Category Archives: Business

Princeton Regional Chamber Events, useful tips from U.S. 1 Newspaper

Explaining the Economy: Economic Summit

Business, , ,

Christopher A Sims

Nobel Prize winner in economics Christopher Sims will speak at Princeton Regional Chamber’s Economic Summit on Thursday, February 27, at 1 p.m. He shared the 2011 prize with Thomas J. Sargent for “empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy.”   Chamber members can register for $75 for the afternoon, which also includes economic updates and panel discussions, plus munchies and music — all at MCCC’s  Conference Center.

Sims (and I am quoting from Wikipedia) confirmed the theories of monetarists like Milton Friedman that shifts in the money supply affect inflation. However, he also showed that causality went both ways. Variables like interest rates and inflation also led to changes in the money supply.[10

“Just like that, Mr. Aubrey fell into reputation’s ditch, and the Christie administration piled dirt atop him. Except — and this is not incidental to our story — Mr. Aubrey did nothing wrong.”

This is an excerpt from Michael Powell’s January 28 column in the New York Times entitled “A Lieutenant Governor, An Artist, and the Portrait of a Smear.”

It was written in response to the January 15 U.S. 1 cover story, Bully Pulpit, written by my colleague, Dan Aubrey. As editor Rich Rein says in his column today, Aubrey wasn’t eager to revisit an unjust lawsuit. “Then Aubrey and I both realized that his story might not connect the dots between Christie and Guadagno, but it would provide another dot that might help paint the full picture of this administration.”

Following that cover story in U.S. 1, economic guru Paul Krugman, a Princeton resident, wrote about it in his blog post ,  pointing out that though print media struggles, print media reporters are important, and that a mere transportation reporter broke the “Bridgegate” story.

Powell credits the Star Ledger with investigating and clearing Aubrey of any evidence of wrong doing. Powell looked further and found — Lo! — Guadagno’s attacks on the New Jersey State Council on the Arts were attacks on herself. “The lieutenant governor and Department of State, it turns out, had control of the Arts Council’s spending all along. Her divisions signed off on every payment.”

 

 

Only 7 of the 48 luxury homes in Palmer Square have sold, says the New York Times.

It quoted Sheldon Sturges of Princeton Future as saying the development represents an “enormous social justice wound.” Indeed.

The homes are marketed as a “bespoke luxury.”

Tough sell? Oh well.

Image
Cosmo Iacavazzi, left, with Dan Papa of ETS and Coach Bob Surace

Pressure bursts pipes or makes diamonds. Pigeons eat crumbs — be the eagle. 

Princeton University football coach Bob Surace  entertained the Princeton Regional Chamber breakfast crowd with inspirational one-liners that work as well for business as for sports.

At my table was Dan Papa, director of HR at ETS, who had been a senior on the Princeton squad when Surace was a freshman. And Surace was introduced by Princeton’s NFL celebrity, Cosmo Iacavazzi.

Just two years from a 1-9 season, Surace won this year’s Ivy League championship, surely a man worth listening to:  Have answers not excuses. To combat nerves, do what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it. Develop habits and rely on your technique when you are under stress.  

In the NFL, only results matter. At Princeton, growth matters. So, says Surace: Constantly evaluate. Make people feel special. Those who had the best workout Monday get to wear the special Tshirts on Tuesday. By working on strength and making other changes, he reduced concussions dramatically.

Here’s one to take home — Surace asks the Princeton business community to consider offering internships to his football players. He’d love to have them in his weight room this summer.

 

The S&M novel “Fifty Shades of Gray” could be named “Fifty Shades of Profit.” From profits on that book, the publishers gave everyone, even the mailroom, a $5,000 bonus. To cash in on the phenomenal interest in that rag (Ok, Ok, I read it too) the Women in Business Association borrowed the title for its meeting on Thursdaya CHyde_Headshot_Web, January 23, 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Capital Health. Cost: $25. One of the speakers is, natch, a sex therapist, Dr. Christine Hyde.

