Business at the Speed of Knowledge
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Melinda Sherwood and Barbara Fox were published
in U.S. 1 Newspaper on September 22, 1999. All rights reserved.
Networking Time: AT&T Ventures
If your company has anything to do with
telecommunications
or the Internet, you probably hope for attention from any of the mega
companies, such as Microsoft or AT&T. R. Bradford Burnham,
general
partner of AT&T Ventures, will keynote the Venture Association of
New Jersey’s second annual business incubator and high tech showcase
on Friday, September 24, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Westin in Morristown.
Cost: $60. Exhibits only, $15. Call 973-631-5680.
Burnham is an alumnus of Wesleyan University, and in his 19-year
career
has been director of business development for AT&T Computer Systems
and founder and CEO of Echo Logic, which provides byte-level software
translation between processors.
The AT&T venture capital partnership, founded seven years ago,
provides
from $1 million to $5 million to companies in these markets: wireless
communications, Internet, value added networking services, content,
and local service. Its “value-added” service is to help its
portfolio companies find potential business partners within AT&T or
leverage any other aspect of AT&T.
Paytrust (www.paytrust.com), the online billpayment company at Emmons
Drive, is among the 60 companies in AT&T Ventures’ portfolio. Others
include City Search (Ticketmaster Online-City Search), E-Stamp
Corporation
(web-based postage solutions), Physicians Online (the largest online
community of medical professionals), Verisign Inc. (the leading
digital
ID certificate authority), and Netscape.
“We expect to exit the investment within five to seven years,
and we take an active role with our portfolio companies,” says
the press release (https://www.attventures.com). “We work with
many entrepreneurs to help shape a business plan, but ultimately a
written plan is essential to our evaluation of investment
opportunities.”
Top Of PageEmerging TechnologiesOn Parade
Have a high-tech product but not enough funds to launch
it into the market? Let the U.S. Department of Defense write you a
check under the Small Business Innovative Research Program. That’s
how Princeton Satellite System’s president Michael Paluszek
was able to develop the company’s “object agent,” a software
development system that could be used in two U.S. Air Force
satellites,
and meanwhile be used to keep electricity flowing to our homes.
“The
general goal is to create a militarily significant but commercially
viable product,” says Paluszek, whose firm is based at 33
Witherspoon
Street. “The advantage of the SBIR is that you retain the
intellectual
rights so you can resell the product.”
This is just one example of the innovative technologies featured at
this year’s Emerging Technology Showcase, hosted by the New Jersey
Technology Council on Monday, September 27, at 4 p.m. at the Princeton
Plasma Physics Lab. The showcase is a perfect opportunity to network,
show off, and get ideas on getting to market. Other exhibitors: Aptech
Worldwide, Brookhouse Data Solutions, CM Software, Commence
Corporation,
Medatech International, Mobiliti Inc., Navigator Technologies, Omnie
Labs, Paramax Productions, Stone, Timber & River, Themis Inc.,
Universal
Personalizing Technology, Krell Technologies, NJIT Defense Procurement
Center, and Notifact.
Companies will be introduced by Mario Casabono, president of
Electro-Radiation Inc., Brendan Dougher of
PriceWaterhouseCoopers,
and Ron Guida of Universal Personalizing Technology. Free tours
of the lab begin at 3 p.m. Call 856-787-9700. Cost: $70.
