Over three decades of business experience, yet she’s only 44… Here are some examples of Kemp ideas that made or saved companies lots of money, along with some items of interest about Kemp’s experience, knowledge and insight.

In Swahili, Jana means yesterday; so here are some items from her yesterdays. From this list alone, you may discover that working with Jana Kemp is the best investment you’ll ever make. Here goes.

2000’s

• Elected to the Idaho legislature 2004-2006.
• Insisted that employee compensation be discussed publicly by Legislative joint interim committee convening on the subject. Her single-handed objection and stand-alone vote prevented the Republican legislators from being sued for an illegal closed-door meeting.
• Recommended $25M in potential savings within the Department of Health and Welfare to the Idaho legislature.
• Co-chaired the Film Industry Task Force. Secured passage of legislation in order to support Idaho’s economic growth of an industry that currently has to work outside of Idaho while people are living in Idaho. Which means tax dollars and disposable income that could be kept in Idaho leaves Idaho until the industry grows here. To date, three new companies and one industry association have formed to pursue film business growth in Idaho.
• Held the Idaho State Board of Education accountable for providing a more detailed high-school reform business plan. The case was made, but the budget and implementation details were lacking definition. Their legislation was refined, presented again one year later, and passed.
• Astonished (and annoyed) lobbyists because of being able to read-once their proposed legislation and find holes, questions and weak-points.
• Meeting leadership improvements at a paper company, found 25 hours a week and $1M a year in savings and productivity improvements.
• Proposed $1M a year savings in salary and benefit dollars to a grocery store headquartered in Boise. Sadly the company didn’t pursue the recommendations and found itself being sold to a smaller competitor.
• Facilitated non-profit board meetings to greater clarity of mission and purpose as well as toward implementation of strategic plans.
• Future Scenario Planning facilitation for Toyota Motor Corporation of North America. Confidentiality agreement binds further discussion of this.
• During Strategic Planning sessions, asked several non-profits to face their financial realities and to either disband or to dramatically regroup and forge ahead. Both entities determined to reformulate themselves and are going concern arts groups six years later.
• “O” Oprah magazine includes NO! as a recommended read.
• Pursuer of innovative and actionable ideas in all sector and community sizes.
• Facilitated international product development meeting in Sun Valley for a high-tech firm headquartered in Idaho. Resulted in ongoing improved communications for the development team and in time-critical product decisions.
• Facilitated a division meeting for another high-tech company headquartered in Idaho that needed a plan for an international roll-out of training. Past team member baggage nearly sabotaged the meeting twice over the two-day event. Yet, we completed the task-driven agenda and ended the meeting with clear action-items for the roll-out.
• Created over 100 show outlines for a business cable channel. Discovered that at the time $65 million in funding was needed to launch successfully: financing wasn’t pursued.
• Master Facilitation training for Honda Motor Corporation. Improved customer service ratings among the results.
• 2005 – Authored NO!, which prompted someone to stop her vehicle, jump out of it while still running, and come up to me saying “are you Jana Kemp. I have your NO! book on my bedside table and it is changing my life.”
• Believing in the movement to better take care of people in built environments, Kemp partnered with co-author Ken Baker and interior designer Suzie Hall to form GreenSteps, LLC. For more information visit www.greensteps.us This partnership brings you unparalleled depth on the sustainable and green/environmentally friendly workspace front.
• 2008 – Authored Prepared Not Paranoid – based on her Police Academy attendance in 2002.
• 2007 – Authored Moving Out of the Box, which is available in hardback and in paperback from Stanford University Press.
• 2007 – Authored Building Community in Buildings, which is a high-demand reference tool in the build-green and build efficiency for people industry.
• Networking aptitude lauded by academics, business owners, business consultants, international business representatives, and publishers.
• Policy prompter – both of public and corporate policy. Tough times demand tough decisions. Asking the right questions leads to making the right policies.
• Recognized as one of Idaho’s Women of the Year – 2006.
• Explored England during Christmas and New Years in 2001/02. Museums, theater, Stratford upon Avon, London, Kent.
• Studied Greek in preparation for trip to Greece in 2002. Was able to read street signs (which are all in Greece). And yes, “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” captures the culture.
• Visited three art museums in Amsterdam. Recalled travels in England and Ireland during the 1970s while on the tour of museums.
• Have attempted to learn Mandarin, yet found my ears lacking in ability to discern the three tonal sounds that differentiate the meanings for each character in the language.
• Have an ongoing interest in the meanings of words, where they come from and what they tell us now about ideas, actions, and our future.
• Have more than 20 book titles in various stages of research. Hopes to publish them all – and more – during the course of a lifetime. Maybe there is a book, or two, in your organization’s future!
• Traced her family heritage back to the Revolutionary War and patriots Josiah and Hannah Weston. Making Kemp a seventh generation American and a Daughter of the American Revolution in an Idaho chapter.
• Having discovered that I was doing strictly business reading, Joined a social-read book club in the Treasure Valley and 8 years later still belong. At any given time She’s reading three to five books concurrently.
• Public servant – not a politician.
• Business entrepreneur – not a complainer.
• Got married. Have a great husband and an amazing stepdaughter who started kindergarten the Fall of 2008.
• Continues to serve on non-profit boards. Volunteers with 4-H fair judging and ambassador training.

