Baking & Snack - December 2024 - 16

OPERATIONS EXECUTIVES OF THE YEAR
Lou Rotella III said. " He was a very detail-oriented person,
and he didn't let a lot slide. My father is a very smart
businessman, and I've learned a lot from him whether
it's thinking strategically about the business or treating
people with dignity and respect. "
Lou Rotella Sr. took his role of mentoring his grandJohn
Rotella's gift
with building and
engineering has
made him Rotella's
Italian Bakery's expert
when it comes
to equipment and
capital investment.
children very seriously. Lou Rotella III remembers in
high school, he would spend afternoons at his grandparents'
house studying. When he was done, his grandmother,
Helen, would fix him a snack - a toasted hard
roll with butter and marmalade - and he would watch
motivational speakers his grandfather recorded - Les
Brown was a favorite - before Lou Rotella Sr. would
impart the lessons he hoped Lou Rotella III would take
from those videos.
" I did that for years, " he said. " I'll never forget those
times and lessons and what was passed down to me from
generation to generation. "
A similar tradition continued through college with
" WHEN IT CAME TIME FOR
THEM TO TAKE THE BATON I
WAS HOLDING OUT FOR THEM,
THEY JUST GRABBED IT. "
Lou Rotella Jr., Rotella's Italian Bakery
Friday night dinners with Lou Rotella Sr. and Helen
Rotella, whom Lou Rotella III described as the backbone
of the family, and that's where he saw the impact the
bakery had on the community.
" We'd always go to these family restaurants, and my
grandfather would know the owners, and they would always
give a compliment to someone at Rotella's Bakery, "
he remembered. " Could have been the quality of the
product, the great service the route driver provided, but
my grandfather would always answer and say, 'We're just
so blessed to have so many excellent employees who are
passionate about what they do.' And I had the opportunity
to be around all of that for years. "
Care for the employees is another lesson Lou Rotella
III and John Rotella have taken from both their grandfather
and father, who treated each employee with respect,
regardless of their role in the business.
" Lou and I both try to treat everyone the same,
whether you're sweeping the floor or you're upper management, "
John Rotella said. " We try to get everyone's input
on a day-to-day basis, especially if we're working on
a large project. It needs everyone's ideas, and that helps
everyone feel important to the company and like they're
contributing to the business's success. "
Lou Rotella III agreed: " I try to put myself in another
person's shoes. I want to understand where they're coming
from. If someone is having an issue, I always want
to look internally first and ask the question, 'Did we do
everything we could to make sure this person was able
to succeed?' "
A lesson John Rotella took from his father in that
same vein was to not be afraid of making mistakes, and
that went for everyone in the company. Lou Rotella Jr.
encourages his sons and employees to try new things
and not let fear stop them from discovering a better way
of doing things.
" He's never afraid of doing a lot of R&D, testing and
making improvements to the process, " John Rotella said.
" We were never afraid of getting chewed out because we
tried something new, and it didn't work. "
Growing into leadership
Both Lou Rotella III and John Rotella have taken the
lessons and examples given to them to cultivate leader16
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Baking & Snack - December 2024

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