January 9, 2019

Meet Tom Kehner of theDifference in Old Fourth Ward

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Kehner.

Tom, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Upon completion of my bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton in 1984, I spent ten years in the manufacturing & machinery industry as a technical, marketing, and sales professional working for Rockwell Automation and the Dayton Machine Tool Company. Out of the blue, KPMG invited me to serve as an Industry Expert on a short-term consulting engagement in Vilnius, Lithuania, following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1993. From there, my career in professional services took off with tours of duty as a consultant at KPMG, EY, and Capgemini. While at EY, I joined a group called the Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE) in 1999 and began designing, facilitating, and producing large, collaborative workshops for client executives. The revolutionary methods used in the ASE were from the work of Matt & Gail Taylor, pioneers in the design of better ways for people to make decisions and craft solutions. I quickly developed a knack for extracting weeks and months of valuable work from executive teams in 2-3 day events called DesignShops, and I traveled throughout North America, Europe, & Australia delivering these DesignShops. In 2003, the Big Four consulting firms began to experience market and regulatory challenges which led me to the realization that taking an entrepreneurial turn in my career would be my next move. In early 2004, I put my design & facilitation skills to work in my own company.

After two+ years of working through the challenges of being a start-up and experimenting with two business partners, I launched theDifference in 2007 with an EY colleague named David Roberts. Over the past 11 years, we have grown the business from “two guys with cell phones” to a small business with a dozen employees and over 10X revenue from our first year. Today, theDifference serves both the private and public sectors with a wide range of Fortune 50 corporate clients and a host of social impact clients on five continents. Our services enable our clients to gain insight, collaboratively design, and creatively activate mission-critical initiatives within their organizations.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I encountered three primary struggles in my path from founding theDifference to today. Interestingly, the first two have to do with people.

First, securing the right business partner was definitely paramount to success. With no actual experience in owning and running a company, it can be difficult to define the meaning of “right” in the early stages of forming a company. Over the first two+ years, I discovered that the need for a symbiotic relationship of mutualism (where each partner is contributing to nurturing, managing, and growing the company) was absolutely necessary. Without it, I learned that it wasn’t possible to feel gratification from my efforts. This is ultimately what led me to my co-founder, David Roberts. Beyond simply liking and respecting each other, our individual abilities to contribute on all levels and to mutually share in the rewards and challenges of our small business enterprise is what made it work.

Second, knowing when to let go of control and trust others to contribute their skills, ideas, and personalities to the business was definitely paramount to growth. While much has been written about “founder’s syndrome,” I needed to actually experience its perils before I truly understood the concept.

Third, staying true to your core competencies and company mission while also remaining open to new ideas and avenues of growth can be a delicate balance. It’s been important for me to check my roadmap along the way to ensure I’m continuing to climb the mountain I truly want to climb. While having made a couple of minor “wrong turns” over the past decade was incredibly frustrating at the time, I have learned a great deal about recovering from mistakes and using the experience to strengthen my ability to remain curious and open to new frontiers.

As a company – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
theDifference is the only global boutique consulting company focused on data + design. Utilizing an advanced version of design thinking and data science, each designer employs techniques to enable large groups of people to accomplish more in days than they have historically been able to achieve in months or years.

We deliver our services through four lines of service:

1) Coaching – team and leadership development coaching that clarifies what’s holding you back, uncovers better ways of working, and ignites momentum towards the achievement of goals

2) Convening – design, facilitation, and productions of creative and interactive gatherings that enable key stakeholders to accomplish explicit objectives with lasting results

3) Data+Design – leveraging an advanced data science tool, crowdsourcing, social media, and digital solutions to unleash the power of relationships and forge new networks that bring value to individuals and organizations

4) Visual Communication – combining deep business knowledge and creative horsepower to quickly understand business challenges and translate them into highly effective communications strategies and tools

We are set apart by our people who are some of the most highly respected individuals within our global community of practice.

We believe in our tagline of #WorkShouldWork, and it’s far more than just a catchphrase to us. When work works, personal satisfaction from results across the triple bottom line (profit, people, & planet) of any organization is at its highest. As internationally recognized practitioners leading the design and facilitation of mission-critical activities within corporate, NGO, philanthropic, and public sector organizations, we know from experience that our solutions are a pathway toward improved productivity, engagement, and performance for our clients.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Leading the design and facilitation of the G20 Investor Forum in Buenos Aires on the eve of the G20 Summit.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Tom Kehner

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