Briljent 

7615 W. Jefferson Blvd.

Fort Wayne, IN  46804

Phone: (260)247-9448  

Fax: 260-247-9330

Web: www.briljent.com

          Briljent was founded in 1998 by an entrepreneurial woman who desired to bring operational improvements to various organizations through focused training and communication programs.  With a handful of employees, Kathy Carrier left her Fortune 500 job, and started a small, woman-owned training company now known as Briljent, LLC, headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  Through hard work, and consistently exceeding customer expectations, the company developed a reputation of being ethical, innovative, and responsive. 

          Carrier’s grandparents were immigrants from Czechoslovakia and Briljent is the Czech word for “brilliant”.  As I interviewed Laura Dwire, Senior Vice President I discovered that the name is an accurate description of what this company is all about.

          Dwire started working at Briljent 6 months after the company began. Dwire has more than twenty-five years of professional experience. She has a Masters Degree in Organizational Leadership and a Bachelor of Science degree in Management. With experience in manufacturing, operations, and management, she is a worthy compliment to Carrier’s experience with services. The past eight years with Briljent have found Dwire focusing on building client relations, business development, and managing key projects.

          Briljent’s commercial clients came to include such companies as WellPoint, Walgreens and Eli Lilly. However, Briljent faced challenges in growth after the 9/11 tragedy and subsequent economic downturn. Therefore, Ms. Carrier quickly adapted her business model and began offering new services and solutions.  During this time, Briljent found a niche supporting healthcare oriented operations, including insurance companies, healthcare systems, and pharmaceutical companies.

          In 2002, Briljent began adding government clients to their portfolio. Initially, the focus was on the State of Indiana, and over the last several years, has been able to support many of the Indiana State Agencies with innovative solutions, including the Department of Health, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Corrections.

          Given the tremendous success, Briljent was able to have working with State Government Agencies; Briljent soon set sights on offering solutions to the federal government. To support that, Ms. Carrier pursued a two-year mission of nights and weekends to secure her 8(a) certification, which was successfully obtained in June 2004. Armed with this new credential, Briljent landed a small contract with the IRS and conducted work for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Additionally, with the focus and success Briljent was having in Healthcare oriented operations, in both the private sector and the state government sector, they began to pursue opportunities in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  After meeting with the CMS Small Business Specialist, the plan was to find mentors, land subcontract work and conduct marketing efforts.  Through mentorship from larger companies, and great support from the Small Business Advocate’s office, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) became a primary target for Briljent’s federal pursuits. 

          Briljent is a full-scale consulting business. They can come in and run a project. They have the expertise to be the project manager for any IT implementation, focus groups, surveys, and any variety of training situations. They have a bench of 215 staff members and with the help of their brilliant Chief Talent Officer, they can ramp up to staff projects with additional resources as well. Briljent's strength lies in bringing the right people and skills to the right project. They employ people within a wide variety of skills including technical writers, instructional designers, project managers, editors, graphic designers, and an array of IT professionals. They also believe in working with universities to provide students experiential learning activities that complement their educational pursuits.

          “We have something unique”, stated Dwire. “We live by a culture of our non-negotiable items.”The NNIs are:

• To whom much is given much is required
• Learning leaders
• Impeccable integrity
• Purposely positive
• Never, never, never give up
• Deal with it

           “Using these items,” Dwire continued, “Our goal is to provide talented employees to staff our clients’ projects and help them succeed. We believe in strong, long-term and win-win relationships. We also have learned that communication, communication and communication is the key to the success of our projects.”

          In the future Briljent expects to reinvent itself again in some “brilliant” way. Dwire stated, “You have to reinvent yourself every once in a while, especially in this market and in this area. We’ll broaden more across states and expand globally. In the Federal area we expect to grow and expand into other Federal departments such as the Department of Defense; that would be more world wide.”

          A member of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce since 2009, Briljent has benefitted through name recognition and connections in the community.  Dwire said, “We would love more opportunity in the Fort Wayne and New Haven area. Call us we are very honest and ethical.”