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UItimate Technology Corp. president Samuel Villanti has spent his entire professional life becoming a sort of renaissance man in the business world.
His degree is in marketing, but his first job after college was in process management at NCR Corp. He also has served as a practice manager for PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. But Villanti-now age 36-learned many of the skills he needs to manage a work force while working summers in the paper mill his father managed. He recalls those hot days doing nearly any task, from working on the production line to mowing the grounds or washing windows.
"I was the low man on the totem pole," he says. "I had no rights to complain or say anything."
Seeing first-hand the difficulties in keeping workers happy helped him develop his technique for managing a company. He calls it a "noapologies" style of management.
"I'll answer every question, (but) you may not like every answer," he says.
One of the most common forums for those questions are regular lunch meetings with groups of employees who recently celebrated a birthday.
Villanti got into the habit of holding the birthda lunch meetings shortly after taking the helm of the Victor-based point-of-sale equipment manufacturer whose largest contract is with Lowe's Home Centers Inc., the nation's 15th largest retailer.
UTC designs, assembles and integrates point-of-sale equipment that includes printers, cash drawers, scanners, touchscreens, PCs, magnetic stripe readers and signature capture devices.
UTC's other large customers include Ace Hardware Corp., Ritz Camera Centers Inc., Barnes , Noble Inc. and Wegmans Food Markets Inc.'s Chase-Pitkin Home and Garden.
Villanti sees his leadership style resembling the one used by his business role model: General Electric Co.'s chairman and CEO John Welch.
"He's a guy that doesn't apologize for his decisions, yet he understands the softer side of life as well," Villanti says.
He points out how Welch came to GE and immediately gained a reputation for cutting jobs and selling or closing operations. But Welch has since transformed himself into "the people's CEO."
"I think that's a transition that a lot of people have to go through when they become CEO. When you first come in, especially when you're hired from the outside, you've got to make difficult decisions," Villanti says. "You've...