Corrections or additions?
These articles by Kathleen McGinn Spring and others were prepared
for the January 31,
2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
The New Economy: Paul Raetsch
Funky workspaces, competition leavened with cooperation,
restless workers, and ever more dependence on the Internet; that will
be the look of the New Economy, according to an expert who has logged
more than as three decades as an economic development expert.
Paul M. Raetsch, regional director of the Economic Development
Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce, will discuss ways
in which the New Economy is changing business when he addresses the
Middlesex Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, February 1, at 8 a.m. at
the Ramada Inn in North Brunswick. Cost: $30. Call 732-821-1700.
Raetsch, who received both his bachelor’s degree (Class of 1965) and
his master’s degree in regional planning from Penn State, was
appointed
to his present position in 1998, and has worked for the EDA for more
than 20 years. He has also held positions with the Army Corps of
Engineers
and the Baltimore Regional Planning Council, and has taught political
science courses at Rutgers, the University of Southern Colorado and
Burlington County College.
He says his job “used to be chasing smokestacks.” Now, with
a territory stretching from West Virginia to Maine and including
Puerto
Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Raetsch is spreading the word that
“human capital is more important.”
“Going into this new century, we know technology won’t replace
roads and sewers, but it takes more than that,” Raetsch says of
the basic infrastructure that held up the old smokestack economy.
“Places that will be competitive are open to technology and
innovation,”
he says of the companies and municipalities that will move ahead,
terming them “gazelles.”
Among other attributes, these gazelles will understand what motivates
21st century workers. A father of four children, three of whom have
graduated from college and are out in the workplace, Raetsch has
inside
knowledge of the mores of the New Economy worker. “Every year
they are changing,” Raetsch says of his children. “Changing
jobs, changing everything.”
Employers, Raetsch says, need to be flexible too, and to absorb the
realities of the New Economy:
Globalization. “You don’t even know where yourcustomersare anymore,” Raetsch says. As an example, he cites his son, whorecently left North Carolina for Boston, but kept his phone number.”It used to be you could tell where a person was from by the firstthree digits of his phone number,” says Raetsch. But no more.His son was 919 in North Carolina and, relying on his cell phone fromhis new Boston address, is still 919. Among the lessons here is thatevery business needs to be on the Internet, a medium that transcendsphone exchanges and reaches customers wherever they happen to be.”Decentralization. “Everything is decentralized,”says Raetsch. People can telecommute. People can work from remotelocations. Where businesses once clustered around roads, sewers andports, they now cluster around bandwidth.”Dot coms can be anywhere,” Raetsch comments. “Youngerentrepreneurs are less interested in being on Route 1 than in beingalong the river in Philadelphia in a funky area.”Collaboration. “Owners need to do morenetworking,”Raetsch says. “They have to be less afraid of competitors, andunderstand that collaboration can work.” A group of smallcompaniesin the same industry, for example, might get together on employeetraining programs, he suggests. “If you can’t afford a trainingcompound, maybe several companies could go together,” saysRaetsch.Retention. Hanging on to talent is a problem in thiseconomy,according to Raetsch, who says young people, raised on tales ofcorporategreed a la Gordon Gekko, tend to distrust corporate America and showlittle loyalty toward employers.”It’s not even about wages,” he muses, talking about how afriend’s son was “dot comming” in this area and making goodmoney, but left to accept a lower salary in Colorado. The key foremployers, Raetsch says, is to offer employees “somethinginteresting”to work on, and perhaps to provide an interesting work setting aswell.And just as employees are often counseled to keep an updated resumehandy and to continually scan the horizon for new jobs, employersshould be aware that employees are unlikely to stay forever and shouldremain on the outlook for replacements.Digital dividends. Raetsch says his agency is concernedabout the digital divide that yawns between those Americans who arearmed with PCs, laptops, Palm Pilots, and cell phones and those whohave yet to log onto a computer. In a tight labor market like thisone, however, Raetsch says “high tech companies are realizingthe digital divide can pay digital dividends.” This is so, hepoints out, because “you can train people to the skills you need.”We all have to be open to the fact that