Leading the troops at Klein Steel Service

Listen to this article

As the U.S. Army chief of staff during the Vietnam War, Gen. Harold Johnson strongly disagreed with President Lyndon Johnson’s war policies.
His convictions almost led to his resignation, but at the last minute, Gen. Johnson had a change of heart, believing he could do more good in uniform.
Shortly before he died in 1983, Gen. Johnson told a friend that his decision not to resign and speak out was one of the greatest moral failures of his life.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste did not want to have that regret.
Batiste told the story about Johnson last week, during an interview to discuss his position as president of Rochester-based Klein Steel Service Inc.
Klein Steel sells steel, stainless steel and aluminum in sheets, bars, pipes and other shapes to manufacturers, builders, steel fabricators, mechanical contractors and the food-processing industry. In addition, the company has computer-aided design equipment to burn through the metals and special saws to provide specific shapes for its customers.
The firm has operations in Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse and, on Lyell Avenue, a retail store called Rochester Steel and Surplus, a division of Klein Steel. The company employs 126 workers, most of them in Rochester.
On Nov. 1, Batiste took an early retirement from the military-after declining a promotion to lieutenant general-and accepted the job in the private sector. He did so because he could no longer keep quiet about the mishandling of the war in Iraq, primarily by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Batiste says.
“I can do more good for the men and women in uniform here in civilian clothes than I could as an officer,” Batiste says.
Batiste made headlines in April when he-and six other retired generals-called on President George Bush to replace Rumsfeld, claiming the secretary made mistakes and ignored advisers during his handling of the Ira– war.
Batiste has gone on to describe Rumsfeld’s leadership style as “contemptuous, dismissive, arrogant and abusive.”
As a result, the Wall Street Journal dubbed Batiste the “two star rebel” and said: “Gen. Batiste stands out among the generals who have called for Rumsfeld to resign because he is the only one to have served in a higher position in the Pentagon and commanded troops in Iraq.”
After leaving the military, Batiste was interested in a job that was not related to defense.
He met Joseph Klein, Klein Steel’s CEO, who was then also its president, through the Leader to Leader Institute, a New York City non-profit organization that among its other efforts connects business leaders with generals transitioning from the military to civilian life.
Klein, a fan of the Jim Collins book “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t,” was on a mission to find what Collins refers to as a “level five leader”-someone who combines professional will with personal humility. He searched for a president for roughly a year before he met with Frances Hesselbein of the Leader to Leader Institute and told her what he was looking for.
“She said, ‘Do I have the right person for you; I’ll send you his resume,'” Klein says.
Klein called Batiste the day he received his resume. Two days later, the two met, and by the next week, Batiste-the eighth serious contender for the position-was offered the job. He started Nov. 28.
Klein was convinced he had found the right person when, the day after Batiste was hired, he already had leased an apartment in the area.
“I knew I had found my guy,” Klein says, also commenting on Batiste’s integrity. “We needed someone who will move fast.”

In demand

Klein admits landing the two-star general was a coup, especially since Batiste had received more job offers since leaving the military than any other general except former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Klein did not take the fact that he was going to be hiring his first president lightly. He compiled a team during the interview process that included an industrial psychologist and checked references.
One of Batiste’s references, Ret. Gen. Barry McCaffrey, described him as “one of the finest leaders I’ve ever met in my life,” Klein says, adding that McCaffrey then said as a good-natured aside, “Of course (his wife) Michelle is better than him.”
On his first visit to the area, Batiste fell in love with Rochester.
“What’s really special about Rochester is the friendliness of the people,” Batiste says. “People here seem to take responsibility for things.”
Batiste also was eager to put down roots.
“I’ve been moving all my life,” he says. “It’s time to call someplace home and contribute to the community I live in.”

