A Peek Inside Your Banker’s Mind
Traits of Successful Tech Managers
Corrections or additions?
This article was prepared for the December 5, 2001 edition of U.S.
1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Turning a Blue Christmas Into One of White
The holiday season. Even in more normal times the words
summon images of packages, groaning tables, and party goers dressed
to the nines. If anything flows more freely than the egg nog, it’s
the money. Does any other month hold the power to empty wallets so
fast? This year, shopping, taking in a Broadway show, and dining out
have become patriotic duties, and so the pressure mounts. Especially
on those among us who have lost their jobs.
“Unemployment is a growing problem in the community,” says
Reverend Peggy Hodgkins, associate rector of Trinity Episcopal
Church in Princeton. Several of her parishioners have recently joined
the jobless ranks, and are finding it rough, she says, especially
with families.
On Tuesday, December 11, at 7:30 p.m. Hodgkins speaks on “Coping
with the Holidays When Unemployed” at a meeting of Jobseekers,
a support group that meets at Trinity church. The group meets on most
Tuesdays, and there is no charge. Call 609-924-2277.
Hodgkins, a career changer, came to Trinity Church in August. Before
studying for ordination at the Union Theological Seminary in New York,
she worked for NBC Sports, and then for NBC News. As a news
researcher,
she traveled to Japan and Korea with President Reagan, and to
Argentina
during the war in the Falklands.
Taking a break from work to raise her three children, now 12, 13,
and 15, she became involved in All Saints Church in Hoboken. That
church has an active urban ministry, and an emphasis on building
community.
“It inspired me to go in a whole new direction,” says
Hodgkins,
who studied Russian at Middlebury.
Hodgkins’ first parish was Calvary Episcopal Church in Summit, where
she served for five years. She came to Trinity, a larger congregation,
for more responsibility, and an opportunity to work with Leslie
Smith, the rector. Normally, she says, an Episcopal priest’s career
path leads from associate rector to rector, but she chose not to try
for that top job because she wanted time with her children.
Her husband, Robin Hodgkins, owns Summit-based software company
Cogent, but doesn’t spend a whole lot of time there. “The company
runs itself,” she says. “His real love is being a
paramedic.”
He works as one at Morristown Hospital and at Overlook Hospital.
The Hodgkins family, busy with multiple jobs, is not personally
familiar
with unemployment. But during her time at home with her three
children,
Hodgkins she did find her self-esteem slipping. Identity is so often
tied up with work, she says. Finding new identities, especially at
the holidays, can be the best way for those out of the workforce to
keep their cheer relatively intact. And, in her opinion,
“shopper”
is one identity best shelved.
“Break away from the Christmas machine,” is Hodgkins’ advice.
“Shopping is an American ritual,” she says. “But it’s
not fulfilling, especially when you have no money.”