Other business showcases in September:
Wednesday, September 22, the New Jersey TechnologyCouncil’sthird annual New Jersey Growth Company Showcase at the SheratonMeadowlands.CEOs and CFOs of some of the fastest growing firms, including CommTechCorporation, Computer Horizons, Dendrite, the Liposome Co., andSensar,will give presentations and lead discussions. The showcase startsat 8 a.m. Cost: $125. Call 856-787-9700.Friday, September 24, the Venture Association of NewJersey’ssecond annual Business Incubator and High-Tech Showcase at the Westin,in Morristown. The event starts at 9 a.m. Cost: $60. Call973-631-5680.(Bradford Burnham, general partner of AT&T Ventures, is the keynote– see story above.)Top Of Page100 Wireless YearsRub shoulders with the greats in wireless communicationsat the 100th anniversary of the first radio transmission by GuglielmoMarconi. The Rutgers Wireless Information Networks Laboratory (WINLAB)will celebrate the anniversary on Thursday, September 30, at theOysterPoint Hotel in Red Bank and the Twin Lights Historic Site inHighlands.Cost: $225 including two meals and a reception. Call MelissaGelfmanat 732-445-0283 or E-mail gelfman@winlab.rutgers.edu.Marconi went to Twin Lights to do live reporting of the America’sCup races. The message was supposed to be passed from a ship at seato Twin Lights and be relayed by telephone to the New York Herald.First, however, he was told to report on the return of Admiral Dewey’svictorious fleet to New York from the Spanish American War. And soon September 30, 1899, the telegraphy messages reporting on the fleetwere the first demonstrations of practical wireless telegraphy.WINLAB is also celebrating its own 10th anniversary, says interimdirector Roy Yates. As a National Science FoundationIndustry/UniversityCooperative Research Center, it is a resource for the creation andevaluation of technology and for disseminating information.Among the speakers will be Fumiyuki Adachi of Nippon Telephoneand Telegraph NTT-DoCoMo, head of the leading research group outsidethe United States in the development of third-generation cellularphones. Also Donald Cox of Stanford, a wireless cellularresearcherwho holds the Alexander Graham Bell Medal and the Guglielmo MarconiPrize; Richard Frenkiel, known as the father of the cellularphone system; Larry Greenstein, of the Newman Springs ATT&TLabs Research, who works with measuring and modeling cellular radiocommunication channels; Robert Lucky of Telecordia Technologiesand author of a column in the IEEE Spectrum magazine; and AndrewViterbi, a founder of Quallcomm Inc., with innovative digitalwirelesscommunications products based on Code Division Multiple Accesstechnology.Following these speeches there will be a reenactment and receptionat Twin Lights.Top Of PageE-Commerce MarketingWould you purchase a bag of potato chips over the Web?That’s about as incongruous as buying Rogaine from a vending machine.It’s no surprise, then, that marketing gurus like DarylBrewster,president of the Planter Specialty Company at Nabisco, are cautiousabout espousing the Internet as a major marketing vehicle. “Forsome of businesses it’s very appropriate to use the Internet,”he says. “Powerful ideas in the right medium work well. They stillwork well on radio, and everybody thought that would go away. Whenwe give a recipe, we’ll use a magazine because it’s hard to clip themout of TV.”Radio, television, Internet, direct mail — all of these mediumsare equally important for reaching customers, says Brewster, one ofthe panelists at the American Marketing Association’s meeting”FishWhere the Fish Are: Opportunities and Trends Within Direct to ConsumerMarketing,” on Monday, September 27, at 6 p.m. at the SomersetHills Hotel in Warren. Joining him on the panel is Phil Bensonof the Roche Group Inc., who discusses marketing from the standpointof pharmaceutical companies. Call 908-497-2339. Cost: $40.Prior to joining Nabisco, Brewster held various roles at the CampbellSoup company. He holds a BA in economics from the University ofVirginia,Class of 1979, and an MBA from University of North Carolina, ChapelHill.Where to spend that marketing dollar, says Brewster, is the challengethat companies face today. “Some people say put a $1 into 20differentthings,” he says “but sometimes it’s better to pick one andput $20 into that.” Sinking the mother lode into Internetmarketingwould be foolhardy, he says. “I think there’s a lot of differentthings to think through — there’s clearly been a fragmentationof media alternatives, and that fragmentation has allowed you to bemuch more targeted. There’s an awful lot of work going on in theindustry.We’ve established our own E-business group, and I think this is thenew frontier.”Television is still the frontier medium for many pharmaceuticalcompanies,says Phil Benson, manager of market intelligence for Roche Group Inc.”Before it was prominently print, but now, with FDA deregulation,you’re seeing more in broadcast,” he says. For years,pharmaceuticalcompanies tried to get the medical community to buy into drugs, butwith new FDA regulations, they can now get the general public to putpressure on doctors to prescribe. In most cases, it will be for thenew generation of lifestyle drugs — drugs that deal with weightloss, allergies, acne, depression, or impotence, for example.Consumers holds this kind of product information dear to their hearts,says Benson. “Managed care is forcing physicians to spend lessand less time with their patients, so you’re going to see consumersplay more of an active