In each month's Trendletter, Trendlines' chairmen and directors D. Todd Dollinger, Steve Rhodes, and Tina Ornstein share their opinions and observations on business — and beyond. This short column appears at the "top" of the Trendletter, hence its name "From the Top."
December 2007
Make It Easy
I get lots
of e-mails. Actually, I get too many. As some of it is simply my fault.
I am working to reform my e-mail behavior. I am responding more by
phone. And I am originating fewer e-mail threads. Phone calls are far more
likely to resolve matters rather than seemingly endless e-mail
loops.
If you want me to call you, make it easy for me. Put your phone
numbers in your e-mail signature -- and put that signature on every e-mail --
even your replies. It doesn't cost you anything, it doesn't take any
time -- and it saves me time. While you're at it, make
your company's phone number very easy to find on your website. Why
not have it at the bottom of every page?
When you do send me an e-mail, summarize the critical information in the
body of the e-mail rather than have me open and read an attached file.
If you need to
send me a file, send me the summary and outline the action item(s)
in the e-mail.
Want to communicate? Be easy.
D. Todd Dollinger, CEO, T.I.F. Ventures,
and Chairman, The Trendlines Group
November 2007
Laundry Service?
You know the laundry bag in your hotel room that has “Laundry
Service” written on it? Well, sometimes you get “service” and
sometimes you don’t. On a recent trip to the States, the lack of laundry
service in a Marriott hotel in Boston turned into a very successful lesson
in customer service.
I gave my laundry to the front desk in the morning with the expectation that
it would be returned the same evening. After a full day of meetings, I returned
to my room. Guess what? No laundry.
I called the front desk to inquire about my laundry. The woman I spoke with assured
me she would investigate and call me back. I am not particularly patient. After
five minutes, I headed to the front desk.
There, I was greeted not with laundry service but with true
customer service. I was so impressed with the customer service that
I wrote the followin to Mui Hang, the woman who helped me.
Thank you for following through with me as you promised.
While I was very disappointed by this problem, I was impressed by your thorough
response and your follow up.
You achieved something rare:
You did not say you had “done all that could be done.” Instead, you
told me exactly what steps you had taken. Through this, I understood you had
done all that you could do. Then, you told me what you would do next — and
you did it.
What you did, and the professional and friendly manner in which you did it, for
an aggravated customer is a compliment to you and to Marriott.
I would appreciate it if you would share my note with your supervisor.
My thanks for your attention and your efforts.
My laundry did not arrive by the time I checked out of the hotel. Mui Hang assured
me they would FedEx the laundry to me. And they did! The laundry arrived in Israel
one day after I did.
Mistakes happen. How you deal with them is the
measure of ... you.
By the way, Mui Hang is the assistant general manager at this Marriott. She started
in that position the day before my laundry incident.
D. Todd Dollinger, CEO, T.I.F. Ventures,
and Chairman, The Trendlines Group
October 2007
Continuing a Tradition
In many different countries and cultures, this time of year is marked by holidays
and traditions that encourage us to take a step back from our whirlwind schedules
and be grateful for all the good things in our lives -- family, friends, accomplishments,
aspirations. These acts of thanksgiving sensitize us to the fact that there
are so many around us who struggle to live good lives with far fewer resources
than we have been blessed with.
To continue a tradition we started in 2002, this year Trendlines made donations
to two organizations serving those in need:
The Shabtai Levi Home in Haifa is a residential and emergency center for young
children and infants at risk. The staff and volunteers at the Home provide the
children with the love, nurturing and warmth that, unfortunately, their own families
cannot give them. We came to know about this special place through the involvement
there of Benjie Alper, a student at the University of Haifa
and son of our Assistant Managing Director Naomi Alper. If you
would like to
December 2005
My First Time at MEDICA
I had been warned before I left for Düsseldorf
to take comfortable shoes because MEDICA is enormous. I dutifully followed
that advice and packed my Hush Puppies, but you cannot really grasp the
scope of MEDICA until you actually pull up to the fairgrounds and dive
in.
