The Kinetix Group | 2018

When a small, close-knit company starts to outgrow its initial dimensions, it often struggles to maintain its dynamism. To combat any potential enthusiasm lag, The Kinetix Group instituted a monthly event during which it attempts to present something a little different.

“Usually it’s an artistic endeavor with wine, a way we can connect on a personal level,” explains managing director J.P. Strapp. “We do activities with our clients that have no business agenda. It’s our way of staying close while growing the agency.”

Kinetix’s revenue increased to $15.4 million last year, up from $14.3 million in 2016. Staff size similarly nudged upward, from 60 to 63. Key personnel additions included VPs Kristen Shea and Mindy Olivarez.

Olivarez’s role, VP of innovation, is a new one at The Kinetix Group — and one which Strapp is excited about. “With payment reform to specialty care accelerating, we wanted internal expertise on different types of it,” he notes.

Kinetix also expanded its geographical reach, opening an office in New Orleans and an international outpost in Hyderabad, India. However, Strapp acknowledges some growing pains came with the changes. “Growth has been great, but it causes internal challenges,” he says.

The agency’s volume of AOR and project work remained the same as it did in 2016, with Kinetix handling four AOR clients and 14 project-based assignments. New additions to the client roster included PTS Diagnostics, Ipsen, Allergan, and Promius. They join a roster that counts Novartis, Sandoz, Alcon, Boehringer Ingelheim, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, UCB, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Teva among its ranks.

Most of Kinetix’s 2017 growth — 75% — came from existing clients. Strapp notes the company has pushed deeper into the “emerging client device space. We’re involved in taking the platform to customers and playing a strategic account manager role to drive adoption.”

Not surprisingly, Kinetix is doing more and more in the digital realm. Along those lines, the company expanded its relationship with Care Experience, maker of a software platform that provides cross-continuum patient feedback and real-time analytics.

A similarly increasing percentage of Kinetix’s business is derived from consulting projects, such as the agency’s work this past year with the Ochsner Health Network on the first OHN Value Summit. There, the agency hoped to increase its visibility among the payer and health-system set.

Held in New Orleans, the two-day event featured a range of attendees — everyone and everything from traditional pharma organizations to hospital systems — and surveyed the shift to value-based care and multi-stakeholder collaborations to improve care delivery, among other topics.

Other work highlights included a pilot conducted alongside PTS Diagnostics to develop real-world evidence case studies for two of the company’s point-of-care testing devices. Kinetix also developed and launched NASHNet, a global NASH (Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis) centers of excellence network populated by medical experts.

Looking ahead, Strapp believes one challenge Kinetix must confront is conceptualization.

“We have no shortage of great ideas at the agency, but which one will bring the most value going forward? We’re trying to prioritize which areas to concentrate on,” he says.