Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 44

PAGE D2 STAR TRIBUNE BllSUlCSS FRIDAY, APRIL 21 2000 FOR EXECUTIVES ONLY SI ANTHONY from Dl Consumers given information, money, incentive to be prudent To communicate effectively, consider the options Tony Miller, CEO of HealtheCare and one of Its co-founders with Swanson. To get from my house to downtown Minneapolis, I have several options. If I am going and returning directly, I take the bus. If I have other stops to make and 1 am traveling outside rush hour, I take the freeway. If traffic is backed up on the freeway, I take one of the city streets.

The point is that I am more likely to accomplish my goal if I consider my options for getting there. To take the same route every day, without taking into account the conditions, would diminish my chances of arriving on time. Communication involves making similar choices. What works one day might not work the next. Like the savvy commuter, the effective communicator chooses the option that is most suitable for the circumstances.

Those options have to do with whether, when, and how: Whether to communicate It's so easy to communicate these days that we sometimes forget to ask certain underlying questions: Is it wise for me to communicate? What are the risks of communicating? What are the workshops, for example, told me about an incident involving a complaint she received by e-maiL She happened to be online when the message arrived, so she responded immediately. Later the person who had registered the complaint told her, "I thought you were angry when you shot back your response so quickly." How to communicate After you have decided whether and when to communicate, you must decide how. What is the most appropriate medium? Although e-mail might be the easiest and the quickest way to convey your message, you should not neglect more traditional methods. Hard copy might be the best way to convey a formal message. A handwritten note might be best to convey your appreciation to someone or to congratulate that person for an accomplishment.

A phone call might seem friendlier than an e-mail message. An in-person conversation might be the best way to handle a delicate situation. Now, let's say you have chosen what you think is your best route. You're heading downtown on the freeway and an accident slows EFFECTIVE WRITING Stephen Wilbers possible consequences of not communicating? Am I the right person to send this message? Should someone else send it? If you are asked to give an opinion or take a position before you have had a chance to inform yourself about an issue, your best option is to decline to comment. If a question can be better answered by someone else, you would be wise to let that person respond to the query.

Sometimes your best option is to remain silent. When to communicate Effective communicators know not only what to communicate, but when. Timely communication is the mark of people in control of their schedules and on top of their jobs. Untimely communication often involves conveying information too late to be useful to the recipient. There are situations, however, in which premature communication can be problematic.

A participant in one of my INESS BOOKS products a day. Such an explosion is happening in virtually every industry. Consider mutual funds: Investors have 8,000 choices. Or TV: Many households have 150 channels from which to choose. Or cars: There are 260 models to select from, nearly double what was available during the '70s.

And if you think you will buy the same type car next time, think again. Research shows that 67 percent of people who owned cars from a certain manufacturer would consider buying the same brand again, but fewer than 20 percent did so. Trout says consumer choice will determine the fate of your Author: Unique products stock and bond funds through about 1,000 Wells Fargo licensed representatives in its first offensive outside its own circle of 11,000 financial planners and brokers. In recent years, Amex started to permit its sales force to sell hundreds of mutual funds manufactured by competitors. It did so to hang on to senior planners who otherwise would have left the fold and also to provide more offerings to clients.

Most recently, Sarah Mealey, general manager of mutual funds, pledged to sell through other distributors part of a plan to increase Amex's No. 17 market share from about 1.6 percent to 2 percent of the fund market. Room with a view Clear the decks or at least 7th Street and 2nd Avenue next Tuesday about 9:45 a.m. for a street party starring entertainers, several thousand Amex employees and others gathered to inaugurate American Express Financial Center, the company's new headquarters. One early insight: Vice presidents and above still get offices in the new building, but they're generally going to be smaller than the ones in the IDS Center.

And the brass gets no breathtaking window views. Instead, the cubicle-bound and other worker bees get the window space. Score one for office democracy. Neat St. Anthony reports on companies, people and trends in the Twin Cities business community.

His column appears Tuesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at 612-673-7144 or Nstanthonystartribune.com. WIRELESS from Dl Companies move ,7 traffic to a crawl What would you do? If you didn't have far to go, you might consider taking the next exit In the same way, if you have called a supplier about late shipments several times in the past few months and the problem persists, you might try writing a formal letter of complaint rather than making another phone call. If you have sent several e-mail messages to an associate requesting information you need to write a grant proposal and your messages have gone unanswered, your next step might be to call. Or you might consider conveying a sense of urgency by making an in-person visit Like savvy commuters, effective communicators are flexible.

