Duck Soup Profiles
Richard Ressler & Pierre Weiss
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This is at the groundbreaking on May 21, 1999! |
Pierre Weiss. Don't let his accent put you off, he really is a citizen of the United States. Has been for a long time! Richard first met Pierre at Babson College in an organizational behavior class. Later, when I was managing the Framingham store of Cambridge Coffee, Tea and Spice, Pierre was in graduate school, and used to come into the store and suck down all of my Brie samples. He couldn't get the stuff anywhere else. We really didn't know each other well then, but ended up chatting a lot about food, life and what we should do when we grew up. That was in 1970 or so, and as it turns out Pierre was around in 1971 to help us lay the original floor at Duck Soup.
Pierre in search of an elusive ingredient. |
Richard Ressler died in the spring of 2007 unexpectedly. He loved to be called "the Head Duck." Much of this web site still is written in the first person.... So, as he wrote:
I have been with Duck Soup since the beginning in 1971. Back then I was the chief cook and bottle washer, and you know what? I still am. That's part of the beauty of this business: I have never wavered from rolling up my sleeves and toeing the line. I am not a desk jockey, not a suit. God forbid I should get removed from the pulse of the Duck. But I am not a meddler (at least most of the time, right staff?) and love for our Ducksoupians to be empowered to take charge. That is why we hired them.
I am not the financial guy, that's Pierre. But I am never far from my calculator and a rundown to tell me where we are with sales, trends and seasonal impact. I handle the major marketing aspects of the Duck, but even don't do that alone. Am I a jack of all trades? Seems so sometimes...and that has always created a balance between Pierre and myself.
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(left) Richard taking an executive
break in the basement; |
A true statement: this business would NOT have grown to what it is today if it were not for two key people who are like family to me. First, there is Pierre...and you can read about him below. And most importantly, there is Rita, affectionately known as Mama Duck. How important is Rita in our Duck Lives? Well, we have created a special section just to profile her contributions, generosity and love she gave us (still does, actually) for over 25 years.
In 1972 Pierre had just received his MBA in Finance and came on board to help the Duck create some financial stability. We had no systems per se...and were just winging it over payables, receivables and such. Enter the financial guy. He got the Duck focused and organized, and his strong systems are in place yet today. Beats hiding our receipts in a tin can out back!
Pierre does do some marketing as well, works on the floor, and take out the garbage when George won't. Twice he moved back to Switzerland to take jobs with large multi-national corporations...and twice he has returned to Duck Soup. (I wonder if he needs to have his wings clipped?) He will be happy to teach you the proper pronunciation of French words that we always mess up (Kwa-sont), and gets a kick out of sharing French Kisses at Christmas time. No, no, no...not that kind. This kind you eat, but I'm not going there right now.
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I kinda see our partnership as a Simon and Garfunkel thing. We are both very accomplished in our own right, but are so much more effective and creative when we are a team. Now I don't suggest that you go guessing who is Simon and who is Garfunkel! But think about Paul and Art for a moment: Weren't they much stronger as a duo than after they broke up? Another Duck Soup success key...
So that's us in a duck's nest. Frick and Frack. The Right Brain and the Left Brain. Abbot and Costello. Lewis and Martin? Nah...don't think so on the latter. We both reside in Sudbury. Our kids go to school in Sudbury. We have always been, and always will be, deeply involved in our community.
Oh, and one more thing we are NOT: We are not part of any Witness Protection Program.
Les fréres canard
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