Ordinary Experiences, Compelling Essays: Lebo
Software Pirates: Billions in Booty
Winning The Talent Wars: Gen EXtiquette
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Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on June 7, 2000. All rights reserved.
Deadline Alert: Morristown VC Fair
High tech companies have until Friday, June 16, to apply
to “Get Launched,” a venture fair set for Wednesday, July
12, in Morristown. Eligible companies will be working in the Internet
area or some other form of technology, will have fewer than 500 employees,
and will be located in — or willing to relocate to — New Jersey.
“Companies in all stages of development will be considered,”
says Jay Trien of Venture Association of New Jersey, one of
the Get Launched sponsors.
The 10 best plans, chosen as finalists, will present their plans on
Wednesday, June 28, to a panel of venture capital sponsors who are
able to grant funding ranging from several thousand to several million
dollars. These finalists will get a chance to network with the E-commerce
technology service providers who are sponsoring the event. They include
AT&T, Cisco Systems, EMC2 (the Enterprise Storage Company), Yazam,
and 3Ci. The chief sponsor is Alliant Technologies, a two-year-old
Morristown firm that provides expert solution services for Internet
start-ups and Fortune 1000 companies.
Meanwhile the 50 semi-finalists can attend an invitation-only seminar
on Wednesday, July 12. It will feature venture capitalists, noted
authors, and successful entrepreneurs, all offering advice on structuring
business plans, making investment pitches, and building a management
team.
One grand prize winner will get the major award, which brings with
it a considerable amount of marketing exposure. This company may also
receive venture capital funding, but no absolute promises have been
made.
Companies looking for venture capital funding can submit their business
plans by June 16 to Get Launched, 35 Airport Road, Suite 340, Morristown
07960 or E-mail: getlaunched@allianttech.com. For information call
973-267-5236 or go to www.allianttech.com/getlaunched.
“It’s a great opportunity for new and developing companies to
test business strategies, market their products and services, and
network with some of the biggest players in the industry,” says
Bruce Flitcroft, president of Alliant Technologies.
Top Of PageOrdinary Experiences, Compelling Essays: Lebo
High school juniors and senior across America sweat
and fret over what colleges to apply to, which ones will accept them,
and most of all how they can convince the decision-makers that they
are good candidates. While grades and extra-curricular activities
are crucial, a major component in acceptance at some colleges is a
winning essay.
When she realized that her own daughter would soon face this challenge,
Dana Lebo, a former college writing teacher and psychologist
in Princeton Junction, designed a program to help students with this
daunting task. “I wanted my daughter and her peers to realize
this as a meaningful opportunity for self-discovery and personal growth,”
says Lebo (609-936-9248, E-mail: writeworkshop@aol.com).
Lebo, a career and communications skills development consultant to
the State Human Resource Development Institute, has taught writing
at Rutgers and English as a second language. In the Write Workshop,
says Lebo, students begin to understand how even everyday experiences
and relationships can be invested with meaning and emotion. “Many
teenagers tell me they don’t know what their passions are or that
their lives are not interesting,” says Lebo. “The truth is
that they have not been encouraged to access this information and
to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.”
In addition to teaching her students the fundamentals of effective
writing, Lebo has students do exercises in self-analysis that are
intended to help create a powerful personal essay. She cites one student
who, through the course of the workshop, recalled a long-forgotten
sailing trip with her family, decided to explore those memories and
write about them, and — surprising even to herself — wound
up applying and being accepted for a competitive national program.
Lebo also has her students read several essays and then role play
the job of admissions officers who have to decide which one application
to accept.
The Write Workshop is open to students who attend New Jersey high
schools. Morning and afternoon workshops are scheduled for July and
August, with each workshop limited to eight participants who meet
for 10 two-and-a-half-hour sessions.
Top Of PageSoftware Pirates: Billions in Booty
Even more astounding than how much money people are
making in the software industry is how much people are losing. According
to an annual survey on global software piracy released last week,
piracy losses world wide exceeded $12 billion in 1999, and more than
$59.2 billion has been lost in the past five years.
More than one in every three business software applications in use
during 1999 was pirated, according to the study, commissioned by the
Business Software Alliance and Software & Information Industry Association.
Piracy losses for the U.S. and Canada lead every other region of the
world at $3.6 billion, or 26 percent of the total. “Software piracy
continues unabated, robbing the industry of thousand of jobs, billions
in wages, tax revenues and critical investments in new technologies,”
says Robert Holleyman, CEO of Business Software Alliance, the
voice of the world’s leading software developers before governments
and consumers (www.bsa.org, 1-888-NO-PIRACY).
The 10 countries with the highest dollar losses due to software piracy
— in rank order — are the United States, Japan, UK, Germany,
China, France, Canada, Italy, Brazil, and the Netherlands. Although
dollar losses in Eastern Europe seem relatively low compared to other
regions ($505 million in 1999), this region has the highest average
piracy rate — 89 percent in Russia.
Conversely, North America’s piracy rate is among the lowest in the
world — declining from 32 percent to 25 percent over five years
— but because of the sheer size of its software market, North
America accounts for the largest piracy losses to software publishers.
To learn more about how to protect your company from software piracy,
visit the Software and Information Industry Association’s Anti-Piracy
home page at www.siia.net/piracy.htm. To report cases of software
piracy, call the Anti-Piracy Hotline at 800-388-7478.
Top Of PageWinning The Talent Wars: Gen EXtiquette
Gold watches or accolades like “Employee of the
Month” won’t win over today’s brightest employees, says Bruce
Tulgan, author of “Winning the Talent Wars” (to be published
in 2001) and founder of Rainmaker Thinking (www.rainmakerthinking,
203-772-2002), a research, training, and consulting firm that focuses
on the professional lives of Gen Xers. “People in today’s workforce
want to know what you have to offer them today, tomorrow, next week,
and next month in return for their added value,” he writes. “They
also want to know exactly what you want them to do today, tomorrow,
next week, and next month in exchange for this compensation.”
Gen X-ers, Tulgan has maintained in such books as “Generation
X: The Workforce of the Future,” needs more immediate, direct
management, training opportunities and flexibility than generations
past. To attract those workers, Tulgan suggests employers keep the
following strategies in mind:
Performance-based compensation. Employees who work harderand better should be rewarded proportionately.Flexible schedules. As long as they are meeting goalsand deadlines, people want to know that they will have some controlover their schedules — the more control the better, says Tulgan.Flexible location. Again, if they are meeting their employers’expectations, people want to be able to define and personalize theirown workspace, and perhaps have an option to telecommute.Marketable skills. People want formal and informal trainingopportunities so that they are constantly building their portfolioof marketable skills.Access to decision-makers. Today’s workforce is not interestedin “climbing the ladder” to gain access to important leaders,says Tulgan — they want this right away.Personal credit for results achieved. People want theirown name attached to tangible results they produce.A clear area of responsibility. People want to know thatthey will have 100 percent control of something so that they can usethat area as their personal proving ground, says Tulgan.The chance for creative expression. If there are clearguidelines and parameters they want to know it — so they can imaginethe terrain in which they will have freedom to do things their ownway.Recruiting is just like sales, says Tulgan, and pitching theold-fashioned career path is not going to sell this up and cominggeneration of workers.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