If one approach is not working, they take another. Minneapolis consultant Stephen Wilbers offers training seminars in effective business writing. Write to him at P.O. Box 19114, Minneapolis, MN 55419, or send e-mail to withers startribune.com. You can visit his Web page at wilbers.com.

survive your differentness, say as Volvo did with its push for safety, Trout suggests that you embrace that difference in your advertising, brochures, Web sites, sales presentations every time the consumer confronts your product "You can't overcommunicate your difference," Trout writes. Be first with a product; establish different leadership; tout a unique history; provide a market specialty; be hot. He devotes chapters to each of his ideas on what works in making this difference happen, with case studies of large and small companies. Trout's book, published by John Wiley Sons, retails for' $24.95. JAGUAR3 Select Edition Pre-Owned Automobiles The founders of the business are Swanson, 34, and Chief Executive Tony Miller, 33, also formerly of Deloitte Consulting and who once worked for United HealthCare, the huge Minneton-ka-based seller of health-man-agement services and products.

Here's the theory: Consumers complain that their HMOs dictate everything from providers to paperwork. So, give the people the money, the information, an incentive to be prudent, and let them go out and buy their services. The key components of the 1 model, which can be fine-tuned at the business-client level, involve: A "personal care account," funded at up to 100 percent by employers, which are used as "medical checking accounts" to pay for routine care. Remaining dollars at the year's end are rolled over to cover future costs for the employee. There is no use it or lose it.

A major medical policy to cover expenses, after the employee-selected deductible is exhausted. This typically costs less than half of an HMO subscription. In theory, the balance is given to the employees in their cash account for them to use or save at their discretion. Telephone- and Internet-based customer service centers that help enrollees research health issues, get advice and track personal care accounts. The idea is to free the consumer of "gatekeepers" who say where they can go for what, and give them discretion to spend or accumulate in their personal account.

What's cheaper? It depends on who's paying for what. Swanson says HealtheCare is designing products that will provide the same coverage for much less than the $600 or $700 per month it often costs for a family in an HMO. "It depends upon what the employer wants," he said. People are clamoring for options. Employees, who often pay up to half the premium bill, should like the self-directed aspect, modeled somewhat on the boom in 401(k) and other pre-tax retirement plans.

And this may create a more- direct system for providers to get paid, HealtheCare seeks to distinguish itself from stand-alone "medical savings accounts," where participation is limited by federal law and not tied into personalized information services. HealtheCare, which expects to have about 50 employees by the end of the year, is working with bigger players to get a lot of the infrastructure in place. That includes Aon, the risk-management and benefits consulting firm, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which will provide the personalized tools, including information on health issues, providers and typical market costs over the telephone and Internet. The equity investors are Merrill Lynch KECALP, partnerships that invest on behalf of employees of Merrill; Psilos Group Managers, a technology-oriented venture capital firm; and private-equity funders Bain Capital, Alta Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Co. For more information, check http:www.healthecare.com.

Amex asks, 'Tech American Express Financial Advisors, which has been criticized for missing some of the recent tech-stock boom, on Thursday launched AXP Innovation Fund. Portfolio manager Lou Giglio, 41, who also runs AXP Strategy Aggressive Growth which returned nearly 80 percent last year said that Innovations was up 133 percent last year as an internal-test "incubator" fund. The mouse-to-Microsoft-size stock fund is now open to the public, just when investors have been left jittery by last week's tech-stock tumble. "We'll look back in a year and see whether it was a good time to launch the fund," Giglio said. "The key to productivity is technology.

Technology will continue to drive growth." The fund will be one more selling point as Amex tries to make good on a commitment to push itself into the 21st century. The firm announced this week that it's going to start selling a couple of annuity products through Wells Fargo Co. This summer it expects to be peddling J. UIL CUnSUUltlS UlUIl LtUUlOlUgY YOU'LL LOVE THE WARRANTY AT FIRST SIGHT TOO. most likely to product or service.

"With the enormous competition, markets today are driven by choice," Trout writes. "The customer has so many good alternatives that you pay dearly for your mistakes. Your competitors get your business and you don't get it back very easily. Companies that don't understand this will not survive." Most new products, he says, aren't truly new but rather introduce "bells, whistles and tweaks." But competitors often are doing something that you might not be: consistently marketing the idea behind the product. "Better products don't win.

