BizBits

on the go

Media monster

HP Pavilion dv5000 Notebook PC

Who says your laptop has to be all work and no play?

HP’s new 15.4-inch widescreen Pavilion dv5000 notebook provides all the power of a work computer with all the fun of a home media center. Optional BrightView technology and an ATI Radeo XPRESS 200M graphics card guarantee the smoothest most vivid images—perfect for catching up on your DVD collection during a flight or watching TV with an HP ExpressCard TV Tuner. there’s even a remote control. Starts at $749, www.hp.com

Make a change

Edit.com Do-It-Yourself Editing

Many businesses, big and small, get wonderfully designed websites up and running, only to discover that the information is already out-of-date. Instead of learning html or going back to costly developers every time you need to change a small detail, check out this new service from Edit.com, which allows users to easily and quickly update text, links and images on their sites themselves. Changes are made to conform to the site’s current design, and no special software is needed.

Annual service plans start at $15 per month , www.edit.com

On the run

Kyocera KR1 Mobile Router

the world is your office with this tremendous gizmo. Just connect a wireless modem card or USB handset to this router, power up your laptops and other wireless devices, and voila, you have a Wi-finetwork anywhere you go. the unit has four Ethernet ports for wired connections to the router and supports speeds up to
2.4Mbps. 128-WEP encryption and a powerful firewall will ensure that your data remains safe. $299.99, www.kyocera-wireless.com

Sellsation!

How Companies Can Capture Today’s Hottest Market: Women Business Owners and Executives

by Leslie Grossman (WPE Press LLC) $23.95

Considering that nearly half of all privately owned businesses are owned by women, don’t you th ink it’s about time that you focus on this highly lucrative market? the sad fact is that salespeople often don’t know how to address the needs of female executives, who are often not swayed by the techniques used to market to the mass market of female consumers or male executives. thankfully, auth or Leslie Grossman— cofounder of Women’s Leadership Exchange and president of B2Women— has written a guide on how these powerful women make purchasing decisions and how that differs from their male counterparts.

Withexamples from leading companies, get all the inside tips on how to successfully provide what this important market demands.

CEO soundbyte

Ward J. “Tim” Timken

Earlier this year, trade magazine IndustryWeek gathered together the country’s leading steel manufacturers for a roundtable discussion on the state of US steel output, and on manufacturing in general. Ward J “Tim” Timken, Jr, chairman of the Timken Company, is particularly concerned with guaranteeing that future generations have the technical know-how to continue to lead the world in industrial manufacturing.

“We are seeing a generational shift going on. People hired in back in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s are retiring, and as we look at the American academic system today, there is a lack of qualified engineering students coming out of colleges. For this industry, the particular focus is metallurgists but for our company, it is engineering in general. If you look at the students graduating out of India and China, there is about a 10 to one ratio on the number of engineers we graduate versus graduating in th ose other countries, and that’s a very significant concern of ours.

“Finding qualified people to hire, who can look at a steel industry and say, ‘this is an attractive place to work—I can earn a career here and support my family,’ is critical. Now the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST) Foundation have put together a novel approach towards grant making for curriculum development. But the colleges are seeing fewer students who are attracted to our industries, so we are doing our part.

“All the companies that are represented around the table are doing their bit too. this area doesn’t get much attention—but it should. If we lose our base manufacturing engineering knowledge in this country, we are in big trouble.”