Who is tom monaghan

Monaghan wrote page 11 :. After our second date, I gave Margie a heart-shaped pizza for Valentine's Day. It was a big hit with her friends in the dorm. On our third date, I looked into those big blue eyes and realized I was in love. Throughout the early days of Monaghan's business dealings, he was taken in by a series of business partners who effectively stole his money.

The most notable was a would-be oil tycoon, who convinced Monaghan to give him his entire savings several thousand dollars to drill an oil well What's more, Monaghan built up those savings in the Marines, which he says he was duped into joining.

He thought he was joining the Army, and only found out it was the Marines after taking aptitude tests. Throughout his book, Monaghan discusses his lifelong interest I say obsession with the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

For instance, on page 7 he casually drops FLW's name in this odd paragraph:. I see no contradiction between, on the one hand, sitting down at home to a simple meal that my wife spoons out of the pots it was cooked in and, on the other, insisting that meals in the executive dining room at Domino's headquarters be of five-star quality, impeccably served, with white linen tablecloths, fine china designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, silverware, and crystal glasses. He wrote extensively about his desire to build a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed tower as the centerpiece of a new headquarters for Domino's Pizza.

On the grounds, he wrote that his collection of classic cars would be on display, along with peacocks, pygmy goats, Shire horses, miniature horses, Chianina cattle, and a museum of steam-powered farm equipment.

Unfortunately, the tower was never built , though Monaghan got much of the rest done and check out that Duesenberg! Truly a self-made man, Monaghan and his brother Jim ended up in a Roman Catholic orphanage shortly after their father died and their mother couldn't handle raising the kids alone.

It was a formative experience, and Monaghan is a devout Catholic to this day. Monaghan founded Ave Maria University in , located in Michigan. He never saw his money again. Monaghan planned to attend the University of Michigan in the fall of , but became ill with an infected eardrum and did not earn enough money to even afford the text books. He tried again in the spring of , but dropped out after only three weeks. From this inauspicious beginning one would not expect Monaghan to become a billion dollar businessman and philanthropist.

In September , his brother, Jim, heard that a pizza shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan, was up for sale. The brothers bought the business, naming it Domino's Pizza. They had no intention of making this a life long career. Jim kept his post office job and Tom intended to return to the University of Michigan. Jim soon sold his half of the business to his brother for a Volkswagen Beetle that had been used as a delivery vehicle. Monaghan threw himself into the business of making the best pizza in the world.

He created a very simple menu. He investigated what made the best sauce, purchased the highest quality toppings, made the freshest dough, used the most expensive flour and cheese, and guaranteed delivery as rapidly as possible.

Business did well enough to open a second store in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, catering to college studentds. Working hour days and visiting more than rival pizzerias, Monaghan utilized the best techniques and invented his own when none existed to stay in the forefront of the industry. In , he sold his first franchise. As the business continued to grow, Monaghan had to face a number of challenges. In , a fire destroyed his anchor store in Ypsilanti, which supplied the other stores with food, as well as the company's offices.

Most of the damage was not covered by insurance. Monaghan turned the company over to Ken Heavlin, a local businessman on May 1, , to avoid bankruptcy. Within a year he regained control and by Domino's had recovered.

In September , Amstar Corporation, the manufacturer of Domino Sugar, sued for infringement of trademark. Religion, Ethics, and Business. Thomas Monaghan Catholic, U. Description: The U. In , Mr Monaghan has 1, local. Nearly three new franchises opened every day. Thomas Monaghan donated million dollars for the creation of the Ave Maria University. Battle-scarred but definitely unbowed, with an unswerving devotion to customer service and an unshakeable faith in his ultimate success, Monaghan forged ahead.

Aided by a nationwide popularity in fast-food franchising, he rapidly expanded his business in the s. By , it had all come together for the energetic pizza baron.

The Detroit Tigers were owned by a John Fetzer, a colorless — but very well-respected — broadcasting tycoon who had made his fortune as a pioneer in the early days of radio in the s and s. Fetzer had turned away many inquires about selling the club in the three decades that he had owned the Tigers.

Yet team president Jim Campbell handpicked Monaghan as a potential buyer, looking toward the inevitable day that Fetzer decided to sell. He was treated favorably by the media for his accessibility and wide-eyed enthusiasm for the game; for decades, the Detroit press had rarely had access to the former owner.

As it turned out, lots of things could go wrong, and not just on the field. And they did. Although Fetzer had made his fortune in broadcasting, the conservative Tigers were not nearly so innovative in televising their games under his ownership, showing only 52 games in including only seven home games. Watching their hometown heroes on TV in the mids was sweet for Detroit fans, who had only to flip the channel to see how chic their blue-collar team had become. In Roy Scheider starred as a fading ballplayer in the upbeat Disney television movie Tiger Town , filmed at Tiger Stadium with cooperation of the team.

