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Agree, however, I have to do what my manager asks me to do :-}
Anna Langley
Courseware Team
Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Schwarzman [mailto:steve_schwarzman -at- hotmail -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 6:20 PM
To: alangley -at- ts -dot- checkpoint -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Subject: RE: INDUSTRY COMPETITIONS
>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.
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