Lifelong Friendship Bonds and the Power of Shared History

Three longtime friends, Frank Spero, Tony Fiore, and Matty Tricorico. Tony has been friends with Matty for 70 years and Frank 66 years.

A Note from Rooted & Refined Living

This is a story about my dad and his two lifelong friends shared from my dad's perspective. There is a small section towards the end that talk about the careers his friends had in the FBI and their high-profile case against the Mafia. There is a small part to this post that discuss violence, but it is in the context of the story. More than anything, this is a story about friendship. Following my dad writing the story, it generated a new flurry of activity between the three friends that still talk at least once a week to this day. At the end of the day, that is what this website is about.

My Friendship with Matty

I was lucky to have a great

family and I was also lucky to have great friends. Two of my close friends have been lifelong friends — Frank Spero and Matty Tricorico.

Tony Fiore at Port Richmond HS

In a previous writing I mentioned about Little Johnny and George Gomez — the elementary school bully who was left back two years and who got his jollies by beating up his classmates after school. I avoided the wrath of Gomez by giving him my homework to copy and Little Johnny got a pass because he was famous for being in a Campbell’s Chicken Soup commercial.

Now I am in the eighth grade and a funny thing happened — in two years I grew from 4'10" to 6'2". Gomez stopped growing at 5'6" so George feared me. My dramatic growth spurt did not go unnoticed by the Public School 44 basketball coach Mr. Quin. He put me on the team and made me practice for hours. He would throw the ball against the backboard and whack me as I went up for the rebound. He would step on my toes and yell as the ball was coming down. The motive was simple — if I could withstand that kind of punishment in practice, the actual game would be a cakewalk. I averaged 20 points a game and made the All Star team. So when I entered Port Richmond High School that fall, I tried out for the Junior Varsity and was the only freshman to make the team.

If you missed Tony's other recent posts, you can find them here at Papa's Corner.

Matty "Sonny" Tricorico at Port Richmond HS in Staten Island, NY

One of my classmates at Port Richmond was Matty Tricorico. He was a little over 5 feet when he started as a freshman but by the time he was a junior he was 6'2". I stopped growing so we were the same height. Ironically, Mr. Quin, my PS 44 coach, became the JV coach at Port Richmond and he put Matty through the same regimen he had put me through. Matty was a late bloomer and in our senior year on Varsity, Port Richmond won the Staten Island Championship and Matty was the star player. I had a decent year but Matty was the go-to player when we needed a goal to win. Matty finished second in the voting for Staten Island's best high school player. As a team we played in Madison Square Garden and although we lost to a great Brooklyn school, Matty excelled. He was offered a basketball scholarship to Colgate University and Wagner College. At Wagner he was a big star and years later made the Wagner College Hall of Fame. Matty and I were good friends in high school and college and have remained good friends for decades.

My Friendship with Frank

At Port Richmond High School, I had a very good grade average and was a cinch to be placed on the school's Permanent Honor Roll. On the last day of my senior year, my English class grade was mostly based on an essay. The subject of the essay was "Political Indifference in the United States." I must have had a brain fog that day because I wrote a 10-page essay on "Political Differences in the United States." I wrote an A graded essay but on the wrong subject. My teacher tearfully told me she loved the essay but had to give me a D. I appealed to take it over. My parents appealed but to no avail — the D stuck.

Frank Spero in the Marines

As a result, I no longer made the Permanent Honor Roll but had to take Remedial English for a year at Wagner College where I had enrolled. "Remedial English" was also referred to as "Donkey English" because most of the students were football players who had to take the course. Our professor was a tall, lanky guy named Herb Brandcamp. Professor Brandcamp took the course seriously as did I. It was a practice at Wagner that incoming freshman wear little caps called dinks the first two months of class. Naturally I was the only one in the class who adhered to this tradition, and I was ridiculed by the football player classmates — with one exception — a tough ex-marine who was a gritty lineman on the team. His name was Frank Spero. He had graduated from Lyndhurst, New Jersey High School where he excelled in football. Frank befriended me when the hazing got out of hand. After high school Frank enlisted in the Marines and served for three years. When his tour of duty with the Marines ended, he returned to Lyndhurst and was reunited with a former football teammate — Wally Pagan. Wally convinced Frank to apply to Wagner and he did, receiving a partial scholarship to play football. Frank was a guard on offense and a linebacker on defense. He was a key player in Wagner's undefeated 9-0 football team. Frank was awarded the Robb Trophy as MVP of the annual Homecoming game.

