Paul Kennedy

President, Kennedy Management Partners

Paul is a Certified Management Consultant, and President of Kennedy Management Partners, a firm assisting small and medium software and services companies to understand their markets and exploit them. He describes himself as “tremi-retired” after a career spent entirely in the information technology industry.

After working for IBM Canada as a Systems Engineer in the early 1960’s, he went back to school for an MBA, then joined a predecessor of KPMG Management Consulting. He moved to Canada Systems Group, a pioneer computer services company, in the early 1970’s. By the late 1980’s he was Director of Marketing for CSG when he was asked to become President of the Canadian operation of International Data Corporation, the world’s leading market research and consulting firm focusing on the IT industry. He spent a very enjoyable decade there.

Since his “tremi-retirement” he has remained active in consulting, speaking, and on Boards in the social services field, as well as industry and professional Boards. He has attended Universities of Ottawa, Queen’s and Harvard. He and his wife Mary have three grown children and two grandchildren.

“From Hang-tens to Hodads: The Waves of Information Technology – Past, Present and Future”

In the space of one lifetime, information technology (IT) has grown from nothing to become the largest and most influential global industry. In many ways, IT has evolved like other technology-dependent phenomena – e.g. the automotive and electricity industries. In other important ways, IT is unique. In order to understand how computers and data communications have become so pervasive, and to try to anticipate how their use will evolve in the future, we’ll look at a Wave Model explaining the growth of IT.

We’ll then consider the impact of the “Waves of IT” on various types of stakeholders in roles that students will play, if they do not already – Vendors of Information Technology products and services, IT Workers, Investors in IT, and Users of IT. Each category will be presented with specific Insights and Outlooks, and we’ll wrap up with a discussion.