no confusion about your brand and what it means to your customers.

You can’t create a consistent brand experience for the outside world

if the brand’s strongest proponents — your own sales, marketing,

accounting, customer service, and IT people — aren’t clear about

what the brand is and is not.

out what they think of your brand. Get a sense of how they view it

compared to the other options they have for purchasing your

products/services.

Improve what can be improved, accept what you cannot change, and find

a path for differentiating your brand on what results from this

process.

any. If you’ve got a business worth being in, your customers always

have other choices, even if those choices aren’t "direct"

competitors to your brand. Learn from what your competitors are doing

right with their customer service, with their website, with their

sales presentations — – and integrate their best practices into

your own business so you become the best choice for your most valued

customers.

it’s time to redesign your digital environments — website,

presentations,

customer support systems — focus on your brand and the consistent

experience you need it to create for your customers. Then make

technology

work for, not against, the optimal customer experience.

competency, don’t do it. Consider outsourcing data storage, search

engine optimization, and Web/E-mail hosting. These are areas that

require special and ongoing investments in time, people, equipment,

and/or money. Companies that specialize in these services provide

expertise and resources that most companies can not afford to acquire

and maintain on their own.

big change. She shed her childhood nickname (all her colleagues at

Dow Jones know her as Ronnie). "When I turned 40," she says,

"I decided to change it to Niki, a name I liked."

— Barbara Fox

Top Of Page
Dow Jones Alumnus: School Staffing

Cris Maloney’s long-term goal is to recruit people into

the education field who will be happy there. These future teachers

might be undergraduates looking for a first job — or victims of

a corporate downsizing. Maloney has had his own taste of corporate

downsizing, and his wife, Barbara, is a teacher at Princeton Day

School,

so he can approach the recruitment problem from both sides.

Maloney was at Dow Jones for the launch of its interactive business

and was in charge of web development when Peterson’s had a brand-new

website. "When I left, it was 50 percent of the revenue at

Peterson’s,"

he says. Now he is launching the second version of a website entitled

www.SchoolStaff.com, which offers a way to post educational jobs and

search for them.

An education major at Westchester University, Class of 79, Maloney

taught in Virginia Beach and worked on a master’s degree at Temple

before starting to take computer jobs. He did sales and support work

for InfoTron, a maker of data switches, where he was in charge of

the PC environment. In the early 1990s he worked for Dow Jones on

its first web initiative.

In 1995 he moved to Peterson’s to be in charge of www.petersons.com

He describes it as "a fledgling website without income that became

a multi-million revenue generator." He was in charge of its first

three big releases and says there have been two new versions since.

When Peterson’s was sold to the Thompson, the new CEO, Michael

Brannick,

made Maloney senior vice president of marketing. But Brannick left

in March of 2001 and Maloney’s position was eliminated in July 2001.

Maloney also does presentations at job fairs about how to look for

a job on the Web, sells real estate for Princeton Real Estate Company,

and has another company, Princeton Rentals, which is a conduit for

home rentals in Princeton. It also sells moving boxes. He and his

wife have four school-age children, the youngest adopted from China.

Maloney’s website, now ready to launch its second recruiting season,

is an online job board used by job seekers and education employers.

It lets job seekers search free, and eventually it hopes to offer

some career counseling for those who are thinking of entering the

education field.

Though most schools aren’t set up to recruit on the web, Maloney’s

fee ($295 per year to advertise all openings all year) is peanuts

compared to the usual forms of advertising. "School districts

are spending teacher salaries every Sunday in newspapers that are

recycled by Monday," says Maloney, quoting the one-time job ad

in the New York Times that costs $5,000.

But school districts are not early users of web technology. "Last

year, what we provided was every bell and whistle that a good jobsite

would provide, and what we found was that the school systems have

a long tradition of getting all their information on one piece of

paper," says Maloney. "Also we gave them the opportunity to

sell the position with color photographs and write a really great

indepth description of the job. But the schools didn’t use it."

In response, he has streamlined both the posting and response

procedures.

When they register, clients now simply describe their school and

explain

how they want people to apply. Then they point and click on the

positions

they want to advertise. When they receive applicants’ names and

addresses,

they send out applications by snail mail.

Maloney’s marketing plan includes posters on college bulletin boards.

Last year he had 300 districts participating, but he doesn’t really

know if anyone ever got a job because the site does not require job

seekers to register.

Maloney also has links on his site so that potential educators can

do a self survey provided by Obik, David Collins’ company on Route

27 in Kingston. "We are hoping to expand this to high school and

college students before they have made a career choice," says

Maloney. "Our basic mission to get people who would be happy in

education to select education as a career."

08534.

Cris Maloney. 609-730-1095. Home page: www.schoolstaff.com

Top Of Page
Law Moves

First Floor, Lawrenceville 08648. 609-895-1717; fax, 609-895-1727.