role in their health decisions,” he says.”They say that the average person takes more time picking outa pair of shoes than they do their doctor.” When a new drug totreat arthritis or osteoporosis comes to the market, however,consumerswill notice. “You have an aging population that needs productsgeared towards an aging population. It’s a great opportunity for apharmaceutical company.”Benson received a B.S. from Ferris State University, Class of 1988,and spent several years at Upjohn & Pharmacia, where he worked onthe company’s Rogaine product, among the first lifestyle drugs tobe advertised on TV. The freedom to advertise on television, however,is a double-edged sword. “If you’re not a big share of themarket,”he says, “you have to think: how much am I going to benefit mycompetition? If we drive people into the office and the doctors don’twrite us a prescription, we’ve wasted our money.” That happenedto Bristol-Myers Squibb when it ran ads on Pravachol, a product thatwas apparently the third largest in the market. In the end revenueswent to a competing product by Warner Lambert. A company can swaythe average Joe, but ultimately, it’s the doctor who has to beimpressed.”The consumer and professional promotion have to worktogether,”says Benson.Another conundrum for the industry is the “fair balance” act,which makes it necessary for companies to list all the nasty sideeffects associated with a drug that is advertised by brand name.Companiesare better off in some cases, says Benson, urging people to see theirdoctor about a condition, not a product. “If the fair balanceis negative, sexual dysfunction for example, and I’m the only personin that market, I would concentrate my effort on converting the saleat the doctor’s office,” he says.Pharmaceutical companies are slave to two masters — the consumersand the doctors, two very different markets. “The main reasonsconsumers want to lose weight is for appearance,” says Benson.”The main reason doctor’s want to lose weight is health, sothere’sa disconnect.” Nonetheless, Benson anticipates drug commercialswill take up more and more air time. “It’s ultimately thephysician’sdecision to write a prescription,” he says, “we’re just tryingto educate the consumer.”Top Of PageBusiness at the Speed of KnowledgeImagine life-saving drugs to fight HIV brought to marketin half the time. Imagine all open-heart surgeries conducted witha simple, non-invasive laser in five years rather than 10.These are just two of the possible outcomes of a patent-pendingprocessto speed-up the rate of discovery and innovation in medicine, science,and business, says Ed Swanstrom, president of Extreme InnovationInc. “It’s a patent-pending technique by which you turn innovationon itself — you innovate innovation,” says Swanstrom, whoexplains the process on Thursday, September 30, at 8 a.m. in theCommunicationsBuilding at Mercer County College. Cost: $45. Call 609-890-9624.At the heart of the process, Swanstrom explains, is “knowledgemanagement,” a rapidly growing trend in management that soundscryptic to outsiders: “Have you ever seen Escher — the handdrawing the hand — that’s what we’re doing here,” Swanstromexplains, “letting things be self-innovating,self-correcting.”At the grassroots level, knowledge management is really aboutorganizingpeople and technology in a way that maximizes information.”There’sa sea of information — how do you chose what’s valuable toyou?,”asks Swanstrom. “If you have 100 JAVA books to chose from, whichone do you chose?”Technology might be Bill Gates’ answer to this dilemma, but in thecult of knowledge management, the human network is far more powerfulthan the electronic network. “There’s no problem with technology,but it is just a bunch of tools,” says Swanstrom. “Even ifyou have the greatest Lotus Notes system in the world, it doesn’tmean people are going to use it. But if you get the social networktogether, people will store the information because someone else needsit. Trust is the key.”Swanstrom has been trying to understand the process of learning andgaining knowledge since he was eight, when he first stumbled uponthe book of Solomon. “It was about wisdom and I wanted to figureout what that was,” he says. He earned a BA in philosophy fromPark College in Missouri, Class of 1978, and then traveled to foreigncountries in search of “wise men,” only to return to theStates,Ronald Reagan, and the commercialization of space in the 1980s.Swanstromraised $33 million to modify the space lab on the shuttle but plansquickly dissolved following the Challenger tragedy.Now Swanstrom is president of the Knowledge Management ConsortiumInternational, a world-wide organization with over 17,000 members,and he owns World Intellectual Capital Exchange and Extreme InnovationInc., the company that owns the patented process for innovation. Helives with his wife in Washington, D.C.A rough guide to do-it-yourself knowledge management, says Swanstrom,begins with a black-box analysis. Take a good hard look at your mostvalued information sources: people. “The social network is thevaluable asset,” says Swanstrom. “If I map that out in yourorganization I’ll know more about where you’re getting your knowledgefrom than what technology can tell me.” Pollinators, people whocan travel between groups and introduce information, spawn ideas,or make important introductions, are also good tools. Then comeschange:”You go after the lever points,” says Swanstrom, “thebiggest bang for the bucks area.”Previous StoryNext StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