Better perceptions tend to be the winners," Trout writes. "Truth will not win out unless it has some help along the way." So once you've established Financing and leasing options Available at authorized Jaguar dealers only By Teresa McUsic Forr Worth Star-Telegram Celebrate the uniqueness of your product fast That is probably the only way to survive in today's competitive markets, marketing guru Jack Trout asserts in his latest book, "Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Age of Killer Competition." The average supermarket has 40,000 SKUs (stock-keeping units, referring to different sizes or types of products), Trout writes. But the average family gets 80 to 85 percent of its products from 150 SKUs. And consider this: In 1987, 14,254 products were introduced in the United States, according to a market reporting firm. In 1998, that number expanded to 25,181 products, or an average of 69 to focus more 7 7 fastest-growing industries mobile telecommunications and the Internet "me-business." That refers to personalizing services with fairly cheap hardware offerings such as keyboard-like devices; those that can synchronize with a computer or notebook; and cell phones or pagers that can send and receive faxes and e-mail.

Kessler offered a tantalizing view of a world in which his company's products will feature embedded voice recognition and technology that enables devices to talk to each other without needing to synchronize. "It's about customer focus. It's not about technology focus," Kessler said. "You make something simple, thin, wearable, reliable for your mom, your aunt, your sister or brother someone who doesn't know how or want to know how to boot a PC." Motorola demonstrated a combination device being sold in Asia that looked something like its popular StarTac phones but opens up to reveal itself to be both a phone and a fully integrated handheld organizer. And it is touting its Mya service as a "cyber-assistant" that reads the Web to you from any phone.

Also on display was technology from a Silicon Valley company called Tellme, one of several experimenting with voice recognition technology that allows you to speak to your handheld device and hear information back. Funco said its board will meet "in the near term" to discuss the new offer. Eden Prairie-based Funco also sells video-game hardware and accessories through 401 retail stores and its Web site. Electronics Boutique operates 628 stores in 46 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia and South Korea. Its combination with Funco would create the world's largest specialty retailer of electronic games.

Microsoft Palm Inc. and others hope to profit from the operating systems that run such devices, while companies such as Handspring Casio Computer Nokia Corp. and Motorola Inc. are angling for a share of the hardware dollars. The gold rush has come as companies took note of the aggressive rollout of wireless devices and services in Europe and Asia.

Those devices are being embraced by the business community to do everything from managing their operations to providing customers with "convenience" services. Those services include attaching bar-code scanners to hand-helds as well as global positioning devices that can beam prices and feature instant sale offerings as a means of luring people into a particular store. Such technology is being tested in New York and San Francisco by a company called GeePS.com. "Most people won't have their first experience on the Internet through a PC, but on a wireless device," Sun Microsystems Inc. President Edward Zander said in a keynote speech at the show.

Sun is pushing its Jini technology, which shoehorns pieces of its operating system into a smart device that will allow networking with other gadgets, such as a digital camera or cell Alan Kessler, the chief operating officer of Palm's platforms and products group, called the effort to bring together two of the world's FUNCOfromDl Y---' After reviewing 21 pre-owned vehicle programs, IntelliChoice named Jaguar Select Edition the country's Best Certified Pre-Owned Program and Best Pre-Owned Warranty warranty 120-point cosmetic mechanical inspection 24-liour roadside assistance Merger would create largest retailer of electronic games Rudy Luther's DOWNTOWN JAGUAR Conveniently Locju-d at I It'tltu-pin Wjshninlim: 371-1417 Funco shares had fallen 39 percent in the year before the original agreement with West Chester, Electronics Boutique was announced. "The market is clearly expecting a higher offer," otherwise Funco's stock wouldn't be trading near the offer prices, said Robert Evans, an analyst at the Craig-Hallum Capital Group, who has a "neutral" rating on the shares. "Funco is very strategic for both companies." 1 fcwMlliM? WilWIW Cohtiirp includes rcmniriinK new nir wiii i imty iIiih the Select lidil ion premium wiirninly, which provide overage fur mi iidditionnl 2 years miles on rliilili' model yenr vehicles or newer. Cnvenine fur mndel yenr vehicles will dilTer. Sec your denier for details on this limited eovernue.

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