it’s not that difficultto learn,” Raetsch says of computer skills. “It’s up to smallbusiness to give access to computers and technology,” he saysof the win/win proposition of business bridging the digital divide.Dot Com World. Sure there has been a tech downturn.Mostly,however, the problem was “the stock market and people speculatingon individual companies,” Raetsch says. But make no mistake, hestresses, it’s a dot com world. Every business depends on theInternet,he emphasizes: “Whether it’s sales, catalogs, information,blueprints;it has to have a dot com on the end of it.”Raetsch is clearly excited about New Economy changes still tocome — enhanced uses for wireless devices, for instance. But hedoesn’t expect to chase every rainbow. Unlike his children, he says,”I’m from an era where you work someplace for a long time.”— Kathleen McGinn SpringTop Of PageVC IntroductionsThe aim: to introduce new venture capitalists to theentrepreneurs, says Jim Buck, moderator of the New JerseyEntrepreneurialAssociation’s venture capital fund panel set for Wednesday, February7, at noon at the Doral Forrestal. Each of the three panelists willgive the standard description of what they offer, and then, says Buck,”I will challenge them to differentiate their offering.” Thethree:Howard Ross headed a practice group within Arthur Andersenthat focused on emerging growth companies and IPOs, but as a venturecapitalist with LLR Equity Partners he invests in later stage growthcompanies and undervalued, small cap public companies. HisPhiladelphia-basedfund has $260 million to invest (215-717-2900).Rick Secchia is general partner of Kemper Ventures atPrinceton Forrestal Village. This $100 million fund invests in earlystage companies that do network computing, enterprise and E-commercesoftware, and Internet-related financial services(www.kemperventures.com).Jim Gunton , an NJEN board member, was with Edison Venturesuntil he was tapped to lead the New Jersey Technology Council’sVentureFund. He is looking for early stage technology-related companies inhigh growth markets (U.S. 1, January 3).This fund plans to invest early stage capital particularly instate-basedbusinesses (E-mail: venturefund@njtc.org or call 856-787-9700). Guntonis also vice president and principal at the Edison Venture Fund, oneof the few New Jersey venture capital companies that focuses onexpansionstage, New Jersey-based enterprises (www.edisonventure.com or609-896-1900.).Early stage falls between seed stage (an investment of $300,000 andup) and the majority of current venture capital investment ($1 to$5 million). “The appeal of early stage venture capital is thatyou are looking for the home runs,” says Gunton. He will lookfor opportunities in such industries as optical networking, wireless,and genomics, but will also be amenable to telecommunications,pharmaceuticals,financial services, electronics, and aerospace.Buck is a venture capitalist with TDH Ventures. A graduate ofPrinceton University, Class of 1981, Buck joined TDH in 1990 aftera stint with J.P. Morgan in Manhattan. When TDH was founded 23 yearsago as a family business in Rosemont, there were very few otherinstitutionalfunds in eastern Pennsylvania. “We are what is called a balancedfund,” he says. “We have some early post development stageinvesting, but we tend more and more to expansion stage venturecapital.”He looks to invest about $1 million, up to $2 million, in a companythat is not going to require multiple infusions of cash.Top Of PageTrenton RemakesAll you ever wanted to know about what is going on inthe Capital City will be covered by Steven E. Goldin at thePrinceton Chamber’s luncheon meeting on Thursday, February 8, at 11:30a.m. at the Doral Forrestal. Goldin will speak on “The Next Yearin the Redevelopment of Trenton.” Cost: $33. Call 609-520-1776.Goldin used to be the executive assistant to John Lynch, former mayorof New Brunswick and now president of the State Senate. An alumnusof Harvard, Class of 1982, with an MBA from Columbia, he has beena project executive with Hovnanian Enterprises, director of planningand development, Woodbridge’s director of planning and development,and president of the Woodbridge Economic Development Corporation.He is now vice president of King Interests, based at the CarnegieCenter; it does commercial development, construction, brokerage, andinvestment.Top Of PageDollars for TechnologyTech may not be as hot as it was last summer, but theonce-booming sector is sure to rise again, and when it does, NewJerseywants to position its cities to get in on some of the action.Toward that end, Governor Christie Whitman announced acyberdistrictinitiative, the first such program in the country, in her final Stateof the State address. As part of a $165 million economic developmentpackage, 30 cities received $2 million in grants under thecyberdistrictprogram to plan or market high tech districts. Among the citiesreceivingthe highest dollar amounts