One big change that Lou Rotella III, chief operating officer, and John Rotella, general manager, Rotella’s Italian Bakery, have noted about their tenure at the company is the emphasis on work-life balance. While they both assert their father, Lou Rotella Jr., chief executive officer, would go to extreme lengths to attend their sporting events — he once traveled overnight by bus on a business trip to watch a soccer game — they recognize that the team they’ve assembled around them have allowed them to be more involved at home. 

“Our father and grandfather always worked 60 to 70 hours a week, just pouring their blood, sweat and tears into the bakery,” John Rotella remembered. “Dad would always make time to go to all our sporting events, and mom was always home, taking care of the family and doing everything for the household. Today we have such a good team at the bakery that we can dedicate more time to our families. We really prioritize working efficiently to get things done so we can spend more time with our families.”

This has extended to their employees as well. As bakeries struggle to recruit and retain employees, the grueling production schedules required at bakeries can be a downside. Lou Rotella III recognized that the big thing people are looking for from their work schedule is flexibility so that they can also be there for their families. 

“We’ll try to accommodate any shift that a person wants or any number of hours,” he said. “We try to take into consideration their goals for their work-life balance, and we’re not opposed to having people who need to work overtime to do that or someone who wants less hours.”

Just like their mother and their grandmother, Lou Rotella III and John Rotella credit their wives — Sarah and Jill, respectively — with ensuring the family comes first.  

“This business can be all-consuming,” Lou Rotella III said. “You can really never leave if you wanted to; there’s always something going on, but you just have to make the time for your family.” 

Both women have ensured family vacations happen. John Rotella jokes that he used to spend his spring breaks cleaning ovens as a kid, but now his kids are spending it on vacation.

Lou Rotella III agreed, laughing, “If they didn’t book stuff, we’d probably just be here.”

This article is an excerpt from the December 2024 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Operations Executives of the Year, click here.