Being handed the reins to an entire company in your early 20s — a pizza business, no less — sounds like a dream come true for many college students.
For Giacomo Fallucca, president and CEO of Palermo’s Pizza, it really was, though it came with a lot of hard work before and after that transition in an industry he says he literally grew up in.
Fallucca’s parents were immigrants from Palermo, Sicily, who came to the U.S. in the 1950s and settled in Milwaukee where they had three sons, Peter, Giacomo, and Angelo. His father, Gaspare, worked in construction, Fallucca says, but in time he saved enough money to open an Italian bakery on Milwaukee’s east side and in 1969 he opened Palermo’s Villa Restaurant right next door, which quickly became well known for its pizza. In 1979, Gaspare sold the restaurant, and got into the frozen food business.
Giacomo was by his side practically the whole way.
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Giacomo Fallucca |
“I was a few years old when they started the bakery,” Fallucca says. “As a kid we literally grew up in that environment. In the production area of the bakery in the back my mom had a playpen, and this is kind of where we hung out. The parking lot was where we played. As an 11- or 12-year-old, I started being involved in various duties at the restaurant. It was kind of like working on a farm or ranch — we just had chores we had to do, starting from a very young age, from filling up the ice in the bar area to washing dishes. In my high school years I worked in the restaurant on the back end and in the kitchen.”
When the family began the frozen pizza business in 1979, Fallucca was in on it from the beginning.
“He showed me the business plan for this place the first year on the back of a napkin,” Fallucca recalls. “He goes, ‘What do you think?’ ‘Oh, it sounds great, dad.’”
Fallucca notes this was his first real look at the world outside of just a restaurant. He’d been attending Milwaukee Area Technical College by day but dropped out after two years to focus on the business. In the early 1980s, his father turned control of the business over to him completely, naming Fallucca president, a title he’s had ever since.
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Fallucca says his father realized the larger business world outside the four walls of a restaurant wasn’t for him, but he recognized that his son loved the idea of growing a business. Still, he notes in the beginning Palermo’s was David in a Goliath world of business. His father even came to him early after the transition and apologized for throwing him to the wolves. It wasn’t enough to scare Fallucca away from the challenge of being a 20-something at the helm of the family business.
“The reality is, as a kid I grew up in an adult world,” he explains. “In the restaurant, as a 12- or 13-year-old, I was with my parents all the time when I wasn’t in school or out playing. I was exposed to all of the people associated with the business. I knew our accountant by name, our insurance man, our banker, and our lawyer. My father surrounded himself with all these great people. I even knew some of the key customers by name. I’d go on deposits with my father, on deliveries, to meetings, and I was just there with him. Even when I was 16 and 17 years old, I would actually close the restaurant for my father after he went home, so I was used to working with folks who were older than me.”
Surrounding himself with good people was one of the chief lessons Fallucca says he learned from his father.
“I really sought out mentors and looked for people who were further ahead than me. I learned the business on my own but I sought out the advice of many key advisors and individuals in business who could take me along and help with that growth. It certainly wasn’t as scary in the early years because of them.”
Now, Fallucca enjoys being a mentor for others.
“I love business and I love the idea of growing a business. But it’s the people who are here that I love being around. If I can inspire them and serve them in a way that they can be successful, that’s really what I love most about my role. Having an excellent team that I can empower, engage, and inspire — it makes my life and my job a lot easier.”
Today, Palermo’s can say it at least walks among the giants. Fallucca notes the company, still based in the Milwaukee area, has about 650 employees, sells its products (whether through its customers’ private labels or its own Palermo’s brand) in every U.S. state and Canada, and is expecting 2015 revenue in excess of $300 million.
When Fallucca speaks at IB’s Icons in Business breakfast event on September 3, he’ll share other lessons he learned from his dad that have served the family well in business over four-plus decades. From his father’s “ready-shoot-aim” mentality on life, to why burning your bridges can actually be a good thing, Fallucca will share philosophies that bridge the gap from the Old World to the new.
To attend IB’s Icons in Business breakfast on Thursday, September 3, click here.
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