Mother and daughter find success and purpose in communications business ---
Businesses in the Bay Area and across the nation continue to accelerate their pursuit of Hispanic consumers because of the growth they represent. An Oakland company started by Mexican immigrants 32 years ago played an important role in big business first seeing the importance and potential of the Hispanic market.
Carla Itzkowich and her mother Norma Armon own and manage International Contact, Inc., a communications agency providing multiple language services and translation to the City of Oakland, local businesses, and big brands such as Apple, Sprint, and Kaiser Permanente.“Thirty years ago, Pac-Bell was a Fortune 500 company that was required by the state to communicate in Spanish,” says Carla. “They were not happy but then found out that Hispanics were their biggest customers.”
“When I approached Sprint, I told them their market in mainstream is at the top but you can open your business with the Hispanic market,” adds Norma.
Carla moved to the Bay Area in 1979 and started the business while still a student at UC Berkeley. With support from Norma, the business grew.
“She invited me in and it was the greatest decision of my life to have her keep the majority of the business and make her own mistakes and without that she wouldn’t grow,” says Norma, who had her own production company in Los Angeles at that time. “It was really Carla who was the entrepreneur - it was her idea to create International Contact.”
Norma, with a doctorate in linguistics, is creative director for the business. As executive director, Carla is focused on the business, finances, etc.
When asked how it is to work together as mother and daughter, Carla says, “Clear communication is the key and Norma is very clear and direct. We have different domains we work on and then come together for certain things.”
“We each want to support each other to be the best we can,” says Norma. “When we disagree, we work to the common ground for all of our success.”
Sharing a lesson about business success, Norma says, “You need to be very clear about what you are excellent at and put yourself in a position where you can provide those and be very humble about the areas that you’re not strong in.”
In 32 years, Carla and Norma have seen big changes in how businesses and government view the Hispanic market.
“Attitudes have changed dramatically and more businesses and government are realizing that to reach their goals, ethnic markets are where the growth is,” says Carla. “Businesses know that the Latino market is very loyal and whatever business establishes with them will have customers for a long time.”
Norma makes a call to action for the growing Latino community.
“The Latino market is very important for business and government and it’s important for us to be model citizens,” she says. “To take responsibility, we must become involved with the community.”