After the Tigers were proclaimed to be a budding dynasty, though that dynasty proved to exist only in the high hopes of the fans and in the palavering of the pundits. Yet the Tigers won only one more division title, edging Toronto on the final day of in a barn-burning finish to one of the greatest pennant races of all time. They followed that triumph by being abruptly upset by the underdog Minnesota Twins in the American League Championship Series. Monaghan wondered openly about the relatively small weeknight crowds at Tiger Stadium during the last few days of the season when the Tigers were struggling to catch Toronto, and Detroit failed to sell out its home ALCS games.

Two years later the Tigers hit rock bottom, winning just 59 games. In response, Monaghan — acting more like a sports groupie than an experienced, clear-eyed business executive — made the mistake of tapping his friend Bo Schembechler to turn the Tigers around.

Schembechler, the autocratic former University of Michigan football coach and athletic director, had zero experience in professional sports.

Schembechler came aboard the foundering Detroit ship on January 8, , as president and chief operating officer, with Jim Campbell becoming chairman of the board and CEO. Bill Lajoie initially remained as general manager in the new regime, a post he had held since October Moving into this ossified management group, Schembechler tried to shake things up by emphasizing athleticism when scouting and drafting prospects in direct contrast to the Tigers themselves, who were anything but athletic.

A year later Schembechler hired Joe McDonald as senior vice president of player procurement and development, allowing Schembechler to take over some of the GM duties. McDonald served under Walker before being canned in For three stormy years Schembechler ran the sinking ship despite being completely out of his element. In one of his worst miscalculations, he forced legendary broadcaster Ernie Harwell to retire after the season.

Whole forests of pulpwood trees in Quebec were leveled to provide the newsprint needed for the abuse heaped upon the Tigers by the media and by outraged fans. Nine years after he had fulfilled a boyhood dream in buying the Tigers, after reports that the club had to borrow money from the American League to make its payroll, Monaghan sold the Tigers.

That was painful enough. What made it worse, because no other qualified buyer could be found, was that Monaghan had to sell out to his longtime rival, Detroit Red Wings owner and fellow Michigan pizza mogul Mike Ilitch co-founder and co-owner with his wife, Marian, of the Little Caesars Pizza chain.

Schembechler and Campbell were fired in August as Ilitch prepared to assume control. Claiming he had a guarantee for 10 years, Schembechler sued Monaghan in what became a bitter dispute over his compensation package — sketched out on a restaurant napkin!

The suit was settled out of court two years later. Detroit fans were pleased when Ilitch demonstrated a commitment to revitalizing the team that was sorely lacking from the cash-strapped Monaghan, whose enthusiasm for his underperforming baseball club had waned long before the end. Another positive was that Ilitch quickly spent millions of dollars sprucing up the corner of Michigan and Trumbull.

That contrasted starkly with Monaghan, who had tried to persuade the virtually bankrupt city of Detroit to subsidize a new ballpark after when he decided that Tiger Stadium was no longer viable. As the new owner of the Detroit Tigers in , he would probably have been better served by reaching outside of his comfort zone, especially by seeking out the best practices of the most effective team owners.

That would have built an internal team better equipped to compete in the contemporary environment. Ideally, Monaghan should have surrounded himself with executives and advisers who thought differently than he so that they could establish a solid and innovative business plan for the future.

That was not Tom Monaghan, however. Monaghan took the helm of a well-established aristocratic organization in need of a rejuvenation and, for the most part, magnified the weaknesses of the aristocracy. The hoopla and happiness of started to unravel later that decade as Monaghan enjoyed his fame and fortune while neglecting his core business. In the fast-growing international chain celebrated the debut of its 5,th store. According to Monaghan, he dramatically reordered his priorities after reading C.

After his soul-searching, the wealthy executive devoted himself again to his foundering pizza business. Guests were flown in and out on nine private planes. Limousines, yachts, and a helicopter provided local transportation. A jet was reportedly sent back to Detroit for the sole purpose of picking up a forgotten tuxedo. The over-the-top party included the making of an ersatz movie starring the guests, with local citizens hired to line the red carpet and scream like groupies at a gala Hollywood premiere.

Fake money imprinted with the images of Tom and Marjorie was distributed; the scrip could be redeemed by guests for luxury gifts. The compound was six hours from Detroit by car and almost two hours east of the Mackinac Bridge, and can have frost in July and August.