Profile - David Iocca - For Workshop

     Okay guys, I ended up changing my initial profile idea. I am not yet sure if I want this profile to be specifically on Dave or on DJI. Please give me your feedback! Thanks :)

     It’s 7:00 on a Monday night as I walk into DJI & Associates, Inc. to find it’s sole owner David Robert Iocca at his disheveled desk sipping a Coors Light, finishing his work for the day. It it not uncommon to find Dave here at such an hour, though the other workers clock out at 5:30 PM each day. Dave is no longer working for pay, but ensuring that the jobs get done correctly.

     Dave began DJI fourteen years ago. He wasn’t trained in engineering or business management, but rather accounting, yet he sits as president and manager of 25 men and women as well as the architect of much of the natural gas pipeline they are contracted to construct. 

     Dave is the second youngest of twelve siblings. He worked initially for his father, but after some years of intense scrutiny and unfair wages between he and his younger brother, Dave decided to venture out on his own. While working for his father he had learned the “ropes” of engineering and design and felt he could be a successful without his father. He said, “And when I left I told him, I said, you know, I’m moving on, and he said, ‘You’ll be back in six months,’ and that was fourteen years ago.”

     Dave’s frustration with the way his father ran his company drove him to operate his own business exactly opposite. He says of his father, “He used to sit out at the front door and wait for people to come in. He was in the service, so he was, 8 o’clock or nothing.” Dave was also held to such standards. “And I used to get sent home. I came in at 8:05 one day and he sent me home. ‘You’re late, go home.’ And it was in the middle of a winter storm, and there was accidents all over the highway and I was like, ‘God damn, I got here as fast as I could’ and it wasn’t acceptable.” Dave made sure to turn this around in his own company by being less strict and holding his employees to a more attainable standard. Ever critical of his father’s method he admits, “I mean, we all want the same result, we want to do a good job, but there’s other approaches you can take to achieve that goal.” 

     Even with the difficulty Dave had working with his younger brother and his father, he chose to stick with family in his own endeavor. Of his 25 employees, five are members of the Iocca clan. Dave also employs many friends. While DJI continues to thrive, he admits the difficulty that comes with having people close to his heart working for him. He says,“If something goes bad, then it’s hard to talk to your friends that you hang out with. It’s hard to like, say that, ‘Hey guys, we’re struggling here.’ It has it’s pluses and minuses. I mean, when things are going good, it’s great. And you feel good because it’s your friends and you’re doing great. But when it goes bad you have a hard time, you know, trying to figure out why.” Dave recalls a time in the past week that he had to call in a friend who wasn’t performing as expected and discuss the problem. “It’s very hard to understand why we’re doing so bad, and it makes it very awkward.” He admits that it often becomes very difficult to separate work and his social life. “I’m going to be honest with you, I’d never do it again. I’d never hire people I know again.”

     While for now, Dave is the sole owner of DJI, he hopes one day for an employee-owned company. He believes employees would then feel more involved and thus be more invested in the work DJI performs.

     Thought owning his own company can be stressful, Dave says, “I can envision myself being here in my 60’s. You know what, you enjoy what you do, and you keep on doing it.” He says of the nature of DJI’s work, “You can’t beat it. Especially in Michigan. It’s something you don’t learn about in school, they don’t teach you this stuff.” 

     He hopes one day one of his three daughters will take over DJI. “All I can say is I hope one of you guys take advantage of it, whether it’s you, or my daughter, or Kent’s daughter. It’s a shame if you guys don’t.”