About Doug Foster

|īdēə| |məkanik| ñ – Imaginative strategist, conversational storyteller, demonstration engineer, experience architect, and customer advocate.

Doug Foster is founder of the Idea Mechanics, a company dedicated to helping people sell. Combining Convince Me! — a simple, easy way to sell — along with unique sales tools, the Idea Mechanics help clients sell their product, service, or point-of-view by creating SMART buyers.

In his 30 year career, Doug has been a successful engineer, manager, vice president, board director, international liaison, and entrepreneur. He has worked in sales, marketing, manufacturing, information technology, telecommunications, engineering, systems quality, and IP management.

Doug has a long history in the area of Internet voice, video, and data convergence. With John Deere, he helped transform a global SNA network into a multi-protocol Intranet, attached to the early Internet. At Cisco Systems, he served as one of the company’s original Video and Voice Over IP consulting engineers.

Doug holds a BSME from Iowa State University with postgraduate work in numerical calculations at the University of Iowa. In his spare time Doug, enjoys family, traveling, all things geeky, bicyling, kayaking, photography and the eclectic sport of punkin chunkin.

After spending three decades in big business, I now really enjoy working for myself. (showhide or hide ←)

Click on the images below to learn more about my business, what I do, and my approach.

Bob was a good friend of mine and the VP of HR for a big six accounting firm. I thought he could give me some tips on how to make my resume better. He took it, looked at it, then handed it back to me. He said “Who is this?” I said, “Not funny, it’s me! “No it’s not,” he said, “I don’t see you in this piece of paper. Go try it again.”

I was crushed, but I learned a good lesson. Since then I’ve read thousands of resumes and hired hundreds of people. I think this version really reflects who I am, what I’ve done, and what I can do. (showhide or hide ←)

If you asked me when I graduated from college, what would I do and where woud I go — no way could I have predicted what happened. The first three decades have been been so rewarding .. and gone by in a flash. I don’t expect the future to be any less fun, any less rewardng, or go any slower.

To view my career history (just a warning, this is a rather detailed, chronological work record) click the link. (showhide or hide ←)

I couldn’t list them all, but here are a few the projects I’ve worked on. Every one has been different. Each one taught me a new skill and gave me a different sense of accomplishment.

Some were small, some were big. Here’s one thing I learned: it’s easier to buy a house than build-it-yourself. But if you do build one first, you sure learn what to look for when you’re in the market to buy!

To see the projects, click the link. (showhide or hide ←)

	Podcast/webcast manual and training – Produced for e-NC under a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, these products educate the reader about podcasting and webcasting. They also provide a tutorial describing how to produce a first time podcast for free. (e-NC, manual, training slides)
	Rick Benjamin website – Rick Benjamin, a veteran motorsports and broadcast journalist, needed to provide samples of his media work for potential clients. This website explains Rick’s businesses, hosts his blog, and includes a number of video and audio clips in an online portfolio. (website)
	ECU VoIP migration plan – East Carolina University provides voice services to their campus using a Nortel DMS-100 Class 5 central office telephone switch. After piloting Voice over IP, a five year plan to replace the DMS was created. ECU is now executing that plan. (migration plan)
	Cisco “Why Cisco IPC” presentation – Created as a corporate presentation for use in the Executive Briefing Centers, this discussion educated and convinced potential IP Communications (IPC … aka VoIP) customers to choose Cisco products and services. (presentation)
	Cisco IPC portable demo kit – These portable learning centers helped Cisco customers understand IP Communications and compare it to traditional telephony. Before the demo kits, customers at their site were educated with with Powerpoint presentations, not real experiences. (photos)
	Cisco IPC demonstration lab – This learning center helped Cisco customers understand and compare IP Communications to traditional telephony. The classroom accommodated 20+ IP phones and included demonstrations of IP video and IP Communications applications. (diagram, photo)
	Cisco Interpath “Proof of Concept” lab – Cisco competed against Nortel for Interpath’s core CLEC/ISP network. A prototype network for Interpath was designed and tested for a week with them at Cisco’s San Jose POC lab. Cisco won the competition based on technical merit. (network diagram)
	Athens Drive High School – I helped start the Cisco Network Academy at Athens High School. One semester I taught a group of students about VoIP. The students then installed a donated network with IP phones & voicemail at Colonial Baptist church in Cary, North Carolina. (article, photos)
	CP&L 5 year Data Communications Architecture Plan – Carolina Power & Light (now Progress Energy) was a SNA/Token ring/Banyan Vines shop. The Data Network Design group I ran created and implemented a five year plan to migrate the company to a TCP/IP intranet. (detailed plan)
	Swift Creek Elementary data network – Funded by Wake County Public School System, the Swift Creek PTA, and donations, we installed a school-wide network. The main building, the gym, and all portable trailers were connected to the Internet via a dedicated T1 circuit. (plan highlights)
	Alcatel End User Computing plan – As part of a major US IT restructuring, this plan provided guidance for a new End User Computing department. The plan was staffed, executed, and successfully implemented for both Raleigh, NC and Richardson, TX locations. (plan highlights)
	Team Connecting Point Products Division plan – After joining Team as the VP of Products, I reorganized a significant share of the business. This included creating a new division to offer system integration services. (plan highlights, network)
	MacVet – An innovative Veterinary clinic management system, MacVet used an early generation networked relational database as the foundation for a multiuser office system. MacVet helped veterinarians manage their clients, patients, product inventory, invoicing, billing, and reminders.
	John Deere Wide area Integrated Network (WIN) plan – Originally Deere used IBM’s SNA networking architecture. This project implemented a multi-protocol global network, registered the domain "deere.com", and connected Deere to the Internet. (summary, article1, article2, article3)
	InterOp, MacWorld guest speaker – As a result of the John Deere WIN project and other distributed computing initiatives, I was asked to speak at several industry events. (Interop invite, MacWorld thanks, Interop presentation)
	Our first house was a geodesic dome – My wife and I started with a kit and hired very little extra help. We framed, wallboarded, and installed plumbing, HVAC, electrical, kitchen, and built the countertops. If you looked across the valley you could see “The Field of Deams” … (article)

I enjoy a wide variety of things. I like to travel (especially in the Caribbean) and sea kayak along the North Carolina coast (I have a Wilderness Systems Cape Horn), work with kids at Athens Drive High School, and go punkin chunkin. No idea what punkin chunkin is? Take a look at the website for the World Championships. To see some photos, click the link. (showhide or hide ←)

Travel	Punkin Chunkn	Other

I have been blessed with a wonderful family. We have (2) daughters, (2) son-in-laws, and (2) grandsons. Add in our dog Faith and my Dad who moved here a couple of years ago; every holiday and birthday makes for a full house! The rest of our family still lives back in Iowa. We don’t get to see them as much as we’d like, but we make it a point to stay in touch. To see some family photos, click the link. (showhide or hide ←)

Family … now	Family … then

And if you really liked this, why not subscribe to our email list?

Print

Email

PDF

Tagged as: bio, theideamechanic