A prospectus for pursuit of a position in the
Manager of New Ventures Group
IdeaLab, Pasadena, California

    I have out-of-channel, startling-revelation creativity.
    I have 35 years of practical business wisdom.
    Apparently I've been training for IdeaLab all along.

   Qualifications Summary

    Business warrior:

Have designed enterprises, run business, met payrolls -- ownership for real, including startups
Have written control software of all kinds, including accounting
Have brought companies to the web
Have hired, fired, consoled and inspired team members
Have conceptualized, sourced and rolled out niche products
Have failed and succeeded many times

Business Poet:

Affirmative sense of life. This is it. Make something fine.
A wordsmith lives for ideas.
I hear your pitch and sing it back to you, fresh; you'll know I got it.
Let me see the best you have, that's my starting point with you, permanently. You'll get my best, as well.
Not the drab grey of officialdom, not the savagery of the pit, not the whims of children, either.
Dreams with roots.

Work History

1998 - 2002	AnWright Corporation - Full IT integrated system, custom software, expert systems, training, web presence, accounting
2000	MoneyNet - Application for Mortgage brokers, customer function and business management
1990 - 1998	Development of Verismo - Contracts with three aerospace companies, building features into integrated accounting and production control system
1988-1989	Mid-State Financial Services - North Carolina; Telemarketing leads management and direct mail system
1986-1988	Los Angeles - Varied consulting and programming contracts; construction, stock investment, mortuary, dental equipment, etc.
1987	Denver, CO - Custom program for legal office, case management and organizer
1986	AnWright - First contact with AnWright Corporation, quotation program
1986	Palos Verdes, CA - First accounting program, for construction contractors
1986	Tarzana, CA - Salad Dressing -- project director for startup for niche product
1984-1985	Retail - Retail Computer store, Torrance CA
1984	Canoga Park, CA - Restaurant Startup, including construction, hiring, menus, POS, systems
1976-1984	Buffalo, NY and San Diego, CA - Gift Industry, manufacturing and distribution, factory design, management, accounting
1974-1975	Watkins Glen, NY - Manager and potential partner in startup, organic beef farm
1969-1974	New York City and Buffalo NY - Top Restaurants, wait staff and some management
1968	Buffalo, NY - Truck Driver. Yes, Truck driver!
1967	New York City - Quintessential New York City Lunch Counter Waiter
1966	Buffalo NY - Restaurants, my first employment

    My past twenty years of consulting to the heads of small businesses reflects the calling to get right to the heart of a business, to be at service to it, to function in rifle-shot mode as either the boss or "on a mission for the boss."

    I know what it is to hire an administrative staff, and line workers. I also Know how to promote them, train them, motivate them. And I know how to fire them, also. A grim task.

    I have a thorough knowledge of accounting, the ability to take books through the trail balance, prepare, read and analyze financial statements, manage receivables and payables, prepare a business plan with pro-forma spreadsheets, establish EDI (Electronic data interchange) and manage cash. I can run a business office -- or recognize if a potential CFO can.

Computer Skills:

Windows

MacOS

Microsoft Office, all modules
Strong Word and Excel, Scripting/Rules in Outlook, Some Powerpoint (two simple presentations)

Microsoft FoxPro extremely experienced. More on database spreadsheet and HTML skills, click here.

Microsoft Access some working familiarity and competence

ACT, Outlook, data import/export/manipulation in database or spreadsheet applications, mail merge

ICQ

Compression utilities, WinZip and Stuffit

HTML hand coding, simple javascript, image mapping, tables

Website design (not Flash, but practical advanced HTML)

Graphics tool of choice: Canvas, a vastly underrated application

Quicktime, Windows Media Player RealMedia and Acrobat on the advanced user level

Overture Suggestion Tool, Advertiser module, Search Engine

Of course, I can operate any competently written accounting software after a brief study of it's documentation. I am experienced specifically in SBT, Great Plains and several smaller Macintosh accounting programs

   The Value I Bring To The Task

    I offer intelligence, problem solving, business experience, loyalty, hard work, positive attitude, and the healthy attribute of service. This is the moment. Time to deploy an artist's passion under the control of an engineer's mind.

    I extend sincere appreciation to you for reading this assessment and considering me for the position.

    John Donohue

John Donohue
224 East Del Mar Blvd at Marengo
Pasadena, CA 91101
(626) 229-9821
E-Mail john@jrdonohue.com

Position desired:
Membership in the Manager of New Ventures Group at IdeaLab

Brainstorming, Analytical and Executive Skills:

Intelligence:
Rational. Takes pleasure in the application of cognitive faculty upon objectives. Cool under pressure.

Any position for which I am a candidate must require intelligence fundamentally, along with the contingent skills of focus, organization, delegation and communication. If a fierce and focused intelligence is not demanded, I will not flourish.

Bridge perspective:
A technical person who understands business, an entrepreneur/manager not fazed by technical issues.

Injection:
Grasps the buzz and behavior of new business segments on very short study.

Broad experience, maturity:
Has been employed in, or consultant to, manufacturing, distribution, mail order, agriculture, retail, hospitality, education, construction contracting, legal offices, mediation practice, dental office, computer VAR small business, accounting software publishing, mortgage broker industry, computer retail, database design and programming, web site design, purchased search engine position evaluation, personal technology buying and tutoring, small concert management, gift industry, and Montessori School management.

Skilled listener:
Ability to conceptualize and vivify the speaker's point of view, reflect it back validated and enriched.

The respectful opposition:
Devil's advocate par excellence when this role is called upon, but never with intent to injure. Has the uncanny ability to ask the most awkward questions and spot hope substituting for facts.

Problem solver:
Resourceful, creative, persistent, determined.

When I pick up a menu, I always assume it is a mere suggestion. Sometimes I just let the menu sit there; then, I begin to arrange for what I actually want to eat, with respect. When tasked with something important and difficult, I take quick consideration of the obvious path. This may well be the correct one. However, when only a creative solution suffices, I surrender momentarily to let the unusual, the offbeat, the strikingly out-of-channel come to my awareness. This is pleasurable for me, and effective for the task. I still remember the IdeaLab team that created the shopping cart, like nothing ever seen before. I'm like that.

Work Ethic
Thoroughly ensconced in the click/dot world view, and temperate-climate, East-Coast-megalopolis, parents-survived-the-Depression, gratitude-burns-bright attitude tags along.

Productive:
Clear thinking, organized, focused. Views delegation as an invitation to excellence. No technology when a yellow legal pad will do.

Affirmative, positive:
Assumes a winning solution is imminent. A happy person, respectful of and interested in others. This is the one split second moment in history when a person can make a living in a wonderful culture by pursuing work that comes from pleasure in the doing. The productivity arising from this surrounds us. How fine to watch the next person over finding this true, and the next beyond him, and the next. There is no better time to be alive.

Service orientation:
'At service,' as an honorable position. Projected into customer's point of view.

Loyal and committed:
A strong sense of "owning" a job, if in the right one. There is a certain pride, as a result. This breeds strength and dedication, the general desire to give good value.

Life Work

I am a composer of classic music, a literacy advocate, a writer of fiction and political commentary, a fine cook, and a brother in a tight-knit family of extraordinary siblings. These are not hobbies; they are part of the big picture. More on any such topic in person, should you wish.

I am in my 14th year of parenting. My son enters high school this fall. One must write reams on what is gained in rearing children, or fall silent for the moment.

Born April 3, 1949
Buffalo, New York
California resident since 1979
Current residence, 3 years