MONEY

Catching up with Jim Mossgraber, T & T Materials

Jinelle Shengulette

Jim Mossgraber had to think long and hard before accepting a position at T & T Materials.

The job offer came from a close friend of 30 years, owner and CEO Jim Terhune. As the company grew, Terhune was looking for someone to run the day-to-day operations and administrative portion of the business.

Jim Mossgraber at T & T Materials in Rochester.

“My friendship with (Terhune) means more to me than this position. I had some very good counseling from someone who I respect greatly when I was making my decision. His advice was to think about two things: ‘Are you bringing something to this position that will complement as opposed to compete with Jim’s strengths, and are you sure you both have enough mutual respect to work together without any problems?' ” said Mossgraber, now vice president and general manager of the raw materials supplier.

Mossgraber, 65, knew that Terhune’s strengths lie in relationship building and sales, where his own strengths are in the administrative side of the business, so he confidently decided to take the position five years ago.

T & T Materials sources raw materials, principally metals that find their way into military equipment, either directly through the Department of Defense or through suppliers like Lockheed Martin or Boeing. Sometimes, additional work needs to be done to the materials; they may need to be heat-treated, ground, machined or processed in some other way, which T & T manages.

We spoke recently with Mossgraber, a 19th Ward resident, about his last job being “the best job he ever hated,” how he dealt with T & T being cut in half overnight and more.

Previous work: “Before T & T, I was the COO at the Genesee Country Village and Museum. I really enjoyed that. It’s a great venue, and I worked with some really marvelous people. But it was the best job I ever hated. I was there virtually all of the time. It really started to wear on me, and it compromised my family life. I was looking to make a change, and it was just a coincidence, a convergence, that Jim was looking for someone at that time.”

On sequestration and government budget cuts: “There has been a great deal of change in just the period of time I’ve been here, because of reductions in areas of the defense budget. There’s much more hesitancy and apprehension on the part of the people in procurement in defense. It makes it more difficult for us. We have to spend more time working through the details, making sure that everyone is in agreement, that all the requirements and specifications are absolutely in order. We have to take on more responsibility in correcting or clarifying requirements that may be somewhat vague. It’s made our work and responsibilities more complicated and time-consuming.”

Rebounding after government budget cuts slashed business in half: “In times of adversity, the companies that produce the quality work, have the expertise and continue to apply that will probably survive. You don’t want to start making major changes to your business plan or how you do business or how you treat customers, because that’s how you became successful in the first place. Maybe adjust your profitability a bit, but I don’t think you want to panic or throw up your hands and say ‘Let’s go in a completely new direction.’ Our business is recovering thanks to some changes in budgeting in Washington and some success on our part in further distinguishing ourselves with our customer base.”

Next steps: “The next quality element in our sights is a Qualified Suppliers List of Distributors certification. That would allow us to participate in many more opportunities with the Defense Logistics Agency. There are a number of opportunities that right now, since we’re not certified, we cannot participate in. To achieve that certification, there are some changes, expansions we’d have to take with our business. We are looking at the possibility of acquiring warehouse space, which would then probably necessitate additional staff.”

On company culture: “We’re not that formal here. We only have four staff people, so you check your ego at the door. Even though your title may say one thing, you may be doing filing work in the afternoon if that’s required. Depending on the workload and the requirements of our customers, any one of us could be called upon to take up responsibilities of one of the other staff people. That’s just part of the reality with a small business.”

For more information: T & T Materials, 1225 Ridgeway Ave., Rochester, NY 14615. Call (888) 909-9119 or go to www.tandt-materials.com.

Jinelle Shengulette is a Rochester-area freelance writer.