Danger in Italy by: Frank Cornacchiulo
One Sunday morning I received a call from my CEO Morris Braun, he said “Hi Frank sorry to call you so early this morning. I’m in your office in Manhattan meeting with Dr. Del Bon, owner of a glass manufacturing company in Milan Italy. The reason for my call is that I know you speak a little Italian and even thought Dr Del Bon speaks some English, I think it would be helpful, if you can come in this afternoon to help me with our discussions.” I agreed immediately. When Mr. Braun first mentioned who he was calling me Sunday morning my heart started pounding, I had wild and crazy thoughts going through my head. “Did somebody die? Is he going to fire me? Did our company go bankrupt?” So, I was happy to drop everything and go to my office.
The bottom line for this meeting, was to negotiate for an exclusive agreement for representing his company in the USA. It was a great meeting. We told Dr Del Bon that we will send one of our managers to his factory in Italy within thirty days to see his manufacturing facility. I met with Ron, Monday morning. Ron, who is the person, responsible for all factories and production for our company. We'll arrange for Ron to fly to Milan Italy within 30 days as we agreed, and report back to our management. We were all set and informed Dr Del Bon accordingly.
One night while I was watching TV, I get a call from Ron telling me he can’t go to Italy as planned. He went on to say his wife Pat was crying and fearful that the Italian Communist Party who are shooting businesspeople in Italy would shoot him. I told him, okay, since I’ve never been to Italy, I’ll take this three-day trip for you next week. When my plane arrived at the airport in Milan Italy the security was unbelievable. Fully armed soldiers with dogs were everywhere. I cleared security and made my way to the exit where I was met by a person holding a sign with my name on it. He introduced himself as Bruno Pezzi. I only had an overnight bag with me as we made our way to his car. We got into his tiny blue Fiat which he called his Blueberry.
I was still a little woozy from my long flight when Bruno ushered me into Dr. Del Bon’s office. After a brief meeting and factory tour we went to lunch. Dr Del Bon led me to a new French made Citron. As we were driving Dr Del Bon turned to me and said, “Frank, u like-a my new car? This-a car is made-a special for me. Beautiful eh, bullet-ta proof tires, eh and-a bullet-a proof glass. At this point I was about to shit in my paints. Thinking that Ron’s wife was right, what the F*%#ck am I doing here? Thank God, the drive to and from lunch was uneventful. It was happenstance and luck when Bruno asked what I wanted to see in Milan? He turned white when I told him, an opera at La Scala. He managed to get us two tickets to see Carmen, which Dr Del Bon must have paid a billion lira for, but since I risked my life to get here, I didn't care. Meanwhile,
I didn't realize that this one trip to Italy was only the beginning, and an adventure that would take me to Milan, Italy, Paris, Germany and England many times over the years. My Company responsibilities grew to such a point that the Board of Directors at the Braun Co. elected me Cooperate VP and a stock Partnership in the Company. I never dreamed that this one Sunday phone call from Mr. Braun, opened so many opportunities for me over the years.
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