Moving back into solo practice, Frances Merritt,

formerly

with Stark & Stark, has opened a law office at 10 Gordon Avenue in

Lawrenceville. Before joining Stark & Stark, in 1999, she maintained

a law office in Kingston.

Merritt practices family law, specializing in both litigation and

mediation. Her new office is in a space that formerly was a home.

She says the informal atmosphere is important in putting clients at

ease during what is often a difficult time in their lives. "It’s

comfortable, quiet, and private," she says. In place of the

sometimes-sterile

atmosphere of a big law firm, there is soft music, and there are

home-like

touches.

Merritt says she enjoyed her time at Stark & Stark, and learned a

great deal, but she is drawn to private practice not only because

she can create the atmosphere she wants, but also because it allows

her to "put her signature" on her business. In a big firm

"there is guidance on fees and types of cases," she says.

Whereas, in a solo practice she is free to accept the cases she wants

and to set her own fees. "I like the whole gamut," she says,

"from modest incomes to relatively substantial."

Merritt grew up in Princeton. Her father, John Mack, is now deceased.

He was an engineer at RCA Labs. Her mother, Gloria Mack, has been

a librarian at the Mary Jacobs Library in Rocky Hill for more than

25 years.

Merritt earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Rutgers in 1972. While

raising her three children, she earned a master’s in voice performance

from the Westminster Choir College. She taught at Westminster for

three years before earning a J.D. from Rutgers in 1986.

Music remains her avocation. Working seven days a week at establishing

her new practice, Merritt says she is nevertheless under pressure

from friends and family to make good on her vow to hold an art song

recital. She explains that art songs are poetry set to music. A

recital

is "a collection of vignettes, usually in multiple languages,

by different composers." The one-hour performance, she says, is

more draining than a full day of physical labor. "It requires

coordination, an understanding of poetry and music, and the physical

act of singing. You have to put the poetry in your soul and interpret

it to make a connection with the audience."

The connection with her life as a lawyer is that both disciplines

rely heavily on communication and persuasion.

For the first part of her career in matrimonial law, Merritt acted

solely as a litigator. Then, in 1995, she began to train in mediation,

earning a certificate from Rutgers Newark, and then spending a year

in an intensive mediation and dispute resolution program at Woodbury

College in Vermont.

She says she handled all of the matrimonial mediation cases at Stark

& Stark, and expects mediation will account for some 20 percent of

her work at her new practice. At her first meeting with clients, she

explains all the options. "Some people have never heard of

mediation,"

she says, "and some are not inclined toward it." She hopes

the balance will tip, and more of her clients will choose mediation,

which, she says, teaches communication and negotiation skills that

come in handy after the divorce, particularly where there are children

involved.

Plaza, Princeton 08540. James Mets, partner. 732-355-9800; fax,

732-355-9022.

James Mets has opened a satellite of Morristown-based law firm

Uffelman,

Rodgers, Kleinle, and Mets at Jefferson Plaza. A partner in the firm

since late August, Mets is a resident of Monmouth Junction. He chose

to work from a Kingston office to cut his commute and to be near a

number of his clients.

Mets, a graduate of Montclair (Class of 1987) and of Rutgers Law

School,

specializes in labor law, and in the representation of police and

fire unions. Among his clients are the Plainsboro, Jamesburg, North

Brunswick, and Englishtown Police Benevolent Associations (PBAs).

Uffleman, Rodgers is a four attorney firm with a staff of eight. Mets

will practice full time from the Jefferson Plaza office.

307, West Trenton 08628. 609-882-6010; fax, 609-882-8040.

Philip Levy has left the firm of Albert & Levy. The law firm is now

known by the name of Philip J. Albert PC., and it has moved from

Parkway

Avenue in Ewing to Bear Tavern Road. Levy has a corporate job with

Congoleum. Albert does tax law, estate planning, and labor law.

08528. 609-921-0268; fax, 609-921-0586. Www.UdecideDivorce.com

Irene Amarel, a divorce mediator, moved her practice from Tamarack

Circle to 4444 Route 27 in Kingston on March 1. Amarel practiced

matrimonial

law for 25 years before disbanding her firm — Ulrichson, Amarel

and Eory — two years ago to concentrate on mediation rather than

litigation.

A 1975 graduate of Rutgers Law School, Amarel received a bachelor’s

degree in English and education from Douglass College in 1956 and

taught for a number of years before attending law school.

Amarel says matrimonial litigation is draining for all involved,

including

attorneys. "Divorce is a tough arena," she says. "Clients

are very hostile, very emotionally charged." It is also an area

of practice that demands long hours. In concentrating on mediation,

she is leaving behind 60-hour weeks and clients who "want

attorneys

to be there for them, yet complain bitterly about the bills."

A resident of Princeton, Amarel finds area residents "receptive

to mediation and becoming more so."

Princeton 08540. Gianni Donati. 609-921-3993; fax, 609-921-2629.

Gianni Donati moved his office from 230 Nassau Street to his home.

