Question: After reading the Iaccarino & Son case, please answer the question that follows. He labeled it a typical immigrant story. Francis X . Iaccarino (
After reading the Iaccarino & Son case, please answer the question that follows.
He labeled it a typical immigrant story. Francis X Iaccarino Fran to his friends was talking about his grandfather Raffaele. Raffaele emigrated from Italy to the United States, searching for better opportunities for his children. He had been a boat builder in Italy and expected to find the same kind of work in his new country. After being processed through Ellis Island, however, he was sent inland to Worcester, Massachusetts, because some of his relatives had already located there.
Ralph, as he became known in Worcester, found that his boatbuilding skills could be transferred to woodworking, so he began taking on whatever projects he could find. After a while, he rented a garage and established his own woodworking business. Ralph changed with the times, building refrigerator cases when electric refrigeration became widespread. There was a homebuilding explosion after World War II and Ralphs company evolved into residential woodworking, specializing in moulding for doors and cabinets.
As an Italian immigrant with limited fluency in English, Ralph was taken advantage of by building contractors. He passed his business along to his sons and returned to Italy for the final years of his life. Ralphs boys, Carl and Joseph, were home after their war service and ready to take on responsibility for the company. Initially, they were frustrated by how erratic the workload was. They both had families to feed and wanted a more stable income. Carl noticed that the glass company across the street from his location was always busy. The owner told him the key was to have commercial rather than residential customers. So Carl and Joseph shifted their focus and went the commercial route.
During the s Carl ran the factory, while Joseph was in charge of the office. When Joseph was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, he had to reduce his involvement in the firm. Their sister came in to help out. Even though they were secondgeneration Americans, the Iaccarinos still faced discrimination in the private sector. They began concentrating on public contracts. They found that having a union manage their employees gave them an advantage in government contracting. The union set the pay rates, making everything transparent in the public sector.
The s saw an increase in disagreements among family members. Eventually, Carl bought Josephs percent stake in the company. As sole owner, Carl named his company Iaccarino & Son, in the expectation of persuading Fran to join the firm. But first, Carl had to get the business back on track. A recession hit just after he bought his brothers shares. Carl was able to stay afloat and slowly grew the business through the s Then, in another recession hit a housing bust.
At the time, Fran was managing his own picture framing business. He felt the pull of the family legacy and felt he needed to help his father. So he sold his company and joined Iaccarino & Son, overseeing accounting and estimating the costs of completing contracts. Going into the recession, the firm had revenues in the range of $ million. Frans baptism in the business involved cutbacks and downsizing. By although the company was profitable, revenues were down to $ million.
Fran completed his MBA degree in When he joined Iaccarino & Son, he saw the company as a case study, much as his professors had taught him. Fran wanted to focus on growth, on replacing old technology, on finding new markets. By the end of the decade, the company was again reaching the $ million mark, with higher profits. But Fran did not detect what was going on behind the scenes. Longtime employees were intimidated by Frans presence and felt threatened. Wherever possible, they actively worked to reverse the changes that Fran had made. And Frans father, Carl, was worried by Frans growth strategy and was unwilling to back him on key issues. Fran had made a big mistake when he agreed to join Iaccarino & Sonhe failed to negotiate an ownership position. And he found his father would not let go of the power.
By Fran had had enough. He told his father that he was leaving the business unless Carl agreed to bring in outside consultants to reorganize the company. Carl agreed. The consultants implemented many of the changes Fran had previously attempted. They also instituted stronger analytical tools. Fran was optimistic about the companys future. In he drafted a plan for aggressive expansion, intending to double the size of the firm. Then came the Great Recession in But Iaccarino & Son did not feel it immediately. Its type of contracting made it a lagging indicator of economic trends. But it was hit hard in and There was a dwindling backlog of projects by The company lost three projects in one day and could not shrink fast enough to absorb the shock.
Iaccarino & Son reached its
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