Back
Paul Furlo: “That’s the Way We Were Raised!”
by Nancy Sajdak Manning
Paul Furlo, president and CEO of Morley Companies, Inc., Saginaw, leads the large Michigan headquarters’ campus that has offices in Connecticut, Detroit, and ventures in Mexico City, Zurich, Singapore, SanPaolo and Dubai. Furlo and his brothers, Louis Jr. and Chris, share ownership and management of Morley; their father Louis Sr., past Morley president, is board chairman and “patriarch,” who continues to bring his passion to the thriving business. Since 1992, when the Furlo brothers joined the now completely family-owned service business, it has grown from about 30 to 650 full-time associates in Saginaw, as well as out-of-town, and hundreds of part-time associates.
From its hardware store beginnings in 1863, Morley has continually evolved to meet modern business needs. Current global services include: group travel, interactive services, market research, exhibits, trade show management, business theater productions, performance improvement initiatives, customer loyalty programs, and more.
“If you’re passionate about your business and you surround yourself with talented people who are passionate about your business,” states Furlo, “there’s very little that you can’t accomplish.”
Q. Please share some things about your childhood home.
A. Our family is our parents and two brothers plus me …. Really the three of us [brothers] serve as presidents/CEOs in a way. We have equal authority and really run the company as a partnership. That’s the way we were raised. We shared everything that we had—all of our successes and all of our challenges we shared ….
. . . While my father was extremely busy in the business, he spent a lot of time with the family and probably went out of his way to not have a lot of personal hobbies. He didn’t golf a lot, he didn’t hunt, he didn’t fish, but he spent a lot of time with his family.
My mother, Veronica, was completely devoted to raising us and supporting my father’s efforts to grow the business; she is a uniquely wonderful person, with a terrific, warm personality and a passion for helping others in need …. We were very fortunate to have a stay-at-home mom.
We—my brothers and I—certainly also would credit our upbringing to a great experience in the Saginaw Catholic education system—grade, high school—both were very positive experiences for us.
Q. Was there a time, growing up, when you questioned that this was the path you wanted to take in your life?
A. When you grow up in a family business and you have parents that are that involved in industry, without trying, you learn a lot about the business …. At our dinner table, we talked about things like advertising, the stock market, how the economy works, and how economics and politics were interwoven. So because my parents had so much passion for their business, it was very often a point of discussion.
We were never pushed to go into the family business …. Our parents really wanted to make sure that we did exactly what we wanted to do with our careers and our lives ….
Q. Will you share part of the path you followed to lead to your position as president?
A. The one thing that our father—our parents—said is, ‘You can do anything you want to do. If you want to come into the family business, we would like you to first have a MBA from a top business school’…. I went to Central Michigan for my undergrad, then … to the University of Michigan Business School … to get my MBA … and then prepared to get into the family business …. I’ve had every job [in Morley] along the way … so that when I eventually began running the company, I had a real appreciation for what it takes throughout the organization.
Q. Do you see positive business trends developing in the Tri-Cities during this time when our area is losing so many auto-related and other businesses?
A. I think our community has already had an opportunity to start the process of creating new business opportunities and new types of industries. Certainly health care has become a very important focus for our region …. For the first time really in two decades we have buildings being built and revitalized in downtown Saginaw on Washington: [condensed descriptions] the Temple Theatre, the MCVI Building, hockey, Dow Chemical sponsoring the Event Center, the Great Lakes Loons, the forthcoming Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum, multi-million dollar community-effort renovation of the downtown YMCA, a symphony orchestra, an art museum now affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute, and more.
There are several firms in this area—big, medium, large and small—that are thriving …. I think it is important for all of us to support those companies and do business together to continue that momentum …. We have to think regionally because the three of our counties together can be a powerhouse if we work together as one. We have to think of ourselves as one metroplex versus three counties.