are Trenton, New Brunswick, and Hamilton.Marketing firms and real estate development companies could flourishas a result of these grants. Trenton will use its $130,000 to planfor two cyberdistricts, one along East State Street and one in theformer Roebling Complex. Marketing is on New Brunswick’s agenda asit plans to use its $100,000 grant to promote itself to high techbusinesses. Hamilton, which received $50,000, will seek to reinventvacant factories in the East State Street area as homes for technologyfirms.Cities using cyberdistrict funds for planning will assess thelikelihoodof success for a high tech zone within their boundaries. Factors tobe studied include suitability of buildings in the district for hightech industry, proximity of high-speed data transmission services,the cost of upgrading buildings, and the level of interest on thepart of developers and companies.Top Of PageBPW Career AwardsBusiness & Professional Women of Hightstown/East Windsorare accepting applications for Career Development through February28. Awards are given to women 25 years of age or older who arecontinuingor returning to school, in a two to four year college, or vocationaltraining program. Call 609-426-4117 for an application.Scholarships for high school graduates from Burlington and othersouthern counties are available from the Scholarship Foundation ofthe Builders League of South Jersey . Students must plan toattenda qualified trade school or choose a college major in a field relatedto real estate development and construction. Deadline for applicationsis April 6; call 856-616-8460.Top Of PageEntries PleaseThe Business Marketing Association of New Jersey isacceptingentries for its 2001 Impact Awards honoring excellence in businessmarketing communications. Any business to business related workproducedlast year — by or for any New Jersey-based corporation — maybe submitted by the corporation or by any marketing communications,advertising or public relations agency, sales promotion, or premiumincentive company. The judging panel is composed of ad agency,corporatemarketing and advertising, and publishing executives. All entriesare judged on their effectiveness as well as concept originality andexecution.Deadline for entries is Friday, February 9. For details, contactAndrewSerenyi at 732-715-5198 or E-mail: impactawards@bma-nj.org.Top Of PageCorporate AngelsThomas Edison State College has received a grant of$50,000from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation in renewed support forthe John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy, a nonpartisan,independentlyfunded research office that provides practical policy analysis andother technical assistance to decision makers in the public andprivatesectors. In particular, the grant supports the Center for the UrbanEnvironment Program, directed by Liz Johnson.Merrill Lynch & Co. will be honored by The Susan G.Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for its New Jersey Race for theCure program. Last week the foundation presented “TheWarrior,”a bronze sculpture created by Charles Sherman, a gift for the MerrillLynch’s campus.The Lilly Endowment Inc. has given PrincetonTheologicalSeminary’s Institute for Youth Ministry $380,948 in support ofthe institute’s Bridges project. The program was designed to”bridge”new pastors’ transitions from seminary into professional ministryso it develops practices of youth ministry.Bridges 2001 is a pilot program for professional development for 25pastors who are transitioning from seminary to youth-ministry-focusedpastorates. Recognizing the high burnout rate in the first three yearsof ministry, this program aims to stem the burnout by findingalternativeapproaches to pastoral effectiveness for leaders and young people.The project will survey relevant literature on seminary-to-pastoratetransitions; identify exemplary youth ministries; assess needs andconcerns of new pastors; and pilot a program of support andtheologicaleducation to provide a replicable model for seminaries. Data gatheredin each of these areas will be submitted for publication in tradejournals.PNC Bank contributed $25,000 to the Princeton AreaCommunity Foundation (PACF) , which distributed the money among23 member organizations. Some organizations that received fundingincluded Arts Council of Princeton, Princeton Blairstown Camp Center,Homefront, Trinity Counseling Services, Princeton EducationFoundation,and the several children’s choirs.Robert Wood Johnson University Hospitalhas receivedan $8 million gift from the estate of Elizabeth R. Waldron, whoreceivedmedical care at the hospital before her death in 1999, at the ageof 91. The donation will help pay for the Bristol-Myers SquibbChildren’sHospital at the hospital, due to open on March 21, 2001. Thechildren’shospital at Robert Wood Johnson will be the first free-standingchildren’shospital in New Jersey.Corrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
