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RE: INDUSTRY COMPETITIONS

Subject: RE: INDUSTRY COMPETITIONS
From: "Steve Schwarzman" <steve_schwarzman -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2003 18:20:11 -0600


From: "Anna Langley" <alangley -at- ts -dot- checkpoint -dot- com>
We sell our training material directly to our customers

So do we. While I still manage projects at a high level (the buzzword is managing the customer relationship), my primary focus is selling training and documentation projects to the customers of our software company.

There is, however, a final reason why my team wants to create award-winning
documentation that has nothing to do with the above: justify our existence.

Awards will probably do very little to justify your existence. The language of corporations is, for better or worse, dollars. In your case, that's a good thing, because you bring dollars into the company.

This is a reality for my team, as my company grows and as we look at
removing departments/teams that no longer add value to my company. I am VERY
lucky in that my team is a profit center,

That's the key. Your CFO doesn't know from training or documentation awards, and doesn't care. He or she does know that your group - if it sells enough training - is a net asset to the company.

which has not been the case in
other companies I've worked for. Since we are a profit center, it adds to
our value to produce award-winning documentation.

I don't think it does. What adds to your value is the number of dollars you bring in minus the costs of your group.

Now, having said all that, there could be other reasons to enter a competition, or as later posts described, try to get favorable product reviews. But if your goal is to stay employed and you are in a profit center, then your longevity is a very direct function of your profitability.

I've seen this at my company. Since we, too, are a profit center, we've been pretty much unaffected by layoffs - even when programmers have been let go.

Steve Schwarzman

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