The war

It was in his new community that Batiste first went public with his concerns over the leadership in the Iraqi war. He voiced his views, after conferring with those at Klein Steel, April 4 at a Rochester Rotary Club meeting where he had been invited to speak.
“We embarked on this war without due diligence,” Batiste says. “That’s not the way Americans go to war.”
Four op-ed pieces in newspapers around the United States followed.
In a letter to the Washington Post on April 19, Batiste wrote, “Our current leadership decided to discount professional military advice and ignore more than a decade of competent military planning.”
The military is greatly overextended in the Middle East and that poor policy planning, such as providing young and often untrained and poorly led soldiers with ambiguous rules for prisoner treatment and interrogation, led to the embarrassment at Abu Ghraib, he added.
Batiste believes America needs to finish what it started in the Middle East but says there are not enough troops to help with the revitalization efforts.
“We have a great military that is very resilient, and a great country,” Batiste says.
He praises the military families, as well as the soldiers.
“They are doing terribly important work-keeping the families going,” Batiste says. “It’s as important as what the soldiers are doing.”
The public response has been overwhelmingly supportive, he says. He has not heard any official word from the DOD about his comments.
He also received support from Klein.
“It is the right thing to do,” Klein says. “We are a performance-based company and the lack of performance, the lack of strategy and thought we have seen from Rumsfeld and-John will never say this because of his being a general-but from Bush, too, is dangerous for America and dangerous for the world.”
Employees-from those on the shop floor to truck drivers and administrative workers-are singing Batiste’s professional praises, Klein says.
“They told me, ‘We didn’t think you should fire yourself (as president), but now we are glad you did,'” Klein says.
He wanted to hire a president because the company had grown to the point where he was not the best person for the job. Klein also wanted to step back so he could spend more time on other pursuits, namely the True North Rochester Preparatory School, a charter school he-along with James Gleason, chairman of Gleason Corp.-spearheaded, which will open this fall.

Growth focus

Since settling into the corner office of Klein’s 132,000-square-foot headquarters on Vanguard Parkway, Batiste has been able to deliver.
Last month, the privately held firm had its highest gross profit since its inception in 1971. Batiste attributes that growth to an increasing customer base and buying materials at good prices.
Clients come from Western New York and Southern Pennsylvania, and include Eastman Kodak Co., Gleason and Hardinge Inc.
Batiste is in charge of the day-to-day operations at Klein and spends a fair amount of time traveling between the firm’s locations in Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo. He often meets with customers and suppliers and is responsible for handing out the employees’ profit-sharing checks.
To keep growing, Klein Steel plans to mine its geographic region more intensely for customers. In addition, the company wants to offer more customized services to its patrons, without competing with its metal processor clients, and it is looking at larger locations for its Syracuse and Buffalo operations, Batiste says.
He found the transition from the military to the private sector rather seamless. Both require the ability to lead, he says, and his military training included an MBA from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., in 1981, so “a balance sheet was not foreign to me.”
What was most surprising to Batiste about his new position was the scope and complexity of the steel industry. He enjoys the challenges.
“I’m the luckiest guy in the world to be here,” he says.
Batiste’s office walls are decorated with military pictures, including some of the Big Red One, the nickname of the 1st Infantry Division, which he served as commanding general. Shelves hold a family picture, another with Batiste and Michelle, his wife of 29 years, and a third shot of his unit upon returning from Iraq.
Above his desk is a framed sheet of white paper with the phrase “Who Else Needs to Know?” It is a reminder to Batiste from his Army days that when he is working on an issue he needs to remember who else needs to be in the loop.
Batiste agrees with other business leaders in New York that the state is a hard place to do business. But he reminds people that policies can be changed at the state level if voters elect candidates to office who are committed to changing the business climate.
Despite the obstacles, Batiste says, Klein Steel is committed to staying put.
“Klein Steel is upstate and we’re here to stay,” Batiste says, adding the company even has helped its manufacturing customers through tough times. “When customers get into trouble, we take it personally.”
Al Mangiamele, Klein Steel chief operating officer, was on the interview team that hired Batiste.
“What John brings to Klein Steel is leadership, focus and the ability to achieve things rather quickly,” Mangiamele says. “With that leadership and focus, the future is bright.”
He also speaks of Batiste’s personality.
“He’s not a high ego guy,” Mangiamele says. “John cares about the work, the people, not the position. That part is very refreshing.”
Mangiamele also respects Batiste’s decision to speak his mind.
“He’s fighting for this leadership change because of the people he’s had to let go-the number of funerals of fellow soldiers he’s had to attend,” Mangiamele says. “That’s what’s driving him. John doesn’t just talk about caring for people, he shows you how to care for people.”

