MICHAEL A. BRINDA : President, New Horizons Computer Training Centers
Michael A. Brinda, 38, calls himself a computer user’s advocate. He is president of New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, a Santa Ana-based computer training company. He’s tired of hearing about “easy to use” software programs. If software publishers saw his classes filled with terror-stricken novices, he says they would know that people need better training. And once people are trained, Brinda believes, computers will then produce true productivity gains for society. He spoke recently with Times staff writer Dean Takahashi.
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How did you get into computer training?
In 1980 I began teaching people to use computers at a community college, where I found a group of people who wanted to learn about using personal computers. The IBM PC came out in 1981 and created greater interest in the classes. So I decided, in 1982, that I would mortgage my house and open a school in a shopping center in Laguna Hills Mall, near a ComputerLand store. I set up a deal with UC Irvine, asking them to send me students to train.
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What did you invest in the business?
A relatively small amount. I had about $35,000 from the mortgage and from cashing out a retirement account. It was everything I could scrape together.
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What was your business plan?
Franchising wasn’t part of the original plan at all. The business evolved. If you want to keep quality people, you have to grow. I saw an exodus in the early years of quality people. Through franchising we opened up new jobs, and we’ve had several people leave to begin their own franchises and fulfill their dreams of owning their own company. This time last year we had no franchises and 80 employees. Today, we have 20 franchises licensed, and 13 of those are open. We have 125 employees in Santa Ana, and we continue to see growth.
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Do you think computer dealers are looking at training as a way to make money now that computer hardware is going through a recession and a price war?
For years dealers have looked at training as something curious. On paper, it looks like a good business to be in--with zero inventory, no sales force costs, no inventory carrying charges. But their attempts to penetrate the training business have failed. It is a business that looks deceivingly simple to operate. What’s the big deal? We get some tables and chairs and hire somebody to teach a class and all the salespeople who sell our systems can sell training as well. It’s not quite that easy and dealers backed away. Now, they’re coming back. They look to increase profits with maintenance contracts and training.
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What kind of investment do you have to make in the franchise?
Investment wise, there are two sets of people who buy a franchise. One is converting an existing training center after deciding they’re better off joining New Horizons than remaining independent. You also have people who are starting from scratch. They see our ads in newspapers or go to trade shows. The person who is converting has a much lower investment requirement, running anywhere from zero to $50,000, depending on the conditions of the franchise. Starting from scratch, you need about $200,000 and that assumes that you lease computers.
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Is your business threatened by the attitude that people can teach themselves how to use computers?
There is a notion that typical computer users can teach themselves. And many try. But there is more power to the machine than they can ever fathom by themselves. You can say that a person who gets a job done is effectively using software. But a person who drives to Miami doesn’t have to go through New York. They get to Miami, but they could go a shorter route.
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You’ve said that training is the missing link that would enable computers to yield vast productivity gains for society. How ambitious are you in your hopes that this will happen?
I’m a very small voice in a very big forest. What I do is a necessity that software publishers don’t care to acknowledge. Their stated goal is to eliminate the need for training in their products and to create something so user friendly and intuitive that you don’t need training. I’m not here to say that day will never come. I’m here to say it ain’t here now. To move the level of productivity up, training is the key. If software publishers would be more forthright in stating that education is an integral part of buying a PC, we would have many more satisfied computer owners.
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How well-armed must the end user be before we get real productivity gains?
The end user has to be able to treat their computer as an invisible tool to be used like the fax machine or the telephone, something transparent to their daily duties. Unfortunately, technology cannot make spreadsheets and databases that simple, so education is the key. They need to unlock the power of the software.
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What developments in computer technology are you expecting to affect your industry?
If you look at interactive software that is based on multimedia (features to take advantage of stereo-quality sound, video and computer animation), you will see this method of learning works. So, my goal is to ensure that when the client wants to learn, we have the best method available and are not simply a one-dimensional provider of instructor-led training. If video fits, we’ll offer it. If multimedia fits, we’ll offer it. We want to be the total training center solution.
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In your beginning-level classes, is there some message you try to get across to students?
If you’re sitting in class, you can sometimes feel the fear of the computer. People who believe if they hit the wrong key, they will break the computer or lose all their data. That’s true to some extent, but you can’t be paralyzed by inaction. We try to minimize any fear of learning.
