PART II of III of our interview with DR. Valentino (Val) P. De Rocili, President of Compliance Environmental, Inc., an Environmental Health and Safety consulting firm located in Dover, Delaware. Originally from Wilmington, Delaware, he earned an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Engineering Technology from the University of Delaware. He completed a Master of Business Administration degree from Wilmington University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Safety Engineering from Kennedy-Western University. He is a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager at the Master Level and has numerous certifications in the areas of leadbased paint, asbestos, and infrared thermography.
FSCPA: Who are your mentors or role models and why?
Val: There are two that I have met – one was Frank Purdue. Another person was Bob Applebee who was President of George and Lynch when I worked there. Two others that I admire but have not met are Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill. My father is another role model. Basically, he taught me that there is value in hard work and you can get a lot of pride from working. He worked very hard. If you can see your accomplishment then maybe you’ll have pride.
I actually dated Frank Purdue’s niece before I met my wife. I met her in 1985 and I got to meet him as well but also we did work for Purdue. Frank was a tremendous motivator. He had a lot of energy and focus and I think a lot of the folks who worked for him aspired to be like Frank Purdue. Another thing that I know is that before he passed away he put together an ethical will which can be found on the internet.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35125287
All of those things I agree with. Frank was one, I’ll tell you this, he would traditionally call his upper managers starting at about 2am until 6am. His theory was that they would be home at that time and he would be able to address the business concerns. He was a character. A little insight on Frank: Frank always wanted to be a professional baseball player, hence, he funded the construction of the stadium in Salisbury named after his father, Frank Purdue Stadium, that the Shorebirds use. That is actually named for his father, Frank.
Bob Applebee, here’s the thing about him: He is probably one of the smartest people I have ever met. He was a Cornell graduate engineer but what I liked about Bob is that he could really see through a situation, diagnose it very quickly, and come to a solution. I got from him a little motto that I use: “begin with the end in mind”. I say that to a lot of people, even our clients. Before we begin something we think of what we are supposed to deliver at the end.
Reagan was the great communicator. What I like about Reagan is his ability to take a terrible situation and work through it and give people hope and inspire them to the extent that the situation doesn’t seem as horrible. I think that was one of the great gifts that Reagan had.
Churchill was a man in politics pre-WWII. He was Prime Minister of Great Britain twice. He was PM at the time Hitler basically invaded the rest of Europe and he is always known for the concept: We shall not surrender.
(We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.)
The theme in Churchill’s career was resisting bullies. He was fond of a word that was used back then, it is not used anymore – magnanimous. He said: “Be magnanimous.” That means, to me, be forgiving of insults; be more noble than is… standard maybe. That is something I took from him. The thing about Churchill is that right after WWII ended he was up for reelection and his party didn’t reelect him. He was very upset about that because he felt that he had saved his country and now they had picked someone else to be PM. As it turns out, after some years had passed, he did become PM again. He was PM from 1940 to1945 and they give him an honorarium after that but he was still in politics. Then he was PM again from 1951 to 1955. Just as he was determined not to fail in WWII, he was determined to get back in as PM. So the bottom line with him is: You don’t quit. You don’t quit.
FSCPA: By what methods did Frank Purdue motivate people, in your opinion?
Val: I think that his drive was that you have to get up each morning and do what you like to do and what you are good at. He picked talented people to work for him, no doubt about. He didn’t motivate them by bullying them. He motivated them by showing them how great the company could be and, not just that, but how problems can be resolved and worked through. He wasn’t one to point a finger and say: You need to do this or that, I’m the boss, etc. He was someone that when you saw him and listened to him he would suggest solutions and you would see that if you did it the way he suggested that things would probably work out well. He took an egg laying business that his father started and turned it into a billion dollar corporation. How he did it was, well with a hard of hard work, but he also went to NY and worked with the butchers in NY and he had them show him what makes a good chicken. Show him what they wanted because they work with meat all day long. Then he took that knowledge and created the Purdue Farms that we know today. That is what I mean when I say he was a person who could motivate. He motivated with his vision.
FSCPA: What do you think separates someone like Bill Gates from the average successful entrepreneur?
Val: There is a luck component in business and I think that is what separates a billionaire like Gates from others. You want to know about Gates? His success was not in developing software his success was in convincing the manufacturers of computers that every machine should be sold with the windows platform. You will pay for that as a part of every computer you buy whether you are going to use the software or not. Now, he then had to deliver the platform but he didn’t do that by himself. He got lucky because he hit the market at just the right time to create enormous wealth. I don’t believe he knew how much wealth that act was really going to create. I believe from my reading that he thought that sales contract was necessary for the survival of Microsoft, not that it would make him a billionaire.
I want to tell you about money. Money doesn’t impress me. I have never been one to chase money. I chase more my dreams and ambition to make myself better at what I do and the money will come. So if you have a billion dollars, can you spend it all? Will you go to your grave with money in the bank? Sure. But could you be just as happy with a million dollars in the bank? You are not going to spend it all and they are not going to bury you with it. What is the difference? I don’t understand the money thing because do you think these guys are happier because they have 10 houses and I only have one. I have one nice house and that is what I want. I am sure they have a favorite of the 10 houses, or maybe they like them all (laughing) but money brings trouble too. I am sure Mr. Gates also has to pay for a 24/7 physical security team to protect him. His life is controlled by the money. He can’t just run over to Target. Do you really want money to direct your life? I say no.
FSCPA: What two pieces of advice would you offer to business owners who are currently in the midst of tough times?
Val: Getting back to Purdue again: Learn from the weaknesses and build from the strengths of your predecessors and Churchill: Don’t give up. Adapt and survive. On the other hand, I would say too that you should not sacrifice the things that made you great or good. For us, those are quality and our ability to deliver. We will never cut quality and we will never cut our ability to deliver. To survive you have to look at everything in terms of what you are doing and what you are not doing. Cuts will be made and you have to really pull out the fat and go down to the muscle. In order to trim the fat and not the muscle, you need to understand your business and which is which.
FSCPA: What advice would you give to someone contemplating starting a business?
Val: I would say follow your dreams, you see and read that a lot, but in doing that be prepared for a lot of work. Realize that it will be satisfying doing hard work but you will have to be the type of person who can adapt and overcome. If you can’t do that then my advice is don’t proceed in business. Determine the things that make your business unique. Ask yourself: Why would people want to hire me? What do you bring to the table? I mean honestly. Why would people want to give you money? If you can answer that, you know, then you are probably off and running. If you can’t then you’re probably not going to do well (laughing) - that’s it! Everyone looks for the magic key and there is no magic key, folks.
