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Growing up, Gary Kone did not know the carpentry skills he learned as a youth would pave the way for his professional career.
But it was while working as a cabinet maker while attending college that a career in manufacturing was born.
When Kone talked about a job change, one of his friends suggested a local machine shop.
"He said, 'If you can build a cabinet, you can run a Bridgeford machine,' " Kone says.
It was a good fit. Years later Kone, 54, is president of FTT Manufacturing Inc.
FTT makes a variety of parts, including railway switches and signals, air brake systems for the transit industry, and bound document copying and parts for the semiconductor, electronics and optics industries.
The company, which employs 60 workers and logged nearly $5.9 million in-sales last year, ranked eighth in Rochester Business Journal's most recent list of contract machining firms.
Kone grew up in Batavia, Genesee County, where he picked up the carpentry trade from his grandfather.
His experience landed him a job in the field while working his way through a bachelor of business administration degree in business management from St. John Fisher College.
On the advice of a friend and backed by a propensity for all things mathematical and mechanical, Kone landed a job at Hansford Manufacturing Corp., working on the shop floor.
Following his college graduation, Kone stayed at Hansford and worked in various management positions there-including a project leader and purchasing/materials manager-from 1971 to 1989.
After realizing he did not want a boss, Kone started FTT with his partner, Kenneth Mann. Kone bought out Mann six years ago and since has had sole ownership of the company.
The transition from employee to employer was a nobrainer, Kone says.
"I think you are born with the entrepreneurial bug and always have the thought process that you can do it better," Kone says.
His own company also gave Kone the chance to run a business the way he wanted to, with integrity, craftsmanship, imagination and communication as its cornerstone. He describes himself as a "long-range planner who treats everyone with respect."
"I think it is possible and proper to do business with honesty, integrity and fairness," Kone says. "I don't feel you have to...