Frank Spero, Lyndhurst (NJ) High School

Eventually Frank, Matty and I became fraternity brothers of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity. We became very close friends throughout our college years at Wagner.

Frank and I were on the Wagner baseball team and one story sticks out of our time together on the team. It was our first spring practice, and I was working out at first base and Frank was our third baseman. I had gotten a new first baseman's glove for Christmas and had oiled it and did all the things necessary to break it in. So, I am taking grounders and throws, scooping up the short hops and happy as a lark with my new glove. All that ended when a hot shot freshman named Curt Blefary approached me at first base and said, "You better get a fielder's glove Fiore because I'm playing first base." I said, "Curt, I thought you were a catcher." Blefary said I was, but the crouching up and down is wearing out my knees and I don't want to wind up injured with bad knees. Then he said, "Besides, do you see those 5 guys in the stands watching our practice? They are Major League Baseball scouts from the Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles, Giants and Dodgers. They are here to see me, not you."

Curt Belfray (2nd row, 2nd from left) and Tony Fiore (2nd row, 4th from left)

So Curt Blefary is in the on-deck circle waiting to take his cuts and Frank comes over to talk to me, and I tell him the story. "That Blefary has some nerve — I wonder if his bat can back up his mouth."

Then Curt Blefary puts on a batting practice show I and Frank will never forget. He hits ball after ball 385, 400 and 425 feet over the right field fence into the Augustinian Academy schoolyard. Everyone is in awe — the guy is superhuman. Frank's only words to me is, "Tony, I heard Fred Muche's Sports Store has a sale on fielder's gloves."

From left to right, Curt Belfray, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson

Curt Blefary wound up playing 10 years in the Major Leagues. He was American League Rookie of the Year with the Baltimore Orioles and won a World Series with the Orioles in 1966 playing alongside Frank Robinson, Boog Powell and Brooks Robinson. Considering there are only 1,000 Major League players and 5 million young boys who want to be Major Leaguers, it was quite an experience playing with Curt Blefary. Frank and Matty and I reminisce occasionally about "The Blef."

The Years After Wagner

My years after Wagner are well documented in my recent two-part series. Frank and Matty had careers that have been written about in bestselling books.

Upon graduating Wagner College Frank became a Probation Officer in Bergen County, New Jersey. After a few years as a Probation Officer Frank Spero joined the FBI. After tours of duty in Miami and Atlanta, Frank was assigned to The Organized Crime Division and stationed in Manhattan.

Matty had a different career path as he started out as an elementary school teacher at none other than Public School 44. After 9 years as a schoolteacher, Frank convinced Matty to apply for the FBI. Matty got into the FBI and wound up in the same Manhattan division as Frank within a few years.

In New York City there were 5 organized crime divisions named after prominent gang leaders — the Gambino Family, Colombo Family, Bonanno Family, Genovese Family and Lucchese Family. The most notorious was the Gambino Family led originally by Carlo Gambino, and eventually by Paul Castellano and John Gotti.

The history of the New York City Mafia, or Cosa Nostra (Our Thing) traces back to the early 1900's. It evolved from disorganized, localized Sicilian clans into a highly structured, syndicate-style criminal empire that profoundly influenced the city's labor, construction and political landscapes.

In 1931 a violent power struggle erupted between older, traditional Sicilian bosses and a younger generation of Americanized mobsters. Following the end of this bloody war, the Mafia reorganized all of New York's Italian American gangs into Five Families. A commission was established by Charles "Lucky" Luciano. The Commission was a ruling body consisting of the five bosses that mediated disputes and coordinated territorial assignments.

The Mafia was glorified by the bestselling 1970 novel called "The Godfather". It went on to become a monster hit movie and is regarded as one of the top 5 movies of all time. As a result, many young Italian American men aspired to become Mafia members. With the rise of the Mafia came huge profits through infiltration of labor unions and an enormous drug trafficking business. The years from 1970-1995 were known as "The Golden Age" of the New York City Mafia.

