Business Trends to Watch in 2001

Return to Virginia Business - February 2001

News and Features
Business Trends to Watch in 2001

by Page Boinest Melton

A new year, a new millennium, what better time to depart from the old and try something new? Technology continues to spur innovation in everything from traditional resumes to outsourced communications. Quick, before the bubbles burst on that pledge to stretch your company’s wings, check out these hot business trends for 2001.

Creative resumes CREATIVE RESUMES— The athletic supporter did grab Sandy Murray’s attention. A job applicant sent it in the mail to the partner of The Packet Group advertising agency in Roanoke as an offbeat way to jockey for a position. His point? He could work hard and still protect his vitals and, most importantly, think outside the box. It worked. The copywriter got the job. These days, many job applicants are trying to stand out by presenting credentials in imaginative ways, especially in highly competitive, creative fields, such as advertising and marketing, They’re putting technology to work, using CD ROMs and PowerPoint presentations to give their portfolios and resumes visual zing. Even little enclosures, such as checks, flowers and even clothing, may capture an employer’s eye.

And it’s not just job applicants: The trend occurs for students trying to get into college. One applicant to Virginia Commonwealth University’s AdCenter wanted to "uncork her potential" through the ad program. So she sent in an application with a corkscrew and 50 corks bearing words like "creativity."

But there’s a limit to what the offbeat can do. Employers still want substance. "We find more often than not that the resume needs work," says Bob Brittingham, general manager of Search and Recruit International in Virginia Beach. A plain, old well-written resume still goes a long way in 2001. Other job recruiters suggest landing the job before revealing one’s unconventional side. "This is still the South. We recommend following convention as far as cover letters, resumes and even dress," says Jim McBride, director of university career services for the University of Virginia. Wacky self promotion has a downside. If applicants strike a wrong chord, they can be branded weird or worse. As Murray notes, "A more conservative advertising agency might have thought a jock strap disgusting."

FINANCIAL WELLNESS — Physical wellness may have been the rage of the ’90s, but in today’s workplace companies are toning up employees’ financial muscles. So, swap the treadmill and exercise regime for a calculator and family budget. Whether it’s choosing long-distance telephone companies or retirement fund strategies, today’s worker spends more time weighing family pocketbook decisions than ever before. On top of that, easy access to credit creates problems for families who spend more than they earn. A former Virginia Tech researcher says employees troubled by money matters at home bring troubles to work, decreasing productivity. "A worker with money problems is like a shark swimming around the workplace taking bites out of the bottom line," says Thomas Garman, now senior fellow at the Orlando nonprofit InCharge Institute, a group of credit counseling and debt management services.

Garman sees a day when workplace financial counseling will help to head off health problems. The challenge may be in convincing employers to commit time for financial counseling. First Union’s operations center in Roanoke invites financial educators in to talk to employees about budgeting, first-time home-buying, insurance coverage and credit issues. "We show we value our employees by investing in personal and professional development," says First Union’s Janice Parker.

PRIVACY EXECS – You’ve heard of the CEO, the CFO, and the CIO. How about the CPO? No, we’re not talking about a Navy chief or a Star Wars character. It’s the newest trend in corporate hierarchies, the Chief Privacy Officer. With technology allowing the collection of more personal data, consumers worry about privacy, so companies are inventing a new white knight of the 21st century: the CPO. His or her job is to help firms protect the sensitive information they collect, from credit card accounts to health records. At least 100 companies have named "chief privacy officers," a number New Jersey-based privacy expert Alan Westin estimates will reach 500 by year’s end and well into the thousands in a few years. Privacy execs have an open-ended job; guarding against hackers and articulating uses for sensitive personal, financial or medical information. They’re even faced with commercial decisions, as companies shift away from routinely providing customer lists to vendors to what’s called "permission marketing," where customers have a say in who solicits them.

Privacy officers not only set guidelines, they figure out how to communicate those guidelines to customers and employees. Telecommunications giant Verizon errs on the side of exhaustive disclosure. Its Web site spells out what information may be collected from a Web visitor or a Verizon customer and how the information is used or protected. It may be more than some people want to know, but "we see it as a competitive advantage," says Shelley Harms, Verizon’s executive director for privacy and an early pioneer in privacy issues. Hiring executives to police privacy matters may be the price of doing business as consumers and state attorneys general more aggressively sue companies over privacy breaches. "What that tells you is that a company that’s not careful and effective in its privacy policy will be paying out a lot of money," says Westin.