Military life

Straightforward, open and without airs, Batiste has no regrets about his time in the military.
“It was a great 31 years,” Batiste says. “I always seemed to find myself where the action was.”
The military was part of his upbringing. His father, John, was an infantry officer and the younger Batiste was raised on bases throughout the United States, Europe and Iran.
Batiste met his future wife when he was serving as a new lieutenant in her father’s battalion. A year later, they married. Michelle Batiste, who holds degrees in early childhood education and nursing, has been a strong advocate for military families.
Batiste was commissioned as an infantry officer in the Army in June 1974 after graduating with a bachelor of science degree in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served in leadership positions in Texas, Korea and Virginia before attending the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he received a diploma in 1986.
Batiste then was assigned to Fort Benning, Ga., where he served as the infantry school’s executive officer, followed by four years in a mechanized infantry brigade as a battalion executive officer and later the brigade operations officer.
In August 1990, the brigade deployed to Kuwait and Ira– for nine months in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as one of the 24th Infantry Division’s three maneuver brigades.
In July 1991, Batiste assumed command of an infantry battalion of the 24th Infantry Division and was later assigned as the operations officer of the 3rd Infantry Division in Germany.
In 1994, he received a certificate of completion from the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., which prepares students for strategic leadership positions.
Four years later, he assumed command of a brigade in the 1st Armored Division and deployed the brigade to Bosnia in December 1995 for Operation Joint Endeavor.
He then was promoted to brigadier general and served as the plan’s officer for NATO’s southern region in Naples, Italy, from July 1997 to 1999. He then served as assistant division commander of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. In June 2000, he served on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon until becoming the senior military assistant to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz from March 2001 to July 2002.
Batiste’s final assignment with the Army was as commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division from August 2002 to June 2005. The 1st Division played a storied role in World War I, World War II, Vietnam and the 1991 Persian Gulf War. It remains the most heavily deployed Army unit in recent years with stints in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Iraq.
During Batiste’s time, the Big Red One conducted successful peace enforcement operations in Kosovo and combat operations in Ira– to support Operation Iraqi Freedom II. The division was deployed to north-central Ira– for a year in February 2004 and included 22,000 soldiers from active and reserve component units throughout the United States.
Wolfowitz-speaking to members of the 1st Infantry Division in Wurzburg, Germany, on Jan. 31, 2004, before the division was deployed to Iraq-described Batiste as “a master of detail, from the smallest concerns in managing an office to the larger issues of the war on terrorism.”
Wolfowitz shared two stories to illustrate Batiste’s unflappable nature and toughness.
— As a brigade commander in Tuzla, in northeast Bosnia, then Col. Batiste and his officers were supposed to meet some Bosnian Serb officers at a local hotel. When they arrived, they found themselves in the middle of a lively Serb wedding reception, with something like a long, drunken conga line snaking its way around the room to the sound of an electric accordion. Not deterred by the situation, Batiste reminded the Serb officers of their obligation to remove land mines and pull back their heavy artillery. Since it was a wedding, Batiste and his officers then put together a $100 gift for the couple.
— During the same military operation in the Balkans, Batiste and his soldiers arrived at the stronghold of Gen. Slobodan Milosevic, the commander of the Serbian forces, who denied them entry to their destination. In response, Batiste called his Apache helicopters and tanks and informed the Serbs, “I’ll give you four hours, and them I’m coming in.” Shortly after, they let him in.

Establishing roots

When not working, Batiste enjoys the outdoors, particularly walking, hiking and winter sports. He also rides his wife’s horse, which is housed in the Equestrian Village in Honeoye Falls.
The family has bought a home in Brighton and Batiste has gotten involved in the community, serving on the board of the Rochester chapter of the Veterans Outreach Center Inc.
Ellen Warren, director of development at the center, says a fellow board member reached out to Batiste when he learned he was moving to the area.
Batiste responded immediately.
“There was no intermediary,” Warren says, adding that Batiste gave the group a good two hours during their first meeting. “It shows what kind of person he is.”
Batiste is now one of the driving forces in getting a veterans business council off the ground.
Warren describes Batiste as “down to earth, genuine, compassionate and bright.
“He doesn’t see himself as a general; he sees himself as a soldier, and that’s how he relates to the war in Iraq-as a soldier,” Warren says. “He’s worried about his comrades.”
Batiste also relishes his role as dad, speaking proudly of the accomplishments of his five children.
The Batistes’ oldest daughter, Jeanette, lives in Malawi, Africa, and is employed by African Parks at the Majete Wildlife Reserve. She stayed there after completing a two-year program in the region with the Peace Corps.
Rebecca is a medical student at the Boston University School of Medicine, and Katherine is a student at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. William will enter Rochester Institute of Technology this fall to study mathematics, and Michael will be a seventh-grader at Twelve Corners Middle School.
Batiste sees himself at Klein Steel and in Rochester for the long term. He also says he will keep speaking out.
“I feel strongly about it and I’ve never quit anything in my life,” he says.
CEO Klein believes Batiste is leading the company down a new path.
“We have always been a good company, but we weren’t a great company,” Klein says. “With John, we are rapidly heading toward greatness.”
([email protected] / 585-546-8303)

07/28/06 (C) Rochester Business Journal