Seventeen huge buildings filled wall to wall with 2,500 exhibiting companies
from all over the world, selling their wares to over 30,000 visitors -- you cannot
help feeling a little bit like Alice in Wonderland. While my impressions are
still fresh in my mind, here are some thoughts, observations and conclusions
(in no particular order)
I was very lucky to have Mark Dollinger, president
of Trendlines America, to guide me through the initial shock and help
me get oriented. Conclusion #1: Latch
on to a MEDICA veteran to ease you through the first few hours.
MEDICA is globalization personified. There are exhibitors
and visitors from every corner of the globe; you can hear dozens of
languages spoken. The Egyptian and Israeli pavilions were right next
to each other in Hall 13. And everyone seems to get along just fine. Conclusion
#2: Just let people get on with business and half the world's
problems would be solved.
Despite its vastness, MEDICA is very accessible
because it is so incredibly well organized -- from the website, to
the information kiosks, to the signage -- it is quite easy to find
what you're looking for once you get oriented.Conclusion
#3: You can't beat the Germans for efficiency and organization.
The entire medical industry is at your feet at MEDICA.
All the giants are there, as well as suppliers of the most mundane
medical supplies you could imagine -- and everything in between.Conclusion
#4: If you want to get a good overview of the global industry,
MEDICA is your one-stop shop.
The most productive side of MEDICA is the meetings.
Because everyone is there, we were able to set up and conduct meetings
between our medical device clients and potential partners from all
over the world. We were able to move relationships forward in a relatively
short period of time, at a relatively low cost. Conclusions
#5 and #6: Do your homework very carefully and make sure you
have suitable venues in which to conduct the meetings!
It's important to have some fun as well. Conclusion
#7: When the doors close at 6:30 p.m., it's time to check
out how German wines compare with the best that Israel has to offer.
See you next year at MEDICA 2006!
Tina Ornstein, managing director
November 2005
The Two V's in Venture Capital
No, we know there is only one "v" in venture capital, but there are
two other "v's" you need to know when you approach investors: vision and value.
Visions -- and expectations -- are important to us all, but in the investment
business, they aren't just important, they are critical. The vision that you
present is that which investors need to reach conclusions about you and about
the value of your business. Your vision also gives investors their key opportunity
for applying "tests of reasonableness." It's each investor's personal, individual
test of reasonableness that establishes his dividing line between what he thinks
to be realistic vision -- that perhaps he wants to buy into -- and utterly fantastic
hallucination.
So, keeping your vision sharp, focused, and realistic will help investors recognize
the other critical "v" -- value.
This year's Trendlines/WolfBlock
Venture Conference promises to be a very healthy mix of visions from our
Israeli presenters and venture opportunities for our participating American VCs,
angels, and strategic investors who are joining us to hear from Israel’s
best and brightest in the life sciences, homeland security, and IT.
Other sponsors of the event: Maryland/Israel Development Center (MIDC), the American-Israel
Chamber of Commerce (AICC), Boston-Haifa Life Sciences Initiative, and BioIsrael
as sponsors of this year's conference.
Registration closed November 15
and is limited to 25 Israeli companies. For details,
contact Trendlines' Managing Director Tina Ornstein (04
958-3323, ext 120).
Tina Ornstein, managing director
October 2005
Happy New Year
To continue a tradition we started in 2002, this year we are
making New Year's donations to two organizations serving those in need:
Eshbal is
a young kibbutz located in Israel's Misgav area. Founded
by a group of 40 young people involved in the Hano'ar Ha'oved
V'halomed youth movement, Eshbal sits among the rocky hills
of the Galilee in the shadow of the Arab city of Sakhnin.
This small band of modern-day pioneers have demonstrated
their commitment to the ideals of democracy, Zionism, tolerance,
and social commitment through their various social and educational
projects. Eshbal members develop and coordinate seminars
and activities for children and youth throughout the Misgav-Karmiel
area (including between Jewish and Bedouin children and Jewish
and Arab children), run summer camps, and house a boarding
school for at-risk Ethiopian high schoolers.
