For use: SUNDAY, July 18

"Future Shoes"

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The next big application: schmoozeware

by Michael Finley
Exclusive to St. Paul Pioneer Press

You have to love Harvey Mackay. Best-selling author of How to Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten. World-class networker, marathon runner, savior of baseball teams, bringer of Superbowls. First-name pals with Arsenio, Oprah and Jay. Maker of 10 million envelopes daily. The scholastic athlete's best friend. And that foxlike grin -- Harvey Mackay is the poster child for excessive self-esteem.

Even so, it is surprising to see he has gone into the off-the-shelf software field. The program is called Sharkware (CogniTech Corp. $Price, 404-518-4577), and it is basically a contact management utility, all gussied up as a motivational-
tool-slash-merchandising-event.

"Life is a contact sport," Mackay says, and Sharkware goes deeper than most salesman's black books. Sharkware goes beyond the usual name, phone number, and record of meetings. He wants you to know as much as possible about everyone you do business with, buy from, meet at a party, or pass on the street. He claims his own personal Sharkware datafile lists 6500 individuals, each of whom he cultivates using a deep system of invasive curiosity called the Mackay 66 -- questions and answers about each individual's favorite colors, dining spots, hometown, likes, dislikes, smoking or nonsmoking, etc.

Little things don't mean a lot, Mackay says -- they mean everything. Mackay asks you to keep an eagle eye out for those little things about the people you know that will help you be better friends. What year did they graduate from what high school? What fraternity did they pledge in college? What is their golf handicap? Do they have any interesting trophies or status symbols items on their walls? What are the spouse's interests? Does the contact drink? If so, what and how much? If not, is he or she offended by other people drinking? Are there any problem topics -- divorce, bankruptcy, scandal -- that it might be best to avoid? Just exactly how ethical is this guy? And so on.

Sharkware, then, is a database of everything you know about everyone you know. Secondarily, it is an appointment book to replace your DayTimer, and a tickler file, to remind you what your own ideas are, and an automatic phone dialer, to get those contacts on the horn posthaste.

Cognitech has done a good job of integrating these functions onto a single Windows screen, though I did come across a few minor bugs -- hitting the wrong key at the wrong time exits you from the program, forcibly.

The Sharkware kit includes a daffy audio tape, with Harvey laboriously intoning the benefits of the program, along with -- I think -- the woman who records the instructions on everyone's voicemail systems. The tape also includes a gospel rock group singing a very catchy "Swim with the Sharks" theme song. And fans will enjoy the four-color catalog of "Sharkware Direct" merchandise -- books, audio tapes, real leather organizer ($139.95), videos, shark pins, shark pens, and soda can insulators that look like a shark is swallowing your Coke. All priced to move, and guarded over by the well-attired man with the vulpine smile.

It's all very preposterous and highly entertaining. Most software is pretty drab -- this package has more than it knows what to do with. One moment you're wrinkling your nose at the corniness of Harvey's nostrums ("Never stop tinkering with your selling technique. - Harvey Mackay), the next you're wondering what your client's favorite restaurant is. People like Harvey Mackay -- you probably would, too.

You have to kind of squint to see the connection between sharks and contact management. Who are the sharks, and what's so bad about them? Real sharks are self-seeking, but then so is the whole philosophy represented here -- succeed by showing interest in others. Is that virtue, or just a nicer presentation than the other sharks are making? Picture sharks with shiny eyes and puppy dog tongues.

I forget what comedian said this, but it seems to apply: "The important thing is to be sincere. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

How successful will Sharkware be? With Mackay there's no telling. His book sales have dipped each time out. But he's still a relentless marketeer, as this package attests. Don't count him out, especially with the audience he has been courting most recently -- people at the bottom of the job pyramid, looking for ways to clamber up. They, and not the CEOs and executives Mackay positions himself alongside, are most likely to have the time to key in all this data about people's underwear sizes, etc.

My sense is that, if a sudden surge of job applicants seem curious about what subjects your kids like in school, then, like the Z scratched on Sergeant Garcia's backside, you have evidence that the fox has been making his rounds. x

Michael Finley writes about technology for a variety of publications, including Computer User. You can write to him at mfinley@skypoint..

TRANSCOMPETITION

A Business Week Book

Transcompetition: Moving Beyond Competition and Collaboration
by Harvey Robbins, Michael Finley
List: $24.95
Our Price: $17.47
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Hardcover, 240 pages
Published by McGraw-Hill
Publication date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0070530823

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