Here is what she suggests instead:
Give to others. Find cans in the pantry to take to a soupkitchen. Lend a hand at shelters, or youth organizations. Doing so,says Hodgkins, will help those who have lost their jobs feel lesslike victims. Turn the tables, be a helper. This involvement alsolends perspective. Says Hodgkins: “You may find out that losingyour job isn’t the worst thing in the world.””It’s so important to have a sense of worth,” she says.”Youcan have that by reaching out to those who have less.”Find caring groups. “Being in a community gives youbroader support,” says Hodgkins. Involvement in a women’s group,a church, a 12-step group, or an organization like Jobseekers offerscamaraderie, which breaks the isolation which often accompaniesjoblessness.Light a candle. Establishing rituals is a way to buildan identity that has nothing to do with work — or with shopping.During December, when dusk falls early, create a symbol with light.Build a fire each day, Hodgkins suggests, or light a candle.”Simplify” is a useful strategy for the unemployed atthis over-wrought time of year. Those who can pull it off —substitutingwalks in the woods and volunteer time at the soup kitchen for joustingmatches in the mall parking lot — may look back to find the lossof a job in December was a gift that gave years of more joyous holidayseasons.Top Of PageA Peek Inside Your Banker’s MindScuttlebutt has it that the vault doors have closed.Banks, they say, are sitting on sacks of cash, frightened andundecided.But the facts heard from New Jersey’s frantic loan officers tell adifferent story.Last year, the Garden State’s 3,400 lending institutions pumped over$12 billion into commercial enterprises. And this year, despitebombings,high-tech failures, and economic slow downs, that loan flow continuesscarcely abated.But to whom? The question of “How to Get Your Banker to Say Yesin These Tough Times?” is as a particularly apt topic for theVenture Association of New Jersey’s (VANJ) December seminar. JayTrien of Morristown’s Trien, Rosenberg Accounting firm acts asmoderator for a panel including Robert Falese, executive vicepresident of Commercial Bank Corp.; and Douglas Kennedy, vicechair of Fleet Bank New Jersey. On Tuesday, December 11, at 11:30a.m. at the Westin Hotel in Morristown they address the needs of themiddle market business ($10 million and over) and small market ($2million). Cost: $45. Call 973-267-4200, ext. 193.Trien, who founded the Venture Association of New Jersey 17 yearsago, calls it “a place where people who need checks meet peoplewho write checks.” Within this energized hub, both start-upentrepreneursand established businesspeople come not only to seek out potentialangels, but also to network, finding friendships, advice, and perhapsa good supplier or two.Fleet’s Kennedy is squarely optimistic, but warns businesses againsthoping for a return to previous markets. “Return is a relativeterm,” he says. “Will we soon go back to the days wheninvestorswould launch a loan on only a name and a business plan? Not likely.But markets will strengthen.”For over a quarter century, Kennedy has built a formidable trackrecordin making incisive market judgments. Starting his career in the cage,as a teller for Bridgeport, Connecticut’s City Trust, he soon workedhis way into commercial loans, then up to Fortune 500 lending. SinceMarch, he has taken on the task of overseeing New Jersey operationsfor Fleet Bank with its 450 branches.Kennedy does not deny a growth slow down, but he defines it morethroughindividual problems and new hurdles than a general cloudy overcast.Probably the greatest problem is what Kennedy calls “hemorrhagingportfolios.” Equity has fallen and some firms’ assets swiftlyhave lost value. Most businesses cannot claim as much collateral asbefore. Landlords are noting that rents have fallen for the firsttime since l985 and spaces are not being filled. With this comes theprime rate dropping an unprecedented nine times within a single year.Kennedy points to King Supermarkets, which recent froze their sell-offdeal. “Sellers are just not going to get previous values and thisinspires a `hold-on’ mentality,” he says. Finally, banks, as wellas a host of other lenders, have gotten badly burned by the dot-comcollapse. Yet, here again, Kennedy offers measured hope. Start upcapital, he admits, will remain scarce for a good while. However,high technology remains too valuable to be relegated to financialbanishment. “Technology increases productivity,” says Kennedy.”We need it. And further, technology breeds technology. New ideasfrom solid companies will even now get funded.”With all these elements crunching commercial credit, both Trien andKennedy advise entrepreneurs to mentally put themselves in theirbanker’sFlorsheims for a moment before making their next presentation.Allow an exit. The primary problem with so many of thedot-com firms was that they afforded their investors no exit otherthan making the loan a write off. They had no assets. They had noability to move to another line. They just sank or swam on a singleproduct. Businesses