Matty Tricorico (left) Sammy "The Bull" (center) and Frank Spero (right) heading to court to testify against John Gotti

Even though Staten Island is the smallest of the 5 boroughs of New York City, it had a little over 100 Mafia members residing there. As a result, Frank and Matty were assigned to the Staten Island office in 1980. The big, powerful boss of the Gambino family back then was Paul Castellano, and he lived a flamboyant life. Whereas most of the Mafia leaders downplayed their ill-gotten riches by living in middle class neighborhoods, Castellano lived a sprawling mansion known as "The White House" atop Todt Hill in Staten Island. Todt Hill is the highest point on the East Coast and Castellano had a view of the Atlantic Ocean and New York skyline. One of the Mafia members who reported to him was John Gotti. Another member was Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. When Castellano's number 2-man Neil Dellacroce passed away, John Gotti thought he or his mentor Neil Dellacroce would be next in line. Instead, Castellano was set to appoint Tommy Bilotti as his number 2 man. Gotti then engineered a December 1985 hit that killed both Castellano and Bilotti on the street in front of Sparks Steak House. The hit on Castellano was engineered by Gotti and Gravano who were parked nearby when the killings took place. Although the killings were done in broad daylight, none of the many witnesses who saw the crime could remember anything.

John Gotti became head of the Gambino Family and Sammy Gravano became his underboss. Gotti had gone to trial a number of times, but he was always acquitted. It came to be known that jurors and/or their families were threatened. Gotti became known as "The Teflon Don" because nothing would stick. He loved the fame and made sure the paparazzi was around when he took his walks around the Manhattan neighborhood where the Ravenite Social Club was situated.

Frank Spero and Matty Tricorico were assigned to monitor the comings and goings of Mafia members as they hung out at the club. Frank and Matty were in a van keeping track of the goings on. When the van became suspicious to the Mafia members, they rented an apartment with a view of the Ravenite. They learned through an informant that an old lady lived above the Ravenite Club and that was where all the key Mafia discussions and decisions were being made. Gotti would give the lady a couple of hundred dollars to take a walk or go shopping and he and his cohorts would go upstairs to her apartment to discuss business. The FBI learned that the old lady was going out of town for a few days and in the middle of the night they were able to enter the apartment and bug it.

Page one of the story about friendship

The FBI through the bug recordings learned that it was Gotti who was behind Castellano's murder. Now came the tough part — getting a jury to convict him.

This is where Frank and Matty played huge roles in his conviction. Sammy "The Bull" Gravano lived in Staten Island with his wife and two children. There were a number of times that Sammy had to be questioned or served with a subpoena or warrant. Frank and Matty respected the fact that Sammy had a family and close neighbors. They made sure that anytime they had an exchange with Sammy his kids and neighbors were not around. As a result, Sammy built a trust and liking for Frank and Matty. So in the early 1990's when John Gotti was arrested and put on trial for the umpteenth time, Sammy reached out to Frank and Matty and wanted to talk. He said he would be willing to give his testimony implicating Gotti in the killing of Paul Castellano, Tommy Bilotti and others in exchange for the Witness Protection Program. In essence Spero and Tricorico got a notorious, lifelong Mafioso to flip. This trial to jury was unidentified and sequestered. They found Gotti guilty and he was sentenced to life in prison. They nailed the most famous Mafia member since Al Capone.

Frank Spero and Matty Tricorico were heralded for their part in finally putting John Gotti in prison. Bestselling books such as "Boss of Bosses", "Gameland", "Underboss", and "The Gotti Wars".

With Gotti in prison, many other Mafia members broke their silence and eventually the NYC Mafia became a shell of what it once was. There is still organized crime in New York, but it is run by Russian and Albanian crime families.

Frank and Matty retired a little over 25 years ago from the FBI.

Lifelong Friendship Bonds

I am still close friends of Frank and Matty and we keep in touch quite frequently. As I said at the beginning — I am lucky to have great lifelong friendship bonds.

MarketSource Growth Strategy: Executive Review

Cropped photo of my dad's business card.

This is part 2 detailing my career. You can read about the first half of my career at Fortune 100 Career Journey Narrative Insights.

While I was performing strategic planning sessions in Peru, Brazil and Argentina for Warner Lambert and eventually American Express, a young Arizona University college student named Marty Levine was majoring in business. Marty was from East Brunswick, New Jersey where he had a neighbor named Ron Garretson. Mr. Garretson had recently retired as the college bookstore manager for CCNY (City College of New York). He had come up with a business idea to give students a pocket planner that contained bookstore policies and a calendar. The cover had a picture of CCNY and there were pictures of bookstore employees.