1990’s

• Authored Moving Meetings – (English and Italian releases. Still available on AMAZON.com)
• Founded Meeting & Management Essentials to improve the productivity, morale, and profit of day-to-day business meetings.
• Researched, recommended and staffed the development of a telemarketing department for a Minneapolis-based training company. Firm ended up building the department and generating doubled U.S. revenues.
• Inline skating pioneers Rollerblade hired Jana Kemp to improve internal meeting processes.
• Insurance company: time management workshops in 12 cities over two years.
• Banking company: leadership development materials
• Associations call upon Jana to provide conference sessions that incite and inspire participant to improve every aspect of their internal meeting processes.
• Based on annual report reviews, recommended to Franklin Planner company that it add time management and other training courses to its offerings in order to stabilize its calendar-dependent cyclical sales trends. Two years later, Franklin and Stephen Covey’s training enterprise merge. Today we know them as Franklin Covey.
• Recommended to a Minnesota-based privately held company that its for-profit training business could successfully maintain a direct selling telemarketing department and independent distributors. For a two year period, the firm realized an additional annual revenue of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Completed product line extensions (hardcopy and electronic) and product research and revision on an international training and development company’s top selling products. These product enhancements helped the company maintain its sales position in the national and international marketplace. The company’s intellectual property assets were maintained such that the company could be spun off and sold twice to investors.
• Originated and hosted Momentum: Managing the Moment to Moment issues of your daily business life LIVE weekly radio talk show. The show ran for four years on 50K watt station KBOI in Boise.
• Proposed a Front Porch community reader section be added to the Idaho Press Tribune newspaper and the managing editor added it in to the daily paper layout. For 8 years Kemp has been a business columnist for the Idaho Press Tribune – writing every other week for their Sunday Business section.
• Television shows in Idaho pursue Jana as a business segment provider. Her clear communication skills and ease in front of the camera make her a great guest.
• Interviewed the 34th US Senate Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper who said “I’ve been interviewed by a lot of people, including folks at CNN. You are the best interviewer I’ve worked with.”
• Status as networking maven established.
• Joined the National Association of Parliamentarians after passing their entrance exam. Still an active member in the National and State organizations.
• Serves on non-profit boards. Volunteers with 4-H.
• Moved to Idaho from Minnesota. Went to college in Illinois. Grew up in Indiana. Was born in Philadelphia.
• Literacy Volunteer in Minnesota and in Idaho. ESL, one-on-one instruction, as well as class work instruction.
• Language addition: While living in Idaho, Kemp has studied Spanish and can communicate, though doesn’t describe her Spanish as “fluent.”
• While traveling in Mexico, could understand enough Spanish to communicate at a basic level. Today, can still understand enough Spanish to communicate.
• Caught an 8 foot Marlin – and have the pictures to prove it.
• Recognized as one of Idaho’s Accomplished 40 under 40 (years of age).
• Recognized by the Better Business Bureau as a small business Integrity Counts! Award winner.
• Bought my third car and am still driving it, 12 years and 134,000 miles later. Her mechanics say that 250,000 is attainable!
• Tree-hugging – have loved trees and treed environments since childhood. They feed Jana’s soul.

1980’s

• Put litmus paper into diapers so parents can SEE when a diaper is wet. More than a decade later, the SEE the wetness idea was implemented.
• Decide whether you want to spread all of your brands across all product lines or whether you want to maintain brands within specific product lines. While working as a college intern at General Mills, Kemp posed the decision challenge that the organization needed to “Decide whether you want to dilute the Big G brand cereals by entering the cereal market with Betty Crocker cereals.” Recall that Betty Crocker cereals were placed into the market and didn’t last.
• Recommended and developed the job manual for college library circulation desk position. Thereby reducing training time and improving student employee effectiveness and retention.
• Researched and recommended the development of a telemarketing department for a Chicago-based training company. Firm ended up building the department and generating tripled revenues.
• Proposed a LifeStyle Show for Cable Value Network (now part of QVC) because viewers were tiring of all in-studio shows. Pitch was that the variety of in-studio and location shoots from around the country would bring more viewer interest, therefore longer viewing periods, and therefore more viewer purchases. QVC bought CVN and the rest is history: 50 States and 50 products as just one example of the format change that has reaped them millions of new dollars.
• Prepared and presented sales and customer service training that reduced turnover, improved hiring practices, and trained over 1000 people a year in a 24/7 call center environment.
• Cruised the Bahamas.
• English is Jana’s first language; French is her second. She even tested out of French in college and earned credits-by-exam with her French skills.
• Graduated from college with a BA in Business Administration in 3.5 years.
• Bought her first car and drove it for six years.

All of this adds up to an unparalleled knowledge base that brings fresh and actionable ideas to life in your organization. Able to talk to anyone at any time about anything, Jana Kemp can uncover the gems, the germs, and the goldmines waiting for discovery in your organization.

What’s your story? Invite Jana Kemp to help you tell it.