Wait a minute. I relish being in a room with powerful women. I went to WIBA’s anniversary party at Capital Health, was energized and inspired (see my previous post  and for pictures click here). But I am not that interested in sex therapy in a group.

Turns out Hyde has a different topic — what you eat. She has a phenomenal story of going from 300 pounds to running a mini-marathon in a matter of months.  “As you start detoxing your body, your mind gets clearer and your energy level sours. You don’t realize how bad junk food and poor-quality food affect how you think, ” she says.

In this magazine story Hyde tells of her turnaround. Now that, I could use.

An article in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper, by Dan Aubrey, alerts us to a reception at the Princeton Public Library today (Saturday, January 18) from 3 to 6 p.m. it is for “Concentric Circles of Influence: the Queenston Press, The Woman Portfolio,” an exhibition that was inspired by the United Nation designations of 1975 as International Women’s Year.

Aubrey’s cover story, Defending the Arts Amid a Culture of Fear, has a much different tone. It tells about his ‘bridge closing moment,” on March 25, 2011, and if that sounds familiar, yes, it is about his battle with the Christie administration. Writes Aubrey.

While the current revelations about the Christie administration waging retribution on Fort Lee may be an eye opener for some, it is something I have lived through.

His 4,000 word account is an eye opener. Read it in hard copy or read it here.

People with Good Hearts

Business, , , ,

Sword-Rowe1

For today’s cover story of U.S. 1, I talked to Gretchen Sword and Dan Rowe to find out what happened to Wm Sword & Co. after his untimely death. It’s a good story and a cautionary tale for families of small business owners.  As below, or the complete story here. 

Gretchen Sword was caught up in the throes of grief. Rowe was also grieving, and the daughter and de facto son clashed. “Dan had a new vision of where he wanted to take the company,” Sword says. “I didn’t know what I wanted, but I wanted my father back.” She tried to block the  plans that Rowe proposed.

One year later, the firm launched under a new name, Sword, Rowe & Company, a boutique merchant bank focused on offering financial advisory services for private companies
and alternative investment managers….

Daniel Rowe is CEO and managing director, supported wholeheartedly by the Sword family, notably Gretchen Sword. How this happened is a story of knowledge, power, wealth, connections — and people with good hearts.

A separate story on Daniel Rowe tells of his career..and his singer-songwriter wife, Charlotte Kendrick.

photo by Mark Czajkowski

Postscript: due to a glitch in one paragraph it looks like I quoted Martha Sword. The quote is from Gretchen Sword.

She (Martha Sword) was ill equipped to take over the business, but her husband had trusted she would have the good sense to find good help. And she knew enough not to sell it. “Immediately there were poachers looking to take over the firm,” she (Gretchen Sword) recalls. “Now I realize that it would have been easy enough for him to sell the assets when there was a rough month. In a 37-year career, there were a lot of ups and downs. I am sure there were many times he could have given up. For us to get through the first year was pretty amazing.”

For an article I’m doing, I ran across this “risk meter” on the FINRA page. FINRA is the Financial Resources Regulatory Authority. It licenses broker dealers and has excellent cautionary advice for the average investor. Take the “risk meter” test, you might be surprised!

2013-11-21 exec suite

A Mormon in the corner office: Here is a press release about a free event sponsored by the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative — a conversation with Jim Quigley, CEO Emeritus, Deloitte, Touche & Tohmatsu Limited, on November 21, 2013 at 7:00 pm, on the Princeton University campus in Lewis Library 138 (the modern building, near the intersection of Ivy Lane and Washington Road in Princeton). The event will be preceded by a reception from 6:30 – 7:00 pm.

Quigley will be interviewed by Prof. David W. Miller, Director of the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative, on his Mormon perspective on business, leadership, and faith.

Jim Ayala, a resident of Manila in the Philippines, gave up a McKinsey career to help his home country. He spokr at the Carl Fields Center on Saturday, November 16. Oops we missed that one! But his name is linked to an article in the Princeton Alumni Weekly. He is Class of ’84.