University of Colorado Bookstore entrance. Picture taken complements of my niece, Brinley, who is just finishing up her second year.

The students were handed the planner twice a year when they purchased their books at the beginning of each semester. Garretson called the pocket planner Term Planner, and his new company was Term Planner Inc. He had 5,000 printed and was happy to learn that students thought them as helpful and used them to write important dates for exams and parties. Term Planner was free to students. Garretson passed the idea along to his colleagues at NYU, Fordham, St. Johns and Brooklyn College and soon he was reaching a circulation of 50,000 planners. He got the idea to go out and solicit advertisers who were willing to pay $1,000 to get their restaurants, hair salons and clothing stores to advertise in the planners.

When Marty Levine came home for spring break he ran into Garretson who told him he had retired and had started the Term Planner business. Marty was intrigued and asked Garretson if he could work for him and get business at Arizona University in Tucson and some of the universities in Northern Arizona such as Arizona State in Tempe, Arizona. Garretson agreed and they worked out a commission structure. So, for four years Garretson and Marty built up a business that had a circulation of 500,000 students and a one-page advertisement of $12,000 per page or about $120,000 per issue — $240,000 per year. Garretson was 70 years old at this point and wanted to move to Florida. Marty said he would like to buy Term Planner Inc. from Garretson, and they worked out a price of $300,000 and a payout of $50,000 a year for 6 years. The planner was printed by a local East Brunswick printer named Jack McNeil. Marty and Jack became real good friends and Marty asked Jack if he would like to work for him. Jack agreed and the two of them built the business to $500,000 and it had an office on Summerhill Road in East Brunswick.

If you missed Tony's other recent posts, you can find them here at Papa's Corner.

Meanwhile, it was 1981 and Tony Fiore was searching for an elusive job. The country was in one of its worse recessions in history; companies were cutting employees; hiring freezes were prevalent and employees were hanging onto their jobs and not even considering moving on to a new company. The only difference between current times and 45 years ago is that AI has compounded the issue and the term "Job Huggers" has emerged.

As I mentioned in Part I my search was concentrated on finding a smaller situation. Back then there were no emails, text messages or cell phones. Resumes and cover letters were sent by mail and rejection letters were received by mail. Usually on Sunday the newspapers posted job openings... mostly low level. I was surprised to see one that said Vice President Marketing, Term Planner, Inc.

I sent my resume and cover letter to Martin D. Levine, President Term Planner Inc.

I got a call from Marty who said he would like to interview me for the job. So I drove to East Brunswick and entered a building that had the names of two dental practices, a law firm and a realtor. There was also the name Term Planner Inc. on the directory.

Product shelf at University of Colorado Bookstore. Back when Marty started distributing the Term Planner, these products were not available for sale in bookstores.

I walked up the stairs and into a small office where I met Marty and Jack. They asked why someone who had big titles in big companies would be interested in such a small situation. I was honest and told them the market was very bad, and I was having a tough time even getting an interview. I told them I had a number of friends I had worked with or for that I had a shot at getting a job, but their companies had hiring freezes. I admitted it would be tough having a big office in New York with a view of the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor and having a much smaller office with a view of a parking lot but I wanted a smaller situation. I asked Marty how big his company was and he said you are looking at it with Jack and I. "What are your plans to grow the business" I asked. Marty said the college market is much larger than people think — 3,000 colleges and universities with 7,000,000 students — all hard to reach through conventional advertising because they are in class, working part time jobs, playing sports and going to parties. They watch about 10% of the TV their counterparts who do not go to college watch. Jack and I are thinking of launching a college magazine to attract bigger advertisers such as P&G, IBM and Kraft.

If you are interested in the job why don't you think about our college magazine idea and come back and we can talk more seriously about the job.

I agreed and I went to the library and got a crash course on the college market. I got my information from magazines such as Advertising Age and Promo Magazine. I learned that the 7,000,000 full time students spend about $300 a month on non-book items, such as snacks, movies, apparel and sporting equipment. That translates to about 250 billion dollars in non-essential spending a year. Much larger than I thought. I decided to go to my biggest strength — strategic planning and I got down to the basics of for the MarketSource growth strategy.