Pitchon
Lev ("A Caring Heart") is a non-partisan, non-profit
humanitarian aid organization providing food to Israel's
hungry. Pitchon Lev distributes food, clothing, shoes, and
other items to those in need. They are committed to raising
awareness about poverty in Israel. The organization was founded
in 1998.
We wish all our clients, subscribers, suppliers, and friends around the world
a healthy, happy New Year. May this year be successful, rewarding, prosperous,
and most of all, peaceful and safe.
September 2005
Tina's Top 10 Tips for Effective Proposals
We
are often asked to prepare or review proposals for our clients. In today's
highly competitive market, companies cannot afford to submit anything less
than world-class proposals. A winning proposal tells the
potential customer or partner why they should choose you. It matches your
company’s capabilities to the client's issues, and differentiates you
from the competition by highlighting your strengths (and their weaknesses).
Whether your proposals are lengthy responses to RFPs (Request for Proposal) or
less formal, shorter documents, the following keys to winning proposals apply.
Make a strategic
commitment to winning: Once you have made
the decision to submit a proposal, allocate the necessary
resources -- expertise, time, and money -- to win.
Focus on client's business needs and mission
objectives: Don't
just aim for compliance -- aspire to responsiveness. Convince the decision-makers
that you understand their problems and aspirations.
Gather good business intelligence: Understand
their decision-making process and what the competition may be offering;
open and sustain a dialogue with the client.
Develop a clear "win" strategy and proposal themes: You must clearly differentiate
yourself from the competition, stressing the benefits of your solution and showing
a quantifiable ROI.
Keep it short and clear: As long as
necessary, as short as possible!
Make it readable, highlight the key points: The evaluators should be able
to pick out your key message even if they only skim the document. And don't be
afraid of white space; think of it as punctuation for the eye.
Comply with requirements: With large, competitive RFPs, the first step in
the evaluation process is brutal elimination of responses that do not comply
with the stated requirements. Even if you think a requirement is unreasonable,
ignore it at your own peril!
Provide evidence of your quality: Vagueness
is immediately sniffed out. You must convince the decision-makers that
you have the technology, people, and experience to do the job. Back up
your claims with facts and hard evidence.
Remember that "the devil is in the details": Your
proposal must look good and be free of spelling and grammatical errors.
Review and proofread -- then review and proofread it again! From the
front cover to the last page, the quality should be consistent throughout.
Ask for their business: This seems
trivial, but make a clear statement in your executive summary that you
want their business -- and intend to not only meet, but exceed their
expectations.
Tina Ornstein, Managing Director
September 2005
The View from the Top
Since The Trendlines Group's first days in Israel in 1993, we
have been fortunate. Our firm has grown from a two-man effort to an organization
of more than 20 employees in Israel and America. As we and our clients have
weathered the ups and downs affecting the Israeli business environment, our
business development and marketing consulting efforts have evolved.
Change has been a constant, yet our mission remains unchanged. We continue to
be focused on bringing our clients "to the deal" through understanding markets,
developing market strategies, and preparing and implementing business plans.
Everyday, we work with our clients and their partners and customers to get deals
done.
Last year, we established the Trendlines Israel Fund and invested in the Misgav
Technology Center. We are building our portfolio, investing in seed-stage life
sciences and homeland security businesses. Trendlines' growth continues, and
this growth has led us to search for a managing director for Trendlines International.
As is our nature, we spoke with our staff and we consulted with other experts
in the field. We established clear goals. We wanted a person who would lead our
highly experienced team and assist our clients in developing their business strategies
and identifying -- and achieving -- their best market opportunities; all to help
them get deals done. And we achieved our goals: We are pleased to welcome Tina
Ornstein to The Trendlines Group as the managing director of Trendlines International.
