patent-pending PrimeTrack project management system, an electronic global resource for engineering, scientific consulting and litigation support services.
KKAI's telecommunications server can page one person or hundreds at any time, simultaneously. It sends a message to the work and mobile phone numbers of relevant experts. Available experts then press a key to join the conference call. “It's like a page one might hear in a building," Kennedy explained. "Except in our case, the building is the globe.”
PrimeTrack allows the firm to closely oversee project-related communication and ensure progress is being made. It eliminates confusion, enables KKAI to pinpoint the activity and accountability of project experts and provides a method for monitoring client communications and determining a project's status and details, thus ensuring the highest project supervision, customer service and rapid response.
“In the Internet age, if you're not communicating with the client or team by phone, e-mail or fax, you're not working on the project,” Kennedy explained. “It's that simple.”
Since last year, KKAI has taken on a series of due diligence consulting projects for one of the most profitable Wall Street investment firms’ alternative energy group, providing assessments of new technologies and conducting manufacturing optimization work for businesses in which they are interested. Other clients include automotive parts suppliers with manufacturing consulting needs in China, Mexico and India.
On the litigation side, KKAI has provided defense experts for medical device manufacturers dealing with alleged design and manufacturing defects; a European-based cell-phone manufacturer dealing with tower explosions worldwide; a chlorine tanker car derailment that resulted in the alleged shutdown of a manufacturing facility adjacent to the accident site, and the insurance industry in Mississippi.
KKAI has seen rapid growth — averaging more than 50 percent per year the past five years. “No other company on the planet can do what we do better than we can,” Kennedy said. “That's no exaggeration.”