About WKI
WKI helps organizations find the business value in science and technology ideas, concepts and projects. Our dynamic, visual tools and models guide innovators to develop the business value proposition of their ideas and proposals. Our approach provides a systematic way to identify and communicate the business value that lives inside innovation.
Our products are based on commercialization and entrepreneurship tools that are the foundation of the popular So what? who cares? why you?® methodology. This methodology and accompanying tools capture our expertise in harnessing innovators’ passion for science and technical ideas and redirecting that energy into models that frame ideas into real-world business value propositions.
What We Do
We work with organizations globally to inject a business-value discipline into their innovation, commercialization and incubation processes and programs. Our tools become part of the fabric of the organization as a platform for describing the business opportunity of complex and often futuristic ideas.
Our customers are organizations seeking tangible, action-oriented tools to improve their innovation, investment and proposal submission processes. We provide those tasked with reviewing ideas – investors, proposal evaluators, grant application reviewers, etc. – with a solution to reduce the cycle time in evaluating the commercial viability of new ideas.
WKI’s Founder
Wendy Kennedy is the founder of WKI and the architect of the So what? who cares? why you?® methodology and tools. She has spent more than 20 years working with scientists, researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs to increase the commercial success rate of new innovations. Her passion for igniting technology ideas into commercial opportunities has been the focus of her career as a senior management executive, business school professor, advisor, book author and entrepreneur.
Wendy’s experience encompasses working with scientists and engineers in incubators, research labs, and entrepreneurial environments, as well as working as part of the founding teams of early-stage technology companies. Through this hands-on work, she has developed unique expertise in understanding how to inject a business value and commercialization focus across all levels of an organization.
As chief executive officer of WKI, Wendy works closely with a team of talented entrepreneurial founders, creative illustrators, online multi-media developers, certified coaches and others to bring the WKI methodology and toolkits to organizations globally.
What We Believe
- Break-through innovations are foggy at the front end, and championed by the “founder” - It’s the founder who has the insight and vision to discover the business value proposition.
- Business value propositions are not about spinning a good story or having strong presentation skills. A value proposition is a tangible, substantive opportunity statement that needs to be explored, modeled and shaped iteratively.
- Finding the business value begins with a focus on the customer.
- Discovering the opportunity is an iterative process. It’s never clear at the beginning and requires a process that encompasses scenario building, exploration and discovery of the commercial value of an innovation.
- Scientists, engineers and researchers work best with a disciplined process to map and model the business value of an idea.
How We Work
- We sell products that weave into the fabric of our customers’ processes.
- We integrate our tools to align with our customer’s internal processes and systems to deliver on their objectives.
- We work closely with our customers to successfully implement our tools to align with their criteria and goals.
- We love to roll up our sleeves — we are always available to brainstorm, troubleshoot, lend a hand, and provide some help.
