Dear Herb:
I am an IT professional with a problem. I am very good at what I do, and my managers keep wanting to promote me into management. However, I have been a manager in another job, and I know that I neither am good at it nor do I enjoy it.

The problem is: How do I avoid promotion? If I reject it, I know that my boss' boss will consider this adversely. I could screw up on the job so that I will not be promotable, but I would also shoot my chances of getting a decent pay raise to hell. Moreover, I like where I am working, and I don't want to leave.

Can you give me some advice?
John Hobson

Dear John:
You have some very strange bosses. They should thank their lucky stars that they have someone who does a good job and is content to keep doing it.

First of all, under no circumstances should you lower your own performance in order to extricate yourself from this situation. Your professional reputation is something you will have to live with for a long time, and you cannot tarnish it simply to avoid unwanted opportunities. Besides, I suspect you would become very unhappy in your present job if you did so.

My suggestion is that you ask for a meeting with your bosses to discuss your career plans. At the start of the discussion, tell them you are happy in your job and have appreciated the opportunity to do interesting work. Then explain to them that you have no desire to be a manager (been there, done that) and that you want to continue to contribute as you have in the past. If they are not convinced and continue to bother you, then you really should consider getting another job. Your present bosses are simply too stupid to be above you on the organizational chart. A new employer would welcome you with open arms.

Dear Herbert:
I have been in the tech industry for a few years now and find it necessary to reinvent myself every couple of years.

After graduating with a degree in finance, I started out working for a startup in telecommunications and progressed from a sales analyst position to that of running the operations, including the network, and designing a custom application that drove the business.

In 1998 I got Microsoft systems engineer certification, and I am working toward my plus I certification. I should have it by the time I get a response.

I am also 60% of the way through a Master's Certificate in project management and have spent the last few years as a consultant trying to gobble up as many different experiences as possible.

After that little bit of background, here's the question. I see and understand that E-whatever, whether it's business, customer-service, etc., is the way to go. What I don't understand is what a good E-whatever candidate looks like.

I know the networking, business, and project-management functions of the company, but I don't feel prepared to charge out and tackle an E-business type of position. In the past I have avoided the programming side of the business and now I fear that development is the only way into E-business. What skills, training, and experience make up a good E-business candidate?

Todd

Dear Todd:
The Internet has turned our businesses upside down. Every day we wonder where the next challenge will come from and how we will cope with it. One thing is clear, however: In order to survive in this new environment, we have to be flexible, have initiative, and be able to adapt to change.

It seems to me that you have demonstrated the traits that are necessary to succeed. For a guy who started out with a finance degree and then got network and project-management certification along with business experience, you are not giving yourself enough credit for possessing the knowledge and talent to adapt and prosper in the E-business world.

It's not necessary for you to become an expert in the programming and development side to have a good career. Project-management skills and an understanding of the network ramifications of providing superior service to online customers are as important, if not more so. I suggest that you do some reading about Web design, talk in depth to people so that you understand the subject, and then go market yourself as an individual who is willing to work hard to help make a business achieve its goals.

Hi Herb:
We really enjoy your writing--'tis good to be able to laugh and learn simultaneously.

To whom would you advise we address questions regarding industry approaches for valuation of privately owned companies? Such a company would typically be operating on a regional basis, providing custom software project development, systems integration, business-oriented middleware, and E-commerce solutions. We're here considering smaller companies; for example, those with two or three dozen employees, and $2 million to $3 million in annual revenue.

Are the valuations based on multiples of sales? earnings?

Sure would appreciate your advice on best sources for this type of information...

Cheers,
Mark Varley

Dear Mark:
In response to your questions, the answers are: it depends, sometimes, and yes.

In reverse order (in honor of the fact that it's easier to say what stock you should have bought than it is to pick the one you should buy now):

Yes, earnings are a significant indicator used to build an evaluation of a company's worth. However, future earnings are more important that past ones. So, while it's good to have a track record of net income, it's more important to have a solid, defensible estimate of projected earnings. Investors are buying for the future (although too many base their decisions on the past).

Sometimes the value of a company is a function of the revenue stream. While the amount of product/services that a company is selling is important, what's more significant is the growth rate of sales and the quality of those sales. In other words, we need to know whether sales are increasing substantially, and are those sales being made to growing companies with good reputations that can serve as reference accounts?

It depends on what you plan to do with the answer, in order for you to decide to whom to go for an evaluation of a business.

If you are seeking a loan from a bank for expansion, it really doesn't matter a whole lot what independent information you obtain; it matters what they believe from their own sources. Your input can be used for negotiation, but that's about it.

If, however, you are seeking venture capital, you would start with your business plan as the basis, take your growth rate and projected earnings and factor in the likelihood of reaching your targets. The trick, as you might expect, is to translate these numbers into a basis for the valuation of the business. One way I like to do that particular math is to look at the price/earnings or price/sales ratios of businesses in the particular sector against which a firm can be compared. Using those ratios and your own numbers, you have an idea of what your company is worth. However, there is a large caveat: Given the fluctuation of the stock market, it's clear that to a venture capitalist, value is in the eye of the beholder. Once again, the quality of the business plan will count for a great deal.

Hi Herb:
I agree with your encouraging people to seek a well-rounded set of skills! I saw your response to Sam's letter (http://www.informationweek.com/766/secret.htm) and had to write and thank you for that great response.

As an IT professional with 12 years' experience. I can tell you that down here in the trenches at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory a person with the skills that Sam described is as valuable as gold. The computer sciences programs offered at most of our colleges and universities offer all the right technical courses, but fail to even approach four vital areas:

• Communication skills
• Technical writing
• Customer service
• Team-player skills

In the past two years my boss and I have struggled to find resources with these skills to staff our Web-development projects. We "tried out" seven programmers during that time, and have found only one "keeper" in the bunch. These were not entry-level folks. The least amount of experience any of them had was five years, and that was the guy we kept.

Nancy Getsi

Dear Nancy:

I think that you said it better than I did, so I'm just going to repeat your words with a few additions of my own:

What we desperately need in our profession are people who are

• Communicators (willing to listen and able to verbalize clearly what we plan to do about people's problems)
• Good at technical writing (explaining our jargon in written language such that people can understand what we mean)
• Focused on customer service (really caring about solving your problems instead of complaining about their own)
• Team players (more interested in getting the job done than getting the credit for their own accomplishments)

Thanks for writing and best of luck in your future hiring.