that can show their bank a secondary product line,or some other way of recouping their funds in the event of a businessfailure will seem more attractive.Develop a track record. “All sources of capital arecurrently waiting,” says Trien. “At this point they wouldrather take a little less profit by coming in on the second stageof investment, rather than bankrolling an idea outright.”Fleet and many other banks will ignore a current loss short term ifa firm can show a successful history in previous ventures.Be prepared for higher costs. “There’s just as muchmoney,” says Kennedy, “but it is going to cost you more.”Loan officers everywhere agree that commercial enterprisesparticularlyare offering less on standard collateral.Show a solid plan. This old time basic has gained mightilyin importance. Now, in addition to a wonderful idea with just bunchesof potential customers, the firm seeking to expand had best showsecondarycapital sources and a tight, low-overhead operation.Expand into new areas. Banking, like every other business,has trends and fashions. While high tech is now in disfavor,biotechnologyand transport services are good candidates for funding.Another industry that is doing well in New Jersey is bankingitself. New Jersey’s banks are growing. They have grown for the lastdecade and they continue expanding now. Bank officials watchedconsumershit the stores on Black Friday (the post-Thanksgiving shopping bingeday) and spend in record numbers. This is spending they can back.The gambling mood is gone, but the lenders intend to keep themselvesstrong by putting their cash into the basics.— Bart JacksonDecember 12Top Of PageWriting Winning ProposalsYou can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket.You can’t score the winning run if you don’t go up to bat. And youcan’t win a federal grant if you don’t submit an application.So say Gail and Jim Greenwood of the Greenwood Consulting GroupInc. They are among the nation’s leading experts on how to writeproposalsfor the Small Business Innovation Research Grant program, thegovernment’slargest R&D grants program targeted to the small business community.SBIR grants can yield $100,000 for Phase I and $750,000 for PhaseII. Typically, entrepreneurs reap a seven percent profit on the firsttwo phases of this grant; for the really good money, the entrepreneurmust get to the Phase III stage.The Greenwoods are coming to New Jersey to teach workshops on thefirst steps in the SBIR grant process on Wednesday and Thursday,December12 and 13, at the Rutgers Fiber Optic Materials Research Center inPiscataway. The topics will be Phase I proposal development and costproposal preparation. Cost: $60 per day or $95 for two days. Call973-353-1923.”The Greenwoods have presented SBIR/STTR workshops to thousandsof persons in approximately 41 states,” says Randy Harmon,director of the Technology Commercialization Center, part of the NewJersey Small Business Development Center (NJSBDC) of Rutgers GraduateSchool of Management. “Gail and Jim Greenwood have been activein SBIR since the program’s inception, making firms aware of SBIRand its opportunities, and teaching them how to write competitivetechnical and cost proposals for SBIR funding. They have critiquedhundreds of SBIR proposals for firms throughout the UnitedStates.”The Greenwoods live in Sanibel Island, off the west coast of Florida,but they spend most weekdays on the road, teaching and consulting.The husband-wife team is under contract to the NJSBDC to convertprofessionalbusiness plan writers into a statewide network of 15 to 20 proposalwriting consultants.”While we have successfully offered proposal writing servicesin the past, we have had great difficulty maintaining a pool ofqualifiedconsultants,” says Harmon. “We are building the trainingprogramfor consultants out of three of the Greenwood Consulting Group’sworkshops,so three of the training days will be public events,” says Harmon.”This will result in stronger business models and business plansfor the companies that develop and submit proposals and improve thelikelihood that the technology developed under SBIR will becommercialized,”says Harmon.Under the best circumstances, only the perfectly polished grantapplicationswill be submitted, but the Greenwoods are realists. Sometimes busyentrepreneurs simply can’t put the time in to polish the applicationto make a deadline. Should they submit the imperfect application,using the rubric, “You can’t win if you don’t play?” Or shouldthey wait? Here are some guidelines:What’s the downside? If you anticipate submitting on thistopic or to the same reviewers again, consider that your marginalimpression may leave a negative, possibly permanent, impression.Could your time be spent better elsewhere? If it is achoice between writing one terrific proposal or two so-so ones, choosethe one good effort.Does it pass the snicker test. Ask an impartial personfor an honest opinion on your draft proposal. If they snicker or lookpuzzled, perhaps your idea is not sufficiently credible to reflectpositively on you.When is your next opportunity? A topic that