Stories
Stories
Eight Among Many: Robert F. Diromualdo
Bob DiRomualdo admits that he wasn't much of a reader until he paid a visit to Greenland. The son of a Philadelphia fireman, DiRomualdo took a job with RCA after graduating from high school to earn money for college. Dispatched by the company to the Arctic island, he spent eighteen months driving trucks and working in a machine shop at a U.S. early-warning ballistic missile detection site. There he discovered that nothing whiled away the cold, dark, and tedium like a good book. By the time he was ready to attend Drexel Institute of Technology, he was hooked on reading.
After college, DiRomualdo spent four years in the Navy as an aviation reconnaissance officer during the Vietnam War before earning his MBA. He then worked for several firms, most notably Hickory Farms, the faltering specialty foods company that he headed for five years and led back to profitability. But eventually DiRomualdo decided to make his passion for books - especially spy stories and historical novels - his business as well.
In 1989, he was hired by Tom and Louis Borders to expand the Ann Arbor, Michiganbased $20 million bookstore operation they had established in the 1970s. Today, as chairman, president, and CEO of Borders Group, Inc. - which includes more than 250 Borders Books & Music superstores around the globe, 900 Waldenbooks stores throughout the United States, and Borders.com - DiRomualdo runs an organization that rang up $2.6 billion in consolidated sales in 1998.
Amid all this growth, however, DiRomualdo has carefully maintained the original company's reputation for selection, service, and ambience - including in-store espresso cafés. "People come to our stores not because they have to but because they want to," says DiRomualdo. "The stores are designed to be stress-free zones where customers can relax."
In contrast, the bookselling industry itself is a case study in competitiveness, with firms poised to pounce on every customer desire and need. Back in 1991, for instance, DiRomualdo sensed there was an opportunity to sell CDs to older buyers who felt uncomfortable in typical, mostly teen-oriented, music stores. Accordingly, among the 200,000 units of merchandise available in every Borders store is a sizable selection of music, from Mozart to Madonna, as well as periodicals, videos, and other entertainment products. More recently, DiRomualdo has seen opportunities overseas and has led a Borders initiative to launch superstores in Great Britain, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.
DiRomualdo is keenly interested in incorporating the advantages of the Internet into Borders' bricks-and-mortarbased business model. "Given the fact that only 2 percent of all book sales are made on the Internet, it's difficult to bet the whole organization on one approach," he explains. "We've developed a world-class Web site that's supported by a state-of-the-art fulfillment center. But we also want to bring new technology into our stores to improve our special-order capabilities for our customers. In the long term," he concludes, "we think the combination we're creating of e-commerce, technology, and a unique retail experience is what most customers want."
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