1. Existing products in an existing market

2. New products in an existing market

3. Existing products in a new market

4. New products in a new market

   
   

The highest probability of success is with an existing product in an existing market. What can be done to get more out of Term Planner. The answer was simple — increase circulation and increase the page rate.

The idea of a college magazine is a much lower probability of success. First off there were 5 other college magazines targeting the college market. Second, the cost of a college magazine would be in the hundreds of thousands and unless there was a unique point of difference why would an advertiser be interested.

I met Marty and Jack for a second time, and they were anxious to hear what I had to say about the college magazine. I told them I didn't think they would like what I had to say and it would probably cost me the job, but I had to say it and also show them my strategic plan for their business.

The plan's main elements were as follows:

1. Table the idea for the magazine

2. Double the circulation of Term Planner

3. Leverage the college bookstore by getting them to stock the advertised product thereby creating a unique point of difference

4. Change the name of the company. Term Planner is too limiting

5. Hire a college store specialist to recruit new stores to increase circulation

Marty took the plan and said he would get back to me.

He did and offered me the job but for half of what I had been making at American Express. He added one caveat and that was if I could get the company from $500,000 to $5,000,000 in revenue, he would give Jack and I equity in the company. That was enough for me to accept the job and the adventure began.

The first step was to hire Chuck Kochan to recruit store managers to distribute Term Planners. Next, I went out with Jack and Marty on sales calls to solicit advertisers. I called on everyone I knew from the four large companies I had previously worked for and got amazing results.

In six months, Chuck with Marty's help was able to double the Term Planner circulation and we were charging $30,000 a page. We were also successful in getting the stores to clear out some textbooks and make room for new distribution of General Foods International Coffee, Hershey Chocolate, Trident Gum and other products. My friends from my other companies came through since we had a good story to sell in that college students had money but were hard to reach and we could get their product in the college store — a new channel of distribution.

Now we were ready for our next product launch.

Step II: A new product in an existing market — but it wasn't a magazine — it was a box of samples called Campus Trial Pak.

A box of samples is a win/win/win formula. We go to samplers such as Kellogg's, General Foods and Wrigley's Gum and sell them on putting a sample of their product and a coupon if they wish at a charge to us of 15 cents per sample and 3 cents per coupon. We hire an outside firm such as Burke Research to do a pre/post research study to determine upon receiving the sample how many students went to the store and purchased it. In mostly all our sampled products which became multi-multi millions over time it proved to be a payout for the manufacturer.

This was an advertisement that was distributed within the R Treat box. It was stuck to the inside of the box when I had the box shipped to me. Product companies like Cheer would pay MarketSource to distribute the coupon to a targeted audience, in this case to parents at Toys R Us.

So, chalk up a win for the Kellogg's of the world. It also proved to be a win for the retailer (in this case the college store) as it brought in incremental traffic to get a free sample box. It was a win for the student who got $10 worth of products and coupons free. And, we, as a byproduct of the program made roughly 50 cents a box and since we wound up distributing 2 million boxes, we had 2 million in revenue and 1 million in profit. In addition, we were able to get more and more college stores to carry the product adding a new distribution channel for the manufacturing samplers.

Marty was really happy with the successes so far and he called Jack and I into his office and gave us both equity. He also gave us a nice raise. The incentive to grow the business was greater than ever.

Enter Eric Weil. The cash flow enabled us to hire two new salespeople for Jack and two new college store account managers for Chuck. I hired a real gem in Eric Weil, a former product manager who worked 24/7. Eric was given the challenge of developing an idea Jack came up with. It became known as The Campus Source, and it was a 4 foot by 5-foot electronic unit that hung on the wall of the student union. It had three components — a backlit visual of upcoming events personalized for each school; an LED that could be programmed by a designated school administrator to update students on an important event or date and a 2ft by 3ft backlit advertisement of a Dell personal computer, for example. The units were free to the colleges, and we wound up installing 1,200. Advertisers paid $500 a month to put their ads on the board. We were always sold out, and it was bringing us $6 million a year in revenue. Eric was a dynamo — selling schools and advertisers.

We also teamed up with Sports Illustrated and had campus events involving 3-point basketball shooting, golf putting, and baseball pitching. We teamed up with CBS and had a Young and Restless tour around campus. At this point we moved into a 50,000 square foot building at 10 Abeel Road, Cranbury, NJ.