the Departmentof Defense asks for may appear only once, so you might want to submityour “imperfect” proposal. Most agencies, including theDepartmentof Agriculture, will accept proposals only once a year, so you maynot be able to afford to wait. In contrast, the National Institutesof Health has three proposal due dates per year.Is there a market for your innovation? “The worldis full of unmet needs,” says Jim Greenwood. “Sometimes aneed goes unmet because no one can figure out how to make money inreturn for meeting that need.” Consider how many units would bepurchased, how many customers you would have, and what the customerswould be willing to pay. Also take into account the “barriersto entry to the market.Do you feel lucky? Maybe you have received very positivefeedback on your ideas from the person who wrote the topic proposal.Or maybe your horoscope says now is a good time. Then go for it.Top Of PageHoliday Gift: Warfare ClassesIf your high tech company does business — or wouldlike to do business with the military — you or your employee maybe able to attend free workshops taught by Drexel University facultyin Camden. The workshops usually cost $300 per day but are free tothe end of December.Funded by the government, in partnership with Drexel and the SarnoffCorporation, Project ACIN (Applied Communications and InformationNetworking program) presents network-centric warfare workshops. Inother words, they focus on how new telecommunications networkingtechnologiesand applications will affect the way the soldiers and sailors fightfuture wars.For information call Pat Levecchia at 856-614-5450(www.projectacin.com).On the schedule:Warfighter-centric Networking, Wednesday to Friday,December12 to 14. For computer savvy individuals with limited programmingexperience — how to create application platforms and systems thatenable warfighters to conceive, discover, prototype, test and deploytheir own applications easily and at low cost.Information Assurance and Networking Integrity, Thursdayand Friday, December 13 and 14. How to protect battlespace networkinfrastructures and network-based applications from attacks.Network Concepts and Applications, Monday to Friday,December17 to 21. For those with no formal education in computer science orcomputer engineering.Applications of Wireless in the 21st Century Battlespace,Wednesday and Thursday, December 19 and 20. For users and plannersof battlespace information networks that will employ wirelesscommunicationsystems.ACIN tries to find technologies for military and commercialapplications that make information delivery faster, more secure, andmore flexible. It focuses on what will offer significant near-termbenefits to the DoD and has the potential for commercial development,especially through new ventures. If any spinoff companies result,they will be incubated at the University City Science Center’s Portof Technology in Camden.Top Of PageTraits of Successful Tech ManagersPeople join companies but leave managers, and all toooften, technical supervisors lack managerial skills, according toBlessing White, the global consulting firm that specializes inpersonaland corporate growth (www.blessingwhite.com).Blessing White offers its Technical Leadership course on Wednesdayto Friday, December 12 to 14, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at its headquarterson Orchard Road. Cost: $500. Participants need to register by December7 in order to do the pre-class work. Call 973-726-8066.The course is based on three years of research with 300 leaders in19 technology companies and groups. Successful managers, this researchfound, consistently used six motivational skills: maintaining andenhancing self-esteem, focusing on specific behavior and impact,askingappropriate questions, using “active” listening, communicatingbenefits, and setting goals and follow-up dates.Specifically, they learned to do the following:Delegate responsibility. Giving your employeesdecision-makingauthority and access to resources helps them achieve a higher levelof job satisfaction.Solicit input. Ask for and respond to concerns, questions,and suggestions.Recognize diversity. The most effective coaches recognizethat everyone is different, and respond to the specific needs of eachemployee.Value employee ideas. You can encourage potentialinnovatorsby nurturing, facilitating, and protecting your employees creativeand worthwhile ideas.Empathize. This conveys trust and is one of the mosteffectiveways of helping team members become self-directing, responsible, andindependent.Set goals. Managers are more effective when they setoverallperformance goals, and incorporate goal setting into theircommunicationswith team members. Team members will be more motivated to contributewhen they support a need or objective.Participants will practice these skills in the context of realsituations.Blessing White promises that they will receive feedback and coachingfrom a professional facilitator as well as their peers, and leavewith focused action plans for project results.Previous StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
