Those of you who know me and our firms know that one of our primary responsibilities is supporting the FDNY and FDNY Foundation. For 19 years after watching first-hand the dedication of New York’s Bravest after 9/11, and seeing their pain and sacrifice, I believe it is simply the right thing to do. This year […]
Category: Bob’s Blog
How Television Got to the NYSE Trading Floor
How Television Got to the NYSE Trading Floor (A CEO’s approval; and why it’s important to the brand still today) Some moments just stick with you. For life. One of mine came about 25 years ago. I had come back to the NYSE from Sony a year earlier, having re-joined the NYSE as Executive Vice […]
COVID-19 vs. 9/11
I sent an email to a client (and friend) this morning, congratulating him on his company’s decision to provide insurance coverage to furloughed workers during the crisis we face today. I sent that email right after I had an email exchange with a friend in Italy. He has been in lockdown for several weeks in […]
A Virus…The Media…and a Jesuit
A Virus…The Media…and a Jesuit Ok, it’s a misleading headline…especially the last part. But in the face of the “unknown”…the despair…the confusion…and the concerns, there have been a couple of wonderful stories. Paul Farhi’s piece in The Washington Post asked people to stop referring to those in his profession as “the media.” But the organizations […]
A Times Square Billboard to Help Us Remember?
A Times Square Billboard to Help Us Remember? Try these stories and video instead. An interesting proposal came across my desk this week. An organization is renting a video screen in Times Square that will allow interested parties to pay $25 and post a photo of themselves, or a loved one impacted by 9/11, with […]
A Tale of Two Brands
JetBlue vs. United The difference was stark. So much so that I am impelled to capture it for others. Three weeks ago, I am sick on a Friday when I am supposed to fly to Charlotte on a business trip. So I call United, and get its call center. Based on the noise in the […]
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Zito Partners
The amazing photographer — and our good friend — Jim Salzano used his phone to shoot this image of Manhattan’s Grace Church in October.
It immediately made us think of the holidays, and how fortunate we are.
Fortunate to have great families…a great team to work with…great partners…and great clients.
That light — while, yes, a streetlight — reminds us that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel…no matter how bleak things can look.
Cancer screenings…and hiring Vets
I love it when clients do things that make you say, “Well done”…even if you had nothing to do with it. Over the past several years, three of my friends have been diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer. Fortunately, all caught it early…and all are doing fine today. So when our client the NFL […]
First Impressions Go a Long Way
A guy walked into a room… No, not a joke. It’s about first impressions. We deal with clients every day…and meet potential clients regularly. How someone enters a room sets the tone for the meeting. Consider our experience last week. A major American brand exec is late for a dinner meeting. But he is so apologetic […]
Good News to End the Year
The end of 2017 brought some good news to Zito Partners and IPZ. At Zito Partners, Deborah Kostroun has been promoted to Managing Director of our firm. Deborah has done outstanding work for our clients, and her work ethic on their behalf has been exemplary. It is well deserved for the Texas native, who spent […]
Eli Manning and a Lesson in Leadership
(and why 57 years of rooting for this franchise just imploded) Class Act. Important description in any commentary. Eli Manning is a Class Act. No, he’s not the best quarterback; probably far from it. Yes, he’s had some great games…and been the quarterback on two Super Bowl winning teams. But he was the first to […]
The Kids Are Alright
Don’t go looking at the lyrics from The Who’s often-covered song, one that always made me wonder if I was actually listening to The Beatles. This has nothing to do with that song. Years ago, the firm I was with brought in a college intern from Rutgers. He was excellent. So good he was hired […]
Saints Perform Miracles
On large screen televisions in living rooms and bars across the United States Wednesday night, sports fans got to learn first-hand about the “Miracle of St. Anthony,” and the Saint who made it all happen – Bob Hurley. The introduction of Bob (Bob Hurley Wins Best Coach at ESPYS 2017) captured some of the man’s […]
Bob Zito featured in Ketchum blog
Financial Communications: A Q&A with Bob Zito Ketchum Zito Financial, a strategic alliance offering management consulting and financial communications services between Ketchum and Zito Partners (ZP), marked the third anniversary of its partnership this week. Read the Q&A here: http://blog.ketchum.com/a-financial-communications-qa-with-bob-zito/
UAL — What’s Next? It Starts at the Top.
The backlash against United Airlines was well deserved. And the criticism of its CEO expected. But now let’s see what the company comes up with moving forward. I can’t remember the last time I flew on United (and as Newark is “my” airport, that happens a lot) and didn’t hear the gate announcement asking for […]
Faith? I Lost Mine Last Week.
