Directors of HealthyWays
Ken Kennedy
Chairman
HealthyWays Pty Ltd
The HealthyWays culture is really the culture of one man , our founder Ken Kennedy , who all his working life has been imbued with an overwhelming passionate desire and determination to not only provide a good benefit to people, to do a good thing, but to do so with the heart of a servant, by treating his clients and their needs as far more important than his own rewards
He has always taught his people that “the relationship is far more important than the money “ and this has been the foundation truth of Healthyways , as it was with his previous organisation The Kennedy Group , an entity which he started from scratch and grew into a national company with over 6,000 employees here in Australia and a similar entity in the United States
It is this Culture that makes us DIFFERENT
It is this Culture that makes us of GREATER BENEFIT to our clients and the wider market
It is this Culture that makes us THE FIRST AND ONLY CHOICE for so many organisations whom we have the privilege to serve
From very humble beginnings , deserted by his father and forced to leave school at age 13 to help provide for his mother and sister to today in his eighties still running HealthyWays , his passion to better the lives of others has never flagged and inspires his very dedicated team to enthusiastically be the same
Ken’s motto “ Do unto others as you would have them do unto you “ is the story of his life.
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Born in Orange NSW in 1931 , the son of an itinerant sheep shearer
Education …. Accepted into Sydney Boys high School by competitive examination and graduated at age 13 after securing the Intermediate Certificate
Then over several years graduated from UHK….the “University of hard knocks “
Married Maree in 1953 and together raised a large family
Career
Started as an apprentice motor mechanic , broke this apprenticeship to pursue better paying jobs and various locations
After marriage first business was a fruit and vegetable stall which became a shop at Peakhurst Sydney, a business which became very successful as he purchased the produce direct from market gardens within the locality , a move which attracted growing numbers of customers because of freshness of the produce
Next was a milk delivery run at South Coogee , an enterprise which he ran for six years without a day off , 7 days a week , as well as other contract roles on the side including post office parcel deliveries , delivering telephone books etc . When finally selling this business after the 6 years he met a windowcleaner at a bus stop, bought his business for $240 and commenced window cleaning !
From this very very small base moved into general cleaning under the brand name of All Cleaning Services , starting with very small offices and homes, being very new to this made many mistakes and learnt as went along , but continued to grow steadily , even in these early stages implementing principles of strong personal supervision and maintaining close customer relationships
The business , now known as Kennedy Cleaning Services Pty ltd , grew at an ever increasing pace whilst always maintaining the same principles ie Strong supervision and close customer relationships … the twin pillars of it’s success !
In 1969 Kennedy Cleaning Services Pty ltd ( KCS ) began
Progress in growth sequence followed in this order below
NSW….ACT….Victoria…..Queensland……South Australia …..West Australia
1979 Sold to British conglomerate Reckitt and Colman with annual turnover of $ 5M at that time
1986 Ken bought it back from R & C with annual turnover @ $24 M at that time
1979 Entered the American market , firstly in Delaware , then Pennsylvania and New jersey
1986 Sold the American business ( Southern Cross Building Maintenance Inc) to fully focus on Australia following the repurchase of KCS from Reckitt’s
Added a subsidiary , Interfil Pty Ltd , to participate in the emerging asbestos removal market , building the first pure mechanical portable system designed to remove large areas of asbestos with minimal handling
In 2004 started Healthyways Pty Ltd because he saw a very real need following illness within his own family, illnesses triggered by allergic reactions to widely used cleaning chemicals and at the same time he viewed the decline in hygienic cleaning standards caused by economic pressures . His solution …..to seek to find the answer through introducing a system that minimised or entirely eliminated the use of chemicals , providing a far healthier and safer method plus a superior result …….. After much determined effort , years of determined effort and searching for equipment from around the world he came up with the answer ….. and the Healthyways exclusive system was born . It’s success has bred imitators but no one comes up to the original , a system which is constantly being further innovated or as Ken says “ they can try to copy what we do but they cannot copy what we are going to do “. The difference is the culture of Ken which flows right through the whole organisation and enthuses everyone of his team to always do more than expected ,” to go the extra mile” for our customers
Personal Achievements
Ken has always had an overwhelming desire to help young people to get ahead in their lives, no doubt because of his own troubled early years
In 1987 he approached the Property Council of Australia , then known as BOMA , with an offer to totally fund an annual award to be known as the Australian Property Achievement Award whereby young people in the property industry would submit to a panel of judges from the industry a submission of a project related to commercial property which they wished to pursue overseas . The annual award given was $10,000 and a number of smaller amounts to runner ups . Ken by choice took no part in the judging so his award was at arms length , over the years many outstanding young professionals advanced their careers and added great value to the property industry here in Australia
In 1996 , utilising his association with Australia’s major property owners he instigated and became the Founder of the Property Industry Foundation , an entity which allows the whole of the property industry to contribute to beneficial causes ….principally youth at risk in our society. This body has raised many millions of dollars and distributes an average of $ 1.5 M annually to charitable bodies which care for youth in distress, it continues to be the major property based organisation established for this purpose
Over the period 1996….2000 in conjunction with North Sydney Council , Ken applied his commercial business skills to developing a magnificent indoor sporting facility for amateur sporting bodies atop an old council owned carpark in Crows Nest .At the time of commencing this project this rooftop was used as an open air venue by a small local basketball association , who were struggling to survive financially but did provide a healthy sporting activity for young people , joining the Board and then being made President ken spent the next three years at no benefit to himself to bring this venue to fruition and officially opened by the NSW Minister of Sport. Following this he then worked to gain a long term lease for the basketball association which thanks to having this venue is now the largest and wealthiest of it’s type in NSW , having bought this through to completion Ken moved on . His philosophy “ to provide the opportunity for young people to use their spare time and exhaust themselves in healthy competitive sporting activity rather than be idle and get into trouble “ has paid off immensely
Ken has spoken at youth seminars and conventions at Parliament House in Sydney , the National Student Leadership Forum in Canberra , the national Indigenous Youth Forum also in Canberra, as well as student bodies in Washington DC USA, his theme is always to openly share his story of struggling from very poor beginnings and inspire his young listeners to reach far beyond whatever their current situations may be, to build their life on values that count .
Much more of the man , what he is and why he is totally committed and determined to be a servant leader, always giving more than expected , will be in his biography soon to be released.
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WE GUARANTEE…..WE DELIVER….. WE BUILD TRUST