A graduate of Amherst, Class of 1974, he went to law school at the

University of Pennsylvania. He focuses on commercial litigation and

collection of unpaid accounts.

Top Of Page
Name Changes

Greg Lezynski, vice president and leasing agent. 609-452-0771; fax,

609-452-0330. Home page: www.thegalecompany.com

Forrestal Village, Princeton 08540. David B. Kuna, senior property

manager. 609-799-7400; fax, 609-799-0245. Home page:

Finn Wentworth has made an amicable break with the partnership Gale

and Wentworth LLC, and Stan Gale has changed the name of the firm.

In addition to real estate investment, the Gale Company will also

continue to manage commercial properties.

For a north Jersey firm, this company has had a huge impact on the

Princeton real estate market. First the partners bought Princeton

Forrestal Village from the bank at a fire sale price of $29 million

and sold it three years later for $46 million. Then they took over

management of DKM’s 3 million square-foot portfolio and turned over

a $200 million profit in four years. In 1994 these real estate moguls

paid $650 million for the portfolio of a third big developer in

Princeton,

Bellemead Development Company. At that time Bellemead’s 7 million

square feet of office space was owned by Chubb Insurance.

Gale has even bigger expansion dreams. Backed by the Morgan Stanley

Real Estate Funds he has decided to go national and potentially

quadruple

his current holdings of 50 million square feet.

"We look to continue our longstanding track record of providing

superior service to our clients and tenants," says Greg Lezynski,

vice president and leasing agent.

Top Of Page
Downsizing

John J. Monteleone, president. 609-730-1665; fax, 609-730-1286.

John Monteleone moved his book development firm, Mountain Lion, and

his literary agent business, the Sports Literary Agency, from Research

Park to a home office in Pennington. His current projects include

skills books for high school athletes and the Louisville Slugger

series

for young people.

Princeton

University Store, Princeton 08542. Andre Liu, owner. 609-921-7888;

fax, 609-921-7293.

Pequod Communications has moved its retail printing operation from

6 Nassau Street to a location within the Princeton University Store,

where it does printing and copying. It has a new phone and the same

fax. The headquarters of the business — ironically enough, founded

by undergraduates in 1988 to protest the policies of the University

Store — is on Alexander Road and includes a corporate reprographic

service center, with a full range of services, including pick-up and

delivery.

Michael F. Rooney, COO. 609-951-6000; fax, 609-452-1533.

The consortium that handled asbestos claims canceled a planed move

to Scudder Falls Court in Ewing and moved out of the Carnegie Center

to an unknown location.

Box 6023, North Brunswick 08902. Dave Colatriano, group president.

732-297-5100; fax, 732-422-3949. Home page: www.vertisinc.com

For several years Vertis, the printing and direct marketing firm

formerly

known as Webcraft, had been operating its headquarters office away

from the North Brunswick plant, in plusher surroundings on Lenox

Drive,

Princeton Pike Corporate Center. Last fall it consolidated and moved

the office back to the plant, where there are 300 workers. It is owned

by Big Flower, a Manhattan-based conglomerate, and it has operations

in Chalfonte and Bristol, Pennsylvania.

Top Of Page
Management Moves

New Brunswick 08933. Ralph S. Larsen, chairman & CEO. 732-524-0400;

fax, 732-214-0332. Home page: www.jnj.com

William C. Weldon, 53, has been named to replace Ralph S. Larsen as

chairman and CEO. Under Larsen, who retires in July, sales grew from

$9 billion to $33 billion in 11 years. Net earnings for 2001 were

$5.7 billion, up from $4.9 billion the previous year. In the jobs

of president and vice chairman, James T. Lenehan, 53, will succeed

Robert N. Wilson, who will retire in April 2003.

Top Of Page
Contracts Awarded

Street, Suite 210, New Brunswick 08901. Bob Franks, president.

732-227-2000;

fax, 732-342-8449. Home page: www.hinj.org

In 2001 New Jersey-based pharmaceutical companies led the nation in

developing new drugs — 15 of the 24 new drugs approved by the

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This announcement was made

by the 20-company organization that aims to raise the visibility of

research-based pharmaceutical and medical device industries in the

state.

The only Princeton area-successes included in this group were Reminyl

from Janssen Pharmaceutica and Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical, a

derivative

from the daffodil bulb for Alzheimer’s disease; and Ortho

EvraDefinity,

an ultrasound contrast agent by Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging.

Center, Princeton 08540-5287. 609-720-2000; fax, 609-720-2050. Home

page: www.wgint.com

The Carnegie Center-based company has been hired by the Delaware River

Joint Toll Bridge Commission to oversee the arrival of E-Z Pass. The

contract is said to worth more than $1 million. The E-Z Pass

installation

is part of the bridge commission’s 10 year, $526 million capital plan.

Top Of Page
Death

assistant

dean at Princeton University, associate director of the university’s

computing and information technology department, and most recently

vice president for computing and information services at Vassar

College.

Corrections or additions?

— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.