Photo by Jim Salzano I was speaking with a good friend Thursday about the Catholic Church. He’s left it. I’m right behind him. He and his wife gave up when his local parish kept asking for money, and they saw no improvements in their church…the school…or their programs. Turns out the money was going to […]
Lies My Father Told Me
No, my dad never lied to me. In fact, he’s the person I’ve most respected for my entire life. Back in 1975 or ’76, I was back in New Jersey for a day courting my future bride. I had the day off from my sports writing job, and we decided to take in the above […]
Revis Island – Another Perspective
I board a late flight one night in early 2016 from Newark to Fort Lauderdale — had a couple of meetings in Florida and took a day on each side for some work in the sun. I sit in my seat and the guy next to me — dressed well and very polite — nods […]
SPORTS AND FAMILY
It’s amazing the things we remember. I was 12 years old, playing first base for the CJ Murphy team in the Bayonne Little League championship game. Tommy Wise, who was a great basketball and baseball player (later played briefly for the Montreal Expos), was on the mound for us. It was the bottom of the […]
Respecting Veterans…and helping a great High School
As we remember and recognize the sacrifice of our Veterans this Friday, we are honored that several Veterans currently serve on our Advisory Board, and we have the opportunity to work with so many more through our client engagements. The brilliance of the team at root9B, as they help their clients maintain the highest possible […]
A culture of distrust.
A few years back, I authored a blog about an unscrupulous broker at Wells Fargo who had managed to lose more than half of my then 86-year-old Aunt’s portfolio, by investing her money is stocks no 86-year-old should have been invested in. It seemed the broker had never read the “Know Your Customer” rule. It […]
Italy/9-11/and Colin Kaepernick
I was in Italy working on a potential business deal two weeks ago when Tom Bergeron, the editor of NJBIZ, called me. “We’re going to look back at 9/11 on this, the 15th anniversary. Would you be willing to write down your thoughts about the day? It’s amazing but I’ve realized our staff here – […]
Scallops…Brunello…and an agreement
You never know what can develop from a lunch at Alfie’s. Having known and respected the team at Global Markets Advisory Group (GMAG) for – literally – decades, when Charlie and Kevin said to me over scallops and Brunello, “So, Bob, how can we work together?” it was too good an opening not to pursue. […]
Bob DeFillippo Joins Zito Partners
Thrilled to welcome Bob DeFillippo to the Zito Partners team. Bob DeFillippo Joins Zito Partners WARREN, N.J. – Bob DeFillippo, most recently the Chief Communications Officer for Prudential Financial, Inc., has joined Zito Partners in a senior consulting role. Mr. DeFillippo brings more than 40 years of senior leadership experience in corporate communications, journalism, government […]
The Hidden Strength Behind Navy SEALs
It was a fairly direct and pointed question, the type of question you’d expect from a woman who has worked on Wall Street her entire career. “If my company supports your organization, tell me what the programs look like that we’ll be funding.” Megan leaned back from her chair, gave me a wink and smile […]
Memories of a funeral…and leadership
There are some things I remember from my childhood. Not a lot…but those that have stuck, stuck well. One is a memory of a funeral service for Walter Kimbrough. Walter was the lead groundskeeper for the Bayonne Housing Authority. My dad was the executive director. On Saturdays and Sundays when dad would go to the […]
TABB Forum highlights our blog
NYSE – Once Upon a Time: A Great Brand The NYSE’s big mistake last week wasn’t the software glitch. It was the silence that resonated from a nearly empty trading floor during the outage.The post-Dick Grasso leadership at the exchange has de-emphasized quality of execution and concern for the least-sophisticated investor to focus on speed, […]
Once Upon a Time: a Great Brand
Yes, this will be a biased view. In the mid-1990’s we spent time, energy and money building the NYSE into one of the great brands in the world. The result was an 83% market share, global dominance in the listings business, and the status – documented by independent research firms – of being one of […]
Trying to give back to the FDNY
I’m standing in a midtown firehouse a few weeks ago watching – over a two-hour period – the guys suit up and answer six different calls. Last week, in a different midtown house, it was three calls in 45 minutes. Yet the guys (yes, in these particular houses and during these shifts it was all […]
Salvatore J. Cassano Joins Zito Partners’ Board of Advisors
NEW YORK, NY (September 18, 2014) – Salvatore J. Cassano, the 32nd Fire Commissioner of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), has joined the Board of Advisors of Zito Partners, the company announced today. Commissioner Cassano led the United States’ largest fire department with more than 16,000 fire, EMS and civilian members, and an […]