We thought that Ram Iyer would be this week’s connection to glossy
business magazines. Iyer is an expert on outsourcing, and we had
written about him just after he established Argea, his consulting
company (U.S. 1, October 27, 2004). After Iyer moved his office from
Emmons Drive to down the hall from our office at 12 Roszel Road, we
began to glimpse him in the parking lot from time to time.
Then in May Iyer stopped by our office, exultant, as well he should
have been. He was one of three entrepreneurs featured in a Money
magazine story. Entitled “The Art of the Second Act,” the article gave
advice on how to have a second career. Iyer was represented by not one
but two photos (the Dennis Kleiman photograph is reproduced on page 37
of this issue).
With this national ink, Iyer landed a slot as the Princeton Chamber’s
luncheon speaker this Thursday, July 13, and an interview with U.S. 1
that now has turned into a cover story.
Meanwhile, a famous photograph of a triumphant Muhammad Ali standing
over the fallen Sonny Liston, reproduced in the June issue of Inc.
magazine, caught the eye of our editor, Richard K. Rein. He had
purchased an autographed copy of the photo at a benefit art auction
and had written a column about the double triumph of the image: Ali
over Liston, and the Life magazine photographer who not only caught
the triumphant moment but also captured his own arch-rival on the
other side of the ring, framed by Ali’s legs and holding his camera
waiting for a shot to present itself.
With the photo as a visual cue, Inc. had asked entrepreneurs to
brainstorm on how they could use Ali as a brand. One of them was Gary
A. Pudles, CEO of AnswerNet Network based on Witherspoon Street in
Princeton. Said Pudles: “I have a picture in my office of Ali knocking
out Sonny Liston to remind me that just as I was able to come into my
industry as an unknown and beat the competition, someone could do the
same to me.” Pudles suggested that Cadillac could use Ali in ads for
its fast new model “which will knock out the Japanese and German
luxury cars.”
So when we looked for an outside source to weigh in on Iyer’s topic,
outsourcing, Rein suggested Pudles. Barbara Fox soon discovered that
he outsources call center business to his own center in Toronto and to
a colleague’s center in the Philippines (see sidebar on page 39).
Meanwhile another former Princeton CEO, Jonathan Nyce, will get
attention next week, but not good attention. The story of how he
murdered his wife is the subject of a 30-minute program scheduled for
Court TV on Wednesday, July 19, at 9 p.m.
Forensic Files produced “Naughty or Nyce” for Court TV’s new Wednesday
night feature, “Just Deserts” and it will feature U.S. 1’s 1999 cover
image on Nyce, who founded Epigenesis, a biotech company based at
Eastpark at 8A.
If you wonder why we spell “Just Deserts” with just one S, you are in
good company. We had to ask and discovered that the phrase comes from
the Old French deservir “to deserve” and the earliest English usage
was in 1599:
“Upon a pillory…that al the world may see, A just desert for such
impiety.”
