Shook Kelley was co-founded in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1992 by two renegade architects—Terry Shook and Kevin Kelley—who wanted to create a new kind of strategy and design practice that could solve some perennial conflicts between the worlds of business and design. As Terry and Kevin saw it, there existed a large chasm between the best minds and thinking in business, science and design. Clients were frequently having to hire several different types of experts and consultants, each with their own set of biases, agendas and solutions, to work on a common set of client problems: How to reach the ever-changing consumer? How to deal with the onslaught of aggressive competitors and market disrupters? And, ultimately, how to improve business conditions?