Tina brings some 20 years' experience in business development; she is a brilliant
addition to our management team. Tina is a proven leader. We look forward to
introducing you to Tina.
D. Todd Dollinger, Chairman
Steve Rhodes, Chairman
Father's
Day is one of those uniquely American holidays. I imagine that if you look
it up in a dictionary, it might even say something like "an American
holiday that falls on the second Sunday of June. Established by Congress
in the mid 1900s. Requires the giving of neckties or handkerchiefs to one’s
father."
Or something like that.
Father's Day does, however, serve a grander purpose. It gives us pause to think
about our fathers and what they have taught us. And so it was for me this past
Father's Day. I spend my days (and, truth be told, a fair bit of my nights as
well) talking about, writing about, and thinking about business and things related
to businesses. Occasionally, as I did this Father's Day, I recalled that a thought
I shared with a client was one that was first my father's. As I told my associate:
my father taught me about being passionate about my work long before "passion"
was a trendy marketing word. My father also taught me that passion for one's
work is expressed through thought and deed.
Simply stated, when we bring passion to our work, it becomes more than "just
a job." It moves us forward, causes us to think differently, and makes us to
strive to do better.
D. Todd Dollinger, Chairman
June 2005
Don't Talk to Strangers
In spite of what we may teach our children, we are always
talking to strangers. Whether it’s a first contact with a potential
client or the technician who comes to fix the coffee machine, we are constantly
making new contacts.
For many of us, our contacts are our most important business asset.
For some, making and maintaining contacts is business itself. (Look at
the numerous businesses built around making and maintaining contacts. The questionable
Internet business models are another matter altogether.)
When you make that first contact with someone, you’ll surely have some
version of your elevator story ready to go. You’ll clearly communicate
who you are, what you do, and, perhaps, what you want — in about a
minute. Now, think about another part of that all-important first impression:
your business card. Does it pass the “first impression” test?
(You know this one: “You only get one chance to make a first impression.”)
Does it help you make the first impression that you want to make? Does it
communicate your story and image? Give it some thought. It’s worth
it to help you make the right first impression.
D. Todd Dollinger, Chairman
May 2005
Seed Stage, Late Stage, and
Lies
Seeking capital? More of our clients are saying "Yes."
As every salesperson knows, the easiest sales are made to current customers.
In terms of raising capital, this means that those who are seeking capital should approach
investors who have already invested in you or who have invested in similar companies — ones
that occupy the same business space and are at the same development stage. But
what's early stage, seed stage, and late stage to one investor could be something
completely different to another investor. This is profoundly evident among VCs
who say "we do seed." What is seed to one investor
is a late-growth forest to the next.
"We do seed" is not a lie but it's also not a statement of inherent
value. So, what's a company to do? If you're looking for seed money in the private
equity forest, look beyond the words and investigate the actions of the
investors that interest you. It's part of your due diligence process
and a wonderful investment of time that will bring you a very good return on
that investment — at least in saving you from wasting your time with inappropriate
investors. The space that interests investors the most is the place where they
have already tread.
D. Todd Dollinger, Chairman
April 2005
Spring Thoughts
For the past several years, we have made New
Year's donations to various organizations serving
those in need, including Magen
David Adom, Israel's
emergency services organization; Kishorit,
a community
for people with learning and
functional disabilities; and Pitchon
Lev, a non-profit humanitarian aid organization providing food
to Israel's hungry.
Although the economy is improving and the unemployment rate is falling, there
are those who cannot purchase the special
Passover foods to prepare the festive seder meal. To help those
in need, we are making a special Passover donation to Pitchon Lev. We encourage
you to make a donation to Pitchon Lev or a similar organization. By doing so,
you will brighten the celebration for many.
We wish all of our readers and customers a healthy and happy Passover.
