Tag Archives: Princeton Regional Chamber

Jonathan Shenk: Pastor to Painter

Jonathan Shenk: Greenleaf Painters

Congratulations to Jonathan Shenk, whom I often see at Princeton chamber lunches and breakfasts.  Recently named a Princeton Regional Chamber Champion for Business, he had an excellent feature article in the Sunday Times of Trenton about his ecologically sound company, Greenleaf Painters. 

It is his second career. He had been pastor of Dutch Neck Presbyterian Church and wanted to take a new direction. A temporary painting job turned into an entrepreneurial opportunity. Here is a link to the story about that in West Windsor-Plainsboro News.

Felten: Dollars, Euros — and Bitcoin

Around Town, Business, Technology & Innovation, ,

feltenThere are 12.4 million Bitcoins in existence — but …

the Federal Reserve doesn’t know much about Bitcoin.

And one of Bitcoin’s major banks just did a face plant.

Yet  Ed Felten, former technology guru for the FTC, now returned to Princeton University to teach, says Bitcoin is one of his top predictions for what will work in the future. He was interviewed about this on C-Span, link here.

Felten speaks at the Princeton Regional Chamber lunch on Thursday, March 6, at 11:30 a.m. His topic: “Dollars, Euros — and Bitcoins: the Future of Digital Currency.”

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

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.

jon peter

Being early is not too different from being wrong, said Jon Gertner, speaking to the Princeton Regional Chamber at the August breakfast. The author of The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (Penguin Press, March 2012) gave glimpses of the clashes and collaboration that led to innovation at Bell Labs, the consolidated R&D center built at Murray Hill when AT&T was the largest company in the world in terms of revenue, assets, and employees.  A former New York Times Magazine  writer (2004-2011) Gertner is currently editor-at-large at Fast Company magazine. 

He illustrated the danger of being “early” with the enthralling story of vacuum tubes and transistors.  When the 101-D vacuum (or repeater) tubes (which enabled sound to be relayed from switch to switch across the country) was being hailed as “the great miracle device of our time,” Bell Labs CEO Kelly considered it an inherently flawed technology.  He was determined to find a technology based on silicone and germanium not susceptible to weardown and breakdown.

His mindset drove the “solid state” team to get rid of the relay switches and find an electronic solution: the first transistor in November, 1947. What happened next was that the transistor was basically abandoned by Bell:  It was costly to produce.  Only the US Military kept it alive until continued innovation led to lower cost.  At the same time, the press hailed solar, created to get electricity to remote areas.  Yet the fad for solar soon faded since there was no comparable drop in cost. 

The “Being early” mantra was just one of the takeaways. Others: 

  • First identify large, significant problems and then attack them to achieve breakthroughs
  • Innovations by definition have both scale and impact on society
  • There is no set way of making breakthroughs
  • Failure is an inherent part of innovation.
  • We don’t foresee the use and value of breakthroughs.
  • When inventions are not effectively commercialized, the inventors will scatter and create their own companies but the company that spawned them may die.

As several members of the Chamber observed, substantial governmental subsidies at every stage, combined with the backdrop of 23 operating companies providing capital, made it possible for Bell Labs to fund basically anything.  Bell Labs had the freedom to concentrate not on quarterly profits and consumer goods but rather to focus on the foundations of our live.  They changed our world and our lives.

Karen House with Alice Barshaw

Karen House with Alice Barshaw

Karen House (right), former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, with Alice Barshaw, on the staff of the Princeton Regional Chamber. Karen spoke at the chamber on June 6.