Bright Ideas
Insights, Spring ’05

“You have to be malleable or you won’t make it. One thing I remember from engineering class at MC is Professor O’Brien’s favorite adage: ‘The only thing constant is change.’ I might not use Ohm’s Law from Engineering 101 directly in my work, but the concepts I learned at MC—how to think in an engineering way and how to understand the process of physics—have always been valuable.”

After a first attempt at running a new business failed, Jonathon Kendall reconsidered his plans—not that he would succeed, but how he would succeed. After a self-imposed “apprenticeship” lasting 10 years, followed by two successful mergers in 1988 and 1993, Kendall found himself atop a $100-million company traded on NASDAQ with 1,000 employees nationwide. Ready to “move it up a notch,” Kendall will soon take his current firm ideaReserve LLC forward as Kendall Design Group, specializing in high-level design facilities for educational institutions. “I feel strongly about the benefits of start-ups—the financial reward, flexibility, autonomy, and passion for your career.”