D. Todd Dollinger, Chairman
March 2005
Of Salesmen and Boy Scouts
With Steve Rhodes, chairman of The Trendlines Group, spending his time as CEO of the Misgav Technology Center (MTC), we have even more opportunities to learn. We learn from our clients, our portfolio companies, and from the client research that we do every day. And sometimes we learn from the stupid things that others do. Here's a lesson — or a reminder:
Steve received a phone call the other day from a guy in the United States who wanted to sell him consulting services. Truth is, Steve had heard of the guy and was interested in the sort of services being offered. The American had a qualified lead: The Misgav Technology Center was interested in buying the sort of services that he was offering. From a salesman's point of view, that's about as good as it gets.
So, the conversation starts and the pitch begins. He knows his field, he knows Israel's incubator system, and he speaks well to the general issues facing the incubator and our portfolio companies. But he can't quite bring together what he offers with the needs of the MTC. Quite simply, he didn’t spent two minutes looking at the MTC website or the Trendlines website or doing a simple search on "Steve Rhodes." And he didn't ask probing question about this potential buyer's needs.
What a waste. The American had a qualified lead, spent time and money on a phone call, and will probably send an irrelevant, non-specific proposal to Steve. Not just a bad first impression — most likely the last impression that he will have a chance to make for a very long time. A smart guy, but not smart enough. Every Boy Scout knows that you need to "be prepared." Preparation is the best investment we can make.
D. Todd Dollinger, Chairman
Steve Rhodes, Chairman
February 2005
Shopping across the Cultural Gap
We talk a lot about how important it is to understand the cultural gap that exists between Israel and America. When we identify the fact that the difference does, indeed, exist, we can deal with it. And we must. While Israel sets its marketing sites on America, we are greatly influenced by the confluence of cultures that come together in our little neighborhood — namely Asian, European, and African; a nation of immigrants on the crossroads of continents.
On a recent trip to the States, I realized that first-time and veteran visitors alike can gain critical insights into America — and American business culture — by taking some time to stroll around America’s malls, supermarkets and electronics stores. At stores of all sizes and types, from “big box” retailers Home Depot and Sam’s through to the grocery chains and specialty retailers, department stores and gourmet shops, some lessons ring the same throughout American retail — and American business.
Go shopping and see this exhibition of American business values: an abiding belief that first impressions are all important, a concept of service — even when help is not at hand, the store is designed with your mind in mind. Stores are created to move you efficiently and effectively from one purchase decision to the next. And packaging and presentation: this is what brings it all together — this is where the American retailer proves the importance of marketing and story telling.
Good retailers tell us a story with each item on their shelves, and they tell us their stories in a way that resonates for us all. Great retailers weave stories down their aisles and bring us the adventure and delight of visiting with them and buying from them. They make us feel like we are their partners. Go shopping in America and learn about America and American business values and culture.
D. Todd Dollinger, Chairman
January 2005
Being There
How much does a custom market study cost? $10,000? $15,000?
More? Often, the information available from a well-defined, well-executed
study is invaluable and can have a direct impact on a company’s success.
But sometimes attending the right trade show or industry conference can
provide as much or more information — at a fraction of the cost.
Recently one of the companies at the Misgav Technology Center, attended
a major European congress in Portugal. Over the course of three days, the
company met with virtually every potential strategic partner on the planet,
reviewed the product offerings of all the existing competitors, was present
at the product launch of an important new competitive product, met and
spoke with numerous product users and opinion leaders, and attended seminars
and lecturers describing the state of the art for its product area. All
for the price of a round-trip ticket, three nights in a hotel, and a couple
of meals.
I get lots
of e-mails. Actually, I get too many. As some of it is simply my fault.
I am working to reform my e-mail behavior. I am responding more by
phone. And I am originating fewer e-mail threads. Phone calls are far more
likely to resolve matters rather than seemingly endless e-mail
loops.
In many different countries and cultures, this time of year is marked by holidays
and traditions that encourage us to take a step back from our whirlwind schedules
and be grateful for all the good things in our lives -- family, friends, accomplishments,
aspirations. These acts of thanksgiving sensitize us to the fact that there
are so many around us who struggle to live good lives with far fewer resources
than we have been blessed with. 