cover image Pizza Tiger

Pizza Tiger

Thomas Monaghan, Tom Monaghan. Random House (NY), $17.95 (346pp) ISBN 978-0-394-55359-7

Founder of Domino's, the world's largest pizza company, and owner of the Detroit Tigers, Monaghan here joins the tycoons who have ventured into autobiography. His company, having grown in 25 years from a modest pizza restaurant into an international chain of 2600 stores during the franchising boom of the '60s and '70s, now has $1.1 billion in annual sales. Stressing that spiritual values derived from his Catholic seminary days take precedence over other considerations, Monaghan dismisses such worldly pleasures as private jets, yachts and tropical islands as ""just frosting.'' From this pedestrian account of his climb up the ladder of success, it appears that except for his baseball team and an interest in Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, Monaghan is totally dedicated to every aspect of the pizza business. He attributes the leading position of Domino's Pizza in the fast-food industry to his philosophy of defensive managementof concentrating on the business one already has. Photos not seen by PW. Major ad/promo; author's tour. (November 28)