Friday, August 29, 2014

Nick Profeta's photo collection

Nick's wife Carmen kindly dug through their photo album and provided me these photos.   
Thank you Nick and Carmen.


Nick's 25th service award 


His 30th service award


with J. Piot... N. Profeta Street!!!? in 1987


with Bill Rowe


w. Mr. Hiroaki Takahashi, DIC personnel dept.


with E. Levy


with J. Piot, D. Wheeler and R. Muzzilo


This appears to be a pretty old Tappan Hill Christmas party late 1060's



with Mr. Shiraishi of DIC and Carmen


Mr. Shiraishi, Nick, JP, Mr. Tsuji then DIC America president and Mr. Ito then general manager of DICA


Kanpai with Mr. Tsuji


with Mr. Yujobo of DICA and Lou Kaplan 

Sunday, August 24, 2014

The farewell letter from Mr. Halpern, Oct. 22, 1980

Mr. Halpern was always able to seek and find an alternative investor if a major investor became uneasy about the Polychrome's performance or Mr. Halpern's leadership.       He may have thought the situation was no different in 1978 when Rhone Poulanc management indicated their interest in raising their stake in Polychrome.        Rhone Poulanc by then was not only a major investor but also an important business partner both in marketing and in research & development.         Mr. Halpern's call to find an investor was answered by DIC whose president Mr. Kawamura was very much interested in expanding his business overseas.           This time, however, the balancing act did not work out in Mr. Halpern's favor.         Instead of having DIC to own only a part of the remaining Polychrome stock to counterbalance Rhone Poulanc, DIC ended up winning a bidding war... a first for a Japanese company to do so.... and owning most of Polychrome's share except for a few percent owned by Mr. Halpern.
Mr. Halpern still hoped to maintain his management control of Polychrome even after the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of DIC and all the indications were that DIC was willing to do so.       Mr. Halpern then made a second mistake in judgement; he panicked and feared that his remaining shares may not be worth if DIC did not honor and buy them in future.        He rushed to Tokyo and got an agreement to have them bought.         This left him to be a mere employee of the company rather than a significant share holder.                 Mr. Halpern increasingly found himself to be out of management loop, moved out of his office (and moved into my office!) then tendered his resignation.         This letter was sent to all the employees and was his farewell to his beloved Polychrome.             You can read the whole text HERE.          By the way after losing this bidding war, Rhone Poulanc pulled out of the graphic arts business.      We later bought Regma and Quadrimetal from them.
  

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Organization announcement in 1987

In this detailed organizational announcement Joe Piot announced his vision of future Polychrome organization and made appointments which included three future presidents.     Don Wheeler, COO; Thomas Bittner, European General Manager and Bob Hallman, VP R&D.     Read the entire announcement with charts HERE.            Thanks Nick for providing the copy.



Friday, August 15, 2014

Music after Polychrome!

Nick Godano who was with us in 1980's at our Specialty Products Laboratory in Yonkers found me through Linkedin site and came to our reunion during the last two years.
One of his hobby is singing a cappella and he sent me his link to the recent barber quartet gathering.
Nick is in the chorus in the back and 3rd from left in front.


One of my hobby is music as well and had been playing English Handbell for the last 30 years.     I just came back from Korea where our group was participating in the 16th International English Handbell Symposium.       One week prior to the symposium we had an opportunity to play for about 200 American-Korean soldiers at Pumunjun DMZ.     Here is the link to our blog to see part of the performance.      I am in the back row center.


Thursday, August 14, 2014

Executive Management Committee in 1982

After the purchase of Polychrome, DIC appointed Mr. Irie then senior director of DIC to head DIC America.         


photo courtesy of Nick Profeta

Mr. Tanaka of DICA, Briarn Whittlin, Mr. Irie, Nick Profeta, Stan Eysman, Dan Lamperti

Pat Walsh, Simon Chu, Gerry Mahoney

Don Wheeler, Joe Piot, Enrique Levy

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Polychrome Americas News and Views May/June 1991

Ron Muzillo's pep talk "How to feel very good about yourself" is featured in the top page and Ian Ward updates on the good production trend of Clark Film factory.     Mike Adelman promotes recently introduced Vistar 350.        Howard Krick tops the TSR ranking and H. Dixon was the top billing TSR.
Read more about the sales and marketing activities HERE.


Monday, August 4, 2014

On the Upbeat Feb. 1985

Twenty five were inducted  into Vice President's Club for $750,000 sales in 1984, this Upbeat reports.
Detroit won the branch Percent-to-budget Race at 123% and W. Lukes led 85 individuals in ending 1984 at 100% or more of budget.       He achieved 141% of budget.        Ron Muzillo came back after 13 weeks at the Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.
Read more field news in detail HERE.