The Buzz

>>If your answer is "building more roads," you would be incorrect.

Several metro areas around the country have turned to technology that ranges from smart traffic signals to eyes in the sky.

"The first thing people think of is 'we need more roads or have to widen what we have,'" says David Schrank, a researcher with the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. "We do, but that takes so long to plan and design."

Cities such as Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago and even some parts of Florida's east coast have installed metered signals at freeway entrance ramps that allow vehicles on at timed intervals, thus merging traffic in a controlled manner. They work, Schrank says.

Some places in other parts of the country are also outfitting intersections on major thoroughfares with signals that "talk" to each other. The idea is they monitor flow and adjust to changes in traffic, thus moving cars more fluidly.

Cameras mounted on freeway bridges and road signs are also becoming popular. "There is 24-hour surveillance, so if there's an incident, the necessary emergency equipment can be deployed rapidly," explains Schrank. The response also could include dispatching tow trucks quickly and providing drivers with information about alternative routes. And metro areas using receivers mounted on signs and bridges could analyze and report traffic flow via the same transponder commonly used at tolls.

We could see both of those innovations here shortly. Florida plans to build a $35 million incident system that includes cameras on I-75 that feed into a building staffed by public safety personnel, and Lee County is in the planning stages of developing the receivers that use the toll transponders.

It might be longer before we see another traffic fix: satellites that detect traffic movement and accidents by taking readings through OnStar-like equipment. Still, "we're being very aggressive with our technology," says Johnny Limbaugh, Southwest area manager for the Florida Department of Transportation.

-Phil Borchmann

>>Arthur Allen has a wonderful view of Naples, literally and figuratively. His fourth-floor corner office offers a scenic vista of the Naples Bay landscape-and he has plenty of great things to say about the community in which ASG, his enterprise software company, is headquartered.

After coming out of retirement in 1986, Allen launched his business, growing it to a $200-million global enterprise. Nowadays, the Ohio native and technology guru spends 250 nights away from home on business, traveling to destinations such as Asia, South America, Europe and throughout the United States. For Allen, extensive travel does not create any downtime; he's shuttled around in the company's Gulfstream G-55, a comfortable craft that flies 15 plus a crew. It is his mobile boardroom in which he's enjoyed the company of many important CEOs and dignitaries, including former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Allen, a serious tennis player and community power broker, is a global thinker whose heart remains in Naples.

1. What are your growth plans for the coming year?

We are finishing our third building [in Naples], so I've built the infrastructure for additional growth. Over the next 12 months, we're going to hire locally about another 100 people to put into the building, primarily in telesales for North America. We will be announcing, if all goes well, an acquisition in California. That will give us another five to 10 offices around the world and another 150 employees. So we're continuing to grow both internally and organically, and we'll continue to grow through acquisitions. We're still on target to become a $1 billion revenue company by the year 2010.

2. How would you describe the climate for technology businesses in Southwest Florida?

Collier County is a great place for technology companies, but it wasn't that way when I started ASG 20 years ago. Literally, you'd be on the telephone and phone lines would drop or the power would go down. We now have great technology infrastructure. I'm a member of the Regional Business Alliance, and we're in the process of trying to bring more and more tech companies to Naples.

Office space is a challenge for larger companies. There's a lot of office space in Naples, but not in contiguous, large square footages, and the Regional Business Alliance is going to address that by starting some office parks or something.

3. What sort of gizmos do you have on your jet?

We literally have the plane equipped to conduct business on the ground, in the air, at trade shows. We really get a lot out of it. We have DirecTV, Internet access and presentation equipment. We can give a demonstration of our technology either over the Internet or on the aircraft. We have virtually everything you could have in a conference room or office building. I've closed million-dollar deals on the aircraft while we were in flight.

4. For companies considering doing business overseas, what advice would you have?

Stay very flexible and don't look for immediate success. It's an investment. For example, in Brazil, which is an emerging economy, we have gone to this one trade show for the past four or five years, and now every company in Brazil knows ASG. So it took us that much time to get recognized, and it's the same throughout Asia. It takes time to get in.

5. How do you answer critics who say foreign trade takes away U.S. jobs?

Being a global-thinking person, I come at it from a slightly different perspective. If you look back at the development of the United States, where it really started in the Northeast, all of the industry built up [there]. Over time industry moved to different parts of the United States, where companies could produce products at a lesser cost. That's exactly what's happening now with exporting from the United States. Companies get squeezed and the cost is so high that you have to start looking at alternatives to get those costs down, and one of those alternatives is to go to a low-cost provider [in a foreign country].

-Interview by Phil Borchmann

book of the month

Diversity, from

Promise to Practice

>>The year was 1963, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told the world of his dream. Forty-three years later, organizations are still struggling with the difference between knowing and doing.

If policies are neatly in place, numbers achieved, and "isms" under control, diversity is being managed, many argue.

"Not true," insists R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., a Wall Street Journal-acclaimed, world-renowned expert on diversity management.

In his must-read book, Building on the Promise of Diversity, the author details the craft of diversity management.

This action-oriented book raises the bar. Instead of rehashing diversity per se, the author teaches us how to manage "differences and similarities through a formalized process of diversity management." He explains this process as a craft, which he has titled (and trademarked) Strategic Diversity Management Process (SDMP). It is both an art and a skill.

We begin by learning the art of "how the craft works and stakes that make change worthwhile." In Part Two of the book, we are offered context for organizational, personal and community progress with diversity. The remainder of the book focuses on the skill.

We are presented with specific, step-by-step instructions that help us gain proficiency with SDMP and reflect upon why we might be personally "diversity challenged."

The book is a wake-up call that rings true. As leaders of organizations and communities, we finally have a tool that moves us beyond finger-pointing and pontification to building healthy organizations and prosperous communities.

Using SDMP goes beyond nicety. It is a critical necessity-a necessity that can help us use diversity management to find creative solutions for achieving our organization's mission and making its vision a reality. Like Dr. King, it makes a difference in lives.

-Judith Kolva, assistant professor of interdisciplinary studies, International College

on the job

In the Driver's Seat

>>"What happens in the limo, stays in the limo," says Tony Puccia, owner of LA Limo Service in Naples. It's a motto he's been living by since he first started driving for a limousine company in upstate New York. When he relocated to Naples in 1994, Puccia foresaw a demand for a reliable limo service in the area, and in 1999 he started LA Limo Service, which at the time had only two competitors. Now, with an influx of affluent residents who want drivers to deliver them to local red-carpet events, he competes with half a dozen other local transportation companies. Over the years he's built and expanded the business with the help of his wife, Pam, who handles the administrative side.

What are your jobs like? I drive mostly to the airports. I'm getting a little too old for stag parties. There's more money to be made when you do the stag parties, but you have to baby-sit [the passengers]. They know they're going to get drunk and that they don't have to drive.

How much does it cost to rent a limo these days? [Most are] $65 to $85 an hour, with a four-hour minimum. We have three limos, one of them a Bentley, which goes from $100 to $150 an hour.

It must be a relaxing job, driving people around all day. Not really. You're driving people in the back of the car who are socializing and having a glass of wine, which can be stressful because you want them to be comfortable, and you're responsible for them in this crazy traffic out here. Those people trust you in case something goes wrong. You have to drive carefully and slower. A lot of people think they can [drive a limo], but not everyone can do it. You have to make sure you're not making sharp turns or sudden stops. You're hanging onto a steering wheel and they're hanging onto a glass of wine. So you try to make them feel like they're sitting on their couch in their living room.