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Published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on February 9, 2000. All rights
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Eduneering’s new CEO: Frank A. Martin
A former division of Hastings Healthcare moved in
December
from the headquarters on Titus Mill Road in Pennington to Langhorne.
When Hastings was sold to Health Answers, Eduneering did not go with
the deal. Now this web-based training firm is poised for a major
expansion.
Venture capitalist Frank A. Martin, who leads a group that has made
a significant investment in the firm, is now president and CEO,
replacing
founder Robert Delamontagne, who has the title of consultant for
strategic
relationships. “We believe much of the potential of the Internet
is in market niches that have received minimal attention to date,
and EduNeering’s goal is to become a leading provider of corporate
online training products and services,” says Martin.
Eduneering, founded in 1980, was an early innovator in computer based
training (CBT) and has systems designed to provide training for
companies
that are subject to strict government regulation, such as those in
the petroleum, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing industries. Martin
plans to expand to medical devices, managed health care organizations,
and food services.
The company claims to have the largest library of networked and
distributed
computer-based training titles for the energy industry, and has
designed
more than 350 technology-based training programs used by more than
250 corporations. For instance, an enterprise-wide system for
designing,
managing, and delivering online learning, called EduServer, organizes
training and monitors and documents each employee’s progress.
To leverage such products, it will focus on more specialized training
than what is available now on the Internet and on such government
regulatory bodies as the FDA, HCFA, OSHA, DOT, and the EPA.
“I think the change is very, very positive,” says
Delamontagne,
the founder and former president who merged his firm with John
Eichert’s
Hastings Healthcare in 1997. “We are looking to a terrific
marketshare.
We needed cash in order to build our library rapidly and to make the
technology investments to be a major player in our market segment.
An alliance with a major regulatory agency is in the works.”
— Barbara Fox
EduNeering Inc., 1 Summit Square, Langhorne 19047.267-757-0770. Home page: https://www.eduneering.com.Top Of PageJohn Eichert: After the SaleAs CEO of Hastings Healthcare on Titus Mill Road inPennington, John Eichert was operating a profitable small businessin a narrow niche when he made the choice to accept investment froman outsider. Now he is the one on the outside, looking for somethingto do.Last year Eichert sold his company to a firm based in Austin, Texas,that goes by the name Health Answers Inc. After the sale Eichert wasmade president and chief operating officer in charge of 11 nationwidemulti-site online and offline companies. Three of these had come fromHastings — an advertising agency, a disease management company,and a consulting company. But Eichert found that his management styledid not mesh with the style of the acquiring CEO. Eichert and theTexas-based CEO came to a “mutual agreement” and Eichert lefton December 1.”We built our business out of cash flow, and there are limitsto that,” says Eichert. “You can make a nice living but youcan get only so big. After eight years in a small business it startsto wear you out. In a small business there is not a lot of room tobe tired.””You have to bring energy in — money, and people with asimilarvision. What I miscalculated is that I shared a vision with theacquiringcompany,” says Eichert.”The values that I held in running and operating a business werequite different. I miscalculated the differences — and mine andhis ability to resolve the differences,” says Eichert. “Andif two people can’t manage themselves together, it reverberatesthroughoutthe company.”Eichert is still involved with a venture capital firm, the NantucketGroup, and is hoping to leverage his extensive knowledge of thehealthcareindustry to create a new fund for healthcare Internet ventures. “Iknow the healthcare space really well,” he says. “I am hopingto leverage my time to be able to do something for companies andpeoplewhere I can add value.””In hindsight I would counsel any company to find how well itmatches the values of the acquiring company, what is at the core ofthose values, and how it represents itself in operating the companyand the culture,” says Eichert. “Most people don’t think aboutvalue differences.”Fretting about those core values will keep you awake at night, saysEichert. What particularly galled him was watching money go intoprojectsthat he deemed not useful. “That was important to me, not to wastemoney. The vision can match but if values are misaligned, somethingis going to fail.” But, as Eichert ironically points out:”We allthink we are more indispensable than we really are.”Health Answers Inc., 112 and 114 Titus Mill Road,Buildings A and B, Pennington Office Park, Pennington 08534-4399.Gene Schneider, executive vice president, operations. 609-730-0100;fax, 609-730-0330. Home page: https://www.healthanswers.com.Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