Internnet access INTERNET ACCESS – The problem has been around for a few years now. Instead of hanging around the water cooler, deadbeat workers spend their time using their company Internet accounts to shop, swap jokes with their friends or read newspapers. Now employers have a new worry. They fear the Net will offer workers a new way of organizing into labor unions. "We’re trying to get companies to understand that it’s a new age of information," says Richmond attorney Hill B. Wellford Jr. A labor and employment law specialist for Hunton and Williams, Wellford advises companies to allow Internet access only for employees who need it for business and to limit or prohibit non-business e-mail and electronic communications among workers.

Still, this is an evolving area of law and there are few rules. Companies also face a morale issue: How do you take away access once it’s been granted? Danny LeBlanc, president of the Virginia AFL-CIO, says labor still relies heavily on face-to-face pitches, but he calls the Internet and e-mail "wonderful tools" in recruiting new members. With more households logging on, labor leaders say they can reach workers, no matter the workplace rules. "When I ask a worker to sign a petition," says LeBlanc, "you can bet I ask them for their e-mail address."

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY —The Internet puts people a mouse click away from a global database of intellectual property. That’s the good news. Or bad news. Experts see 2001 as a year the country grapples with how much is too much when it comes to sharing or appropriating intellectual property off the Net. There’s no distinction between protecting content written on paper or in an electronic form. But there’s the practical matter of trying to police use of material after it becomes available on the information superhighway. "The problem with the Internet is that it’s a machine of instant massive infringement," notes Dana D. McDaniel, an intellectual property lawyer in Northern Virginia specializing in technology issues for Williams, Mullen, Clark & Dobbins. "The Internet is such a powerful tool and it’s built on free exchange."

Look for intense intellectual property debates in two arenas this year: the courts and Congress. Courts are weighing the fate of Napster, the Web site that’s allowed millions of computer users to download music from each other. Congress is expected to consider copyright reforms affecting Internet content. Some tech supporters feel they already are off on the right foot with the Bush administration’s choice of former Sen. John Ashcroft of Missouri for attorney general. Ashcroft gets high marks for his hands-off regulatory approach to tech issues. In what was a low-tech precursor to the Napster case, then-Missouri Attorney General Ashcroft filed an amicus brief in the Betamax court case that ultimately cleared the way for consumers to videotape shows from television using their home VCRs.

PAY AS YOU GO —You get what you pay for and pay only for what you get. That’s the thinking behind specialized pay-per-use communication services, a growing trend in customer relationship management. For companies that want to outsource their customer communications, packages include specialized hosting, software tools and multi-option telecommunications. The benefits? Startups that need the same systems as the giants save on the cost of investing in hardware, software and computer integration equipment.

Clients of the pay-per-use firm Ineto want to plow money back into the company — "not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on customer communications when all they need is an Internet connection, browser and a telephone," says Ineto’s David James. The Texas company, founded by three former MCI executives, is recognized as a new leader in the market. Ikimbo Inc. in Herndon, a communication and collaboration software company founded in October 1999, outsources customer tracking for its sales and marketing staff. "We need more time for existing products and to develop new products. And it allows our sales and marketing arm to devote 100 percent of their time to sales and marketing," explains Demi Kympton, Ikimbo’s media relations manager.

Taxes TAXES—People may be socking away money for retirement as never before. That’s because Congress will reconsider legislation that will make it easier for workers to put away funds for later in life. These include measures for small businesses to set up pension programs and increase tax-free contributions to 401 (k) plans. Contribution limits on traditional and Roth IRAs would increase and taxpayers 50 and older would be allowed to pay an extra "catch-up" sum each year. "It’s increasing savings, which is good for the economy and will help supplement Social Security," says Richmond tax attorney Lou Mezzullo. The changes also will help working women, especially those who get back into the work force at an older age and have less time to accumulate retirement savings. The package is a winner for smaller companies: Fattening retirement accounts helps businesses "that can’t match big incentive packages offered by bigger companies," says Gordon Dixon, Virginia director of the National Federal of Independent Businesses.

Small business owners also are heartened by another development. A 1999 law that required capital gains taxes to be paid in a lump sum at the time of a business sale has been repealed. That rule threatened retirement savings for many sellers. The retroactive change reinstates the previous form of accounting, allowing capital gains taxes to be paid in installments if that’s how the sale is structured. Joe Wilson, who owns the 70-employee Perma-Treat Pest Control Co. in Fredericksburg, says the change especially helps entrepreneurs who start their companies from scratch. "They (sellers) end up having large capital gains. It becomes a major concern when they’re trying to sell their business, because they can get hit by a huge tax." These trends are expected to continue in the Bush administration.

Return to Virginia Business - February 2001