The SGS Tool Co. provided John Haag with part-time employment as he worked his way through college. Haag now has 500 employees at the company, of which he has become chairman and CEO.
SGS generates sales in more than 60 countries and is the world’s largest privately held manufacturer of round carbide burs, used by manufactures to smooth cut metal parts.
The company was founded in 1951 by three partners in a small Akron garage. Haag worked for them while he was in college. After graduating, he took a sales job in Michigan. When he returned to the Akron area in 1961, he bought a one-third share of SGS for $5,000 and became president of the newly incorporated company.
The company’s primary service was resharpening carbide tools. But Haag added a new business in the early 1960s-manufacturing carbide burs. That’s one of the innovations he believes has helped make the company increasingly profitable and successful over the years. Another has been his distribution system. Since the mid-’60s Haag has sold SGS products only through industrial distributors, which has opened a larger potential customer base.
Success hasn’t changed Haag, and he refuses to take sole credit for the company’s success.
“Everyone works very hard at making this a good company,” Haag says. “That’s what it takes to make a company succeed-everybody has to pull together.