At this point in 1987 we were by far the leading college marketing company. A few years earlier we had changed our name to MarketSource Corporation. We defined ourselves as a college marketing company. We were doing over 30 million in revenue and had won a number of awards for innovation. Marty Levine was named Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year, and receive awards from the College Bookstore Association for helping make the stores into diversified retailers and helping their business grow exponentially.

It was time to take Step III: Existing products into new markets.

This is one of the Blockbuster Bonus boxes. This was a massive deal for consumers at the time. You can read more about the story from Dinosaur Dracula

Our first was to take our sample box into Toys R Us and we distributed 5 million boxes twice a year in all 1,500 Toys R Us stores. It brought in traffic during off periods — March and August and we wound up doing this program for 15 years. (Learn more about the R Treat from Dinosaur Dracula).

Next, we distributed 7 million boxes through Blockbuster video stores for 12 years. 3,000,000 boxes through Medicine Shoppe Pharmacies.

Campus Source boards were placed in thousands of high schools and hundreds of military bases. Events were performed in large malls throughout the country.

We were ready for Step IV – New Products in New Markets.

Our first venture was The Golf Link – a wall board placed in private and public golf clubs throughout the country. It featured illustrated golf tips from our partner in the venture – Lee Trevino. And, it included advertising from car, liquor and technology companies.

Lee Trevino was terrific. He gave a golf seminar a couple of times a year and won our clients over with his skill and humor. We had a big meeting planned in San Francisco at the site of the US Open where we were going to pitch a 3 year sponsorship to Toyota. Trevino was the national spokesperson for Toyota and had invited top executives to dinner at Ernie's Restaurant. I was excited to sell the program to Toyota but unfortunately Lee Trevino bailed out. For the first time in his pro career he failed to make the cut and he was so dejected he went home to San Diego and the dinner was cancelled.

Toyota never signed on and Lee resigned from the program. It was our first failure. We wound up selling The Golf Link to a magazine called Golf Illustrated and basically broke even.

However, the next venture with a new product into a new market proved to be a big winner.

Apple was a big client of ours as an advertiser on The Campus Source. Since college stores were becoming an important retailer for them, they asked MarketSource to hire salespeople under the MarketSource name and work the college store. We would pay salary and benefits, and Apple would pay us a 20% markup, so it was a very nice venture to get into. Marty hired a former VP at IBM named Don Clifford and he wound up building an outsource sales force that serviced IBM, Hewlett Packard, AT&T and many other companies. In ten years, Clifford built the business into a $100 million dollars in revenue.

So, by 2001, exactly 20 years after I joined the company it was a $200M revenue company and one of the largest in the country. We strongly considered going public but Marty took ill and we wound up selling the business to two buyers – Alloy Entertainment purchased the marketing services sector of MarketSource and Allegis Corporation purchased the outsource sales division of the company. Allegis is owned by Steve Bisciotti who owns the Baltimore Ravens NFL football team. Alloy was a public company known mostly for popular youth oriented television shows such as Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries. I joined Alloy's Board of Directors in 2004 and served on it for 10 years. In 2014 Alloy was sold to Warner Brothers where it still exists.

Over the past 20 years since Allegis took over MarketSource Outsource it has grown to become a worldwide success bringing in over 1.5 billion in annual revenue and is an integral part of Allegis 15-billion-dollar business.

Marty Levine passed away in October of 2003. He will go down as one of the finest entrepreneurs ever. I was lucky to have found that ad in the Jersey newspaper and worked alongside him for over 20 years. Jack McNeil also passed away about 7 years ago. He was a great salesman and very creative.

It has been fun reliving my past through my son Steve's web site. More stories to come.

Fortune 100 Career Journey Narrative Insights

I grew up listening to stories of my dad's career. This is part one of his journey.

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My business career was one of extremes. The first half of my career was working for Fortune 100 companies - Colgate Palmolive; Johnson & Johnson; Warner-Lambert and American Express. The second half started with a 3-man company.

I graduated Wagner College with a degree in Business Administration specializing in accounting. I received an MBA from Pace University in Financial Management.

