Temple Israel's Robert Sosnick Family Life Center,
in Conjunction with The Caring Community, Presents
an Afternoon of Music
Business & Professional
enior Unplugged: A Musical Events„
at the
Senior Adult
Program
Brain Influx
ePrize is looking for 450
Thursday, August 17,2006
1:30 PM
Open to the public
Free of charge
Bring your friends for all the fun!
Partially funded by the David Arthur Stulberg Memorial Fund &
the Harry & Phyllis Kellman Memorial Fund.
Co-sponsored by The Temple Israel Treasures.
,-
_for additional information, please contact Kari K. Provizer, ACSW,
in_tne Robert Sosnick Family Life. Center at Temple Israel at 248-661-57 (Y.
George Cantor
Special to - the Jewish News
Temple Israel
5725 Walnut Lake Road • West Bloomfield, MI 48323
1141220
Skyline & The Back Street Horns
The erry Ross Band
igh line
•Persuasion
•Cassens Murphy Band
•Simone Vitale Band
•intrigue
•Sun Messengers
•Radio City
Newsmaker
Joyride
Hot Ice
L04/10 -ROSS STEALING IHT-EATIIIHMINT
Call for free video consultation
248-398-9711
34
August 10 • 2006
iN
•
Since 1972
1142900
E
very week since ePrize was
founded in 1999, Josh Linkner
has held a full company huddle.
"It's a way of communicating directly;
sharing success stories, handing out
thank-yous and fostering a climate of
collaboration',' says Linkner, the Pleasant
Ridge company's CEO.
Those huddles are going to be a little
•harder to organize in the next few years.
Linkner recently announced plans to
expand the ePrize workforce by hiring
450 new employees over the next three
years. His little company which devises
and runs on-line interactive promotions
for major corporations is going big time.
"It's going to be a challenge he
says. "Our management philosophy
has always been a yin-and-yang sort
of thing — creativity balanced by
accountability; come up with fresh ideas
but make sure they can be executed.
Maintaining that environment in the
larger company we're becoming will be
interesting."
Gov. Jennifer Granholm already has
weighed in with her view Her office
describes ePrize as "a pretty excit-
ing company" and an example of how
Michigan is "successfully diversifying the
economy into the knowledge-based jobs."
The ePrize announcement came a
few weeks after Google said.it will bring
1,000 new jobs to its office in Ann Arbor.
"That means more competition for
us, but that's a good thine says Linkner.
"Part of the reason we've grown so
quickly is that we are based in Michigan
and didn't have the sort of competitive
pressures for top talent we would have
had on the coasts.
"But we are sitting at the white hot
center of internet growth. We can deliver
immediate and measurable results to a
client, and so more and more advertis-
ing dollars are shifting in this direction.
We are high on everyone's radar because
we have run 2,200 of these promotions
for 62 of the top 100 brands in America."
The company is looking to hire soft-
ware engineers, graphics designers, sales
peciple and those with experience as
project managers. But to Linkner, those
are merely convenient categories.
"What we really want are people with
humility, creativity and passion:' he says,
"people with raw intelligence who are
execution oriented with excellent corn-
munications skills; people who know
how to work on a team and with a sense
of-urgency. When we find someone
like that, we'll make a place somewhere
because bringing out the best in people
like them is what has allowed us to grow
from within.
"One of our mottos is, `Bite off more
than you can chew, and then chew as
fast as you can. Our expectations are
very high and we want to move people
out of their comfort zones. That can be
painful and so this isn't the'place for
everyone.
"But some people find it such an
attractive environment that we antici-
pate no problem in getting them to
come here from out of state. Once they
actually see this area, they jump at the
chance to move here. Michigan really
can reverse the brain drain."
Linkner is an example of that. He
went to college in Florida but decided
to come home when it was time to start
his company.
"I liked the idea of being part of this
Jewish community," he says. "I liked the
fact that there are great values here. It
isn't the fast life that you have to bring
up your kids in, as in other parts of the
country.
"I just happen to like it here."