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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
267-757-0770. Home page: http://www.eduneering.com.
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John Eichert: After the Sale
As CEO of Hastings Healthcare on Titus Mill Road in
Pennington, John Eichert was operating a profitable small business
in a narrow niche when he made the choice to accept investment from
an outsider. Now he is the one on the outside, looking for something
to 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 was
made president and chief operating officer in charge of 11 nationwide
multi-site online and offline companies. Three of these had come from
Hastings — an advertising agency, a disease management company,
and a consulting company. But Eichert found that his management style
did not mesh with the style of the acquiring CEO. Eichert and the
Texas-based CEO came to a "mutual agreement" and Eichert left
on December 1.
"We built our business out of cash flow, and there are limits
to that," says Eichert. "You can make a nice living but you
can get only so big. After eight years in a small business it starts
to wear you out. In a small business there is not a lot of room to
be tired."
"You have to bring energy in — money, and people with a
similar
vision. What I miscalculated is that I shared a vision with the
acquiring
company," says Eichert.
"The values that I held in running and operating a business were
quite different. I miscalculated the differences — and mine and
his ability to resolve the differences," says Eichert. "And
if two people can’t manage themselves together, it reverberates
throughout
the company."
Eichert is still involved with a venture capital firm, the Nantucket
Group, and is hoping to leverage his extensive knowledge of the
healthcare
industry to create a new fund for healthcare Internet ventures. "I
know the healthcare space really well," he says. "I am hoping
to leverage my time to be able to do something for companies and
people
where I can add value."
"In hindsight I would counsel any company to find how well it
matches the values of the acquiring company, what is at the core of
those values, and how it represents itself in operating the company
and the culture," says Eichert. "Most people don’t think about
value differences."
Fretting about those core values will keep you awake at night, says
Eichert. What particularly galled him was watching money go into
projects
that he deemed not useful. "That was important to me, not to waste
money. The vision can match but if values are misaligned, something
is going to fail." But, as Eichert ironically points out:"We all
think we are more indispensable than we really are."
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: http://www.healthanswers.com.
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