Fortune 100 Career Journey

I started out as a cost accountant with Colgate at their Jersey City, N.J. plant. I worked in a bullpen area with the sound of old-fashioned calculators throughout the day. Most of the accountants graduated from nearby St. Peters College. Two years after I joined one of my Colgate associates got a job with Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, N.J. A few months after he joined J&J, he called me up and said they had a job opening and to give it a shot. I did and I got the job making a few thousand a year more than at Colgate. I worked five years at J&J and my last boss got a job with Warner-Lambert in Morris Plains, N.J. He called and said a job working for him as a senior accountant was mine if I wanted it.

My Fortune 100 Career Journey continued and I took the job in the Consumer Products Division doing P&Ls for each brand in the division... brands such as Listerine, Efferdent, Trident, Dentyne, Rolaids and Halls Cough Drops. I worked very closely with the Product Managers on each brand. The largest brand was Listerine, a market leader product that dominated the mouthwash category. The Group Manager on Listerine was a man named Steve Rothchild. He had a degree from Columbia and an MBA from Harvard. All the product managers had MBAs from the best universities.

One day Steve approached me and says marketing a product is so much more than making commercials and going to sales conferences in Florida or Nassau. There is day to day involvement with market research, trade promotion, consumer promotion, shipping, costs, etc. I need someone who can work the numbers for me... "How would you like to become a Product Manager on Listerine?" I said sure Steve, but I don't have the MBA credentials. He said the ones who have these MBAs don't want to get involved with the numbers. They want to go to New York City and work with J. Walter Thompson, our ad agency, developing TV and print commercials. Then they want to go to the Palm with their agency counterpart for a steak dinner. I need someone who can get me the numbers I need accurately and on time. Steve was a real up and comer at W-L and was able to sell his Division President to give me the job.

Current view of the competition between Listerine and Scope, sitting on a CVS shelf.

I couldn't have joined the Listerine marketing team at a more critical time. Procter and Gamble had recently launched Scope mouthwash, and their advertising campaign was built around the fact it had the same germ kill efficacy but with a fresh minty taste. Listerine's typical user was older and skewed male by 2-1. Scope's was younger and skewed women by 2-1. Scope was beginning to erode Listerine's dominant share. A big meeting between the Listerine marketing team and J. Walter Thompson account executives took place. They came up with an ad campaign for Listerine that ranks as one of the greatest of all time.

The campaign for Listerine took on Scope head on. It recognized Listerine tasted like medicine, but it worked. It also addressed the fact that Listerine users mostly gargled once a day in the morning, so the campaign drove home a simple message:

Listerine Antiseptic—"The Taste People Hate Twice A Day." The commercial went after usage over users. It helped stabilize the brand and give Listerine the time to develop a sister brand... Listermint.

https://youtu.be/1oSZ0pncaEU?si=c0xfKsBjaO0Xk_VZ

You have to love YouTube as I was able to find this commercial from 1973

My job was to develop consumer in store Listerine displays, sweepstakes, coupons and trade incentives to keep from going out of stock.

An interesting sidebar to this is that I worked with a lower-level creative person who was just starting at J. Walter Thompson. His name was James Patterson who has become one of the bestselling authors of all time. Patterson rose up the ranks at JWT and became Creative Director. He left the agency when his first novel featuring Alex Cross became a best seller.

At Warner-Lambert I was offered the position of Director of International Marketing. I went to every Latin American and Asian company in the 5 years I had the job. My main claim to success was as a strategic planning facilitator. I would ask the questions regarding all the internal and external factors affecting their country business. Then we would develop 5-year growth plans and action plans to meet timetables.

Page 1 of my dad's story.

Internal factors are personnel, products, assets, liabilities, R&D. External factors are competition, government regulations, technology, legal, environmental. Internal factors can be controlled for the most part. External factors cannot be controlled (an example is COVID).

My work in International Marketing attracted some suitors... the most interesting and lucrative was American Express where I worked for three

years as Vice President of International Marketing. Then the man who brought me into the company and was my boss left and my new boss and I didn't connect. So, for the first time in my 18-year business career I was out of work. Compounding the situation was that the job market was one of the worst ever.

At that point I did a strategic plan about myself. I analyzed my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I came to the conclusion maybe it was time to join a smaller company. In Part II of my career, I'll go into the second half of my story.

The second half of this story is now published and can be viewed at Experience MarketSource Growth Strategy Executive Review.