Hamdi Ulukaya

The anti CEO Playbook

A cold January day of 2005, I took one of my most important drives of my life. I was on
this road in upstate New York, trying to find this old factory. The day before, I received
a flyer in the mail that said, "Fully equipped yogurt plant for sale." I threw it in the
garbage can. And 20 minutes later, I picked it up and called the number. The plant was
85 years old, and it was closing. So I decided to go see it. 

00:43

At this time, I wasn't sure where this road or my life was going. I owned a small cheese
shop but really hated business. But the hills and the roads and the smells are all
familiar. I grew up in Turkey, in a similar environment, near the Kurdish mountains. My
family made cheese and yogurt; I grew up listening to shepherd's stories. We didn't
have much, but we had the moon and the stars, simple food, each other. Eventually, I
came to America. I didn't even know New York had farms. I made it to upstate, and I
never left. Now I'm lost. 

01:34

I passed the road sign that said "Dead end." Then soon after, there it was: the
factory. The smell hit me first. It was a like a milk container left out in the sun. The walls
were so thick, paints were peeling, there were cracks everywhere. The factory was so
old, they almost thought it was worthless. I thought they left a zero off, I couldn't
believe the price. As I entered in, I stopped noticing things. All I could see were the
people. There were 55 of them. Just quiet. Their only job was to break the plant
apart and close it forever. 

02:35

I was met with a guy named Rich, the production manager. He offered to take me
around, show me around. He didn't say much, but around every corner, he would point
out some stories. Rich worked there for 20 years. His father made yogurt before
him, and his grandfather made cream cheese before that. You could tell that Rich felt
guilty that this factory was closing on his watch. 

03:11

What hit me the hardest at that time was that this wasn't just an old factory. This was a
time machine. This is where people built lives, they left for wars, they bragged about
home runs and report cards. But now, it was closing. And the company wasn't just
giving up on yogurt, it was giving up on them. As if they were not good enough. And I
was shocked how these people were behaving. There was no anger, there were no
tears. Just silence. With grace, they were closing this factory. I was so angry that the
CEO was far away, in a tower or somewhere, looking at the spreadsheets and closing
the factory. Spreadsheets are lazy. They don't tell you about people, they don't tell you
about communities. But unfortunately, this is how too many business decisions are
made today. 

04:32

I was never the same person after what I saw. On my way back home, I called Mario,
my lawyer. I called Mario, I said, "Mario, I want to buy this place." Mario said, "Hamdi,
one of the largest food companies in the world is closing this place, and they're getting
out of the yogurt business. Who the hell are you to make it work?" I said, "You're
right." But the next day, I called him again, and I said, "Mario, really, I really want to buy
this place." He said, "Hamdi, you have no money. 

05:09

(Laughter) 

05:10

You haven't even paid me in six months." 

05:12

(Laughter) 

05:13

Which was true. 

05:14

(Laughter) 

05:16

But I got a loan, another loan. By August 2005, I had the keys for this factory. The first
thing I did was to hire four of the original 55 people. I had Maria, the office manager. I
had Frank, the wastewater guy. I had Mike, the maintenance guy. And Rich, who
showed me the plant, the production guy. And we had our first board meeting. Mike
says, "Hamdi, what are we going to do now?" They look at me as if I have the magic
answer. So I said, "Mike, we're going to go to Ace Hardware store, and we're going to
get some paints. And we're going to paint the walls outside." Mike wasn't
impressed. He looked at me. He said, "Hamdi, that's fine, we’ll do that, but tell me you
have more ideas than that." 

06:08

(Laughter) 

06:11

I said, "I do. We'll paint the walls white." 

06:15

(Laughter) 

06:16

Honest to God, that was the only idea I had. 

06:18

(Laughter) 

06:22

But we painted those walls that summer. I sometimes wonder what they would have
said to me if I told them, "See these walls we're painting? In two years, we're going to
launch a yogurt here that Americans have never seen and never tasted before. It will be
delicious, it will be natural. And we're going to call it 'Chobani' -- it means 'shepherd' in
Turkish." And if I said, "We are going to hire all of the 55 employees back, or most of
them back. And then 100 more after, and then 100 more after, and then 1,000 more
after that." Of if I told them, "You see that town over there? Every person we hire, 10
more local jobs will be created. The town will come back to life, the trucks will be all
over the roads. And the first money we make, we're going to build one of the best Little
League baseball fields for our children. And five years after that, we're going to be the
number one Greek yogurt brand in the country." Would they have believed me? Of
course not. But that's exactly what happened. 

07:31

(Applause) 

07:38

In painting those walls, we got to know each other. We believed in each other. And we
figured it out together. Five years, me and all my colleagues, we never left the
factory. We worked day and night, through the holidays, to fix that plant. The best part
of Chobani for me is this: the same exact people who were given up on were the ones
who built it back 100 times better than before. And they all have a financial stake in the
company today. 

08:20

(Applause) 

08:26

And all this time, I kept wondering -- you see, I'm not a businessman, I don't come
from that tradition -- I just kept wondering: What is this all about? Corporate America
says it's about profits. Mainstream business says it's about money. The CEO playbook
says it's about shareholders. And so much is sacrificed for it -- it's factories,
communities, jobs. But not by CEOs. CEOs have their employees suffer for them. But
yet, the CEOs's pay goes up and up and up. And so many people are left behind. 

09:05

I'm here to tell you: no more. It's not right, it's never been right. It's time to admit that
the playbook that guided businesses and CEOs for the last 40 years is broken. 

09:20

(Applause) 

09:25

It tells you everything about business except how to be a noble leader. We need a new
playbook. We need a new playbook that sees people again. That sees above and
beyond profits. In the movies, they have a name for people who take a different path to
do things right. They call them "antiheroes." I think we need the same idea in
business. We need anti-CEOs, and we need an anti-CEO playbook. 

09:59

So let me tell you about what this anti-CEO playbook is all about. An anti-CEO
playbook is about gratitude. Today's business book says: business exists to maximize
profit for the shareholders. I think that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard in my life. 

10:18

(Laughter) 

 10:19

In reality, business should take care of their employees first. 

10:24

(Applause) 

10:29

You know, a few years ago, when we announced that we are giving shares to all our
2,000 employees, some people said it's PR, some said it's a gift. I said, it's not a gift. I
watched it, I've been part of it. They earned it with their talent and with their hard
work, and I don't see any other way. The new way of business -- it's your employees
you take care of first. Not the profits. 

11:00

The new anti-CEO playbook is about community. Today, the businesses that have it
all ask communities, "What kind of tax breaks and incentives can you give me?" The
reality is, businesses should go to the struggling communities and ask, "How can I help
you?" 

11:22

(Applause) 

11:25

When we wanted to build our second yogurt plant, Idaho was on nobody's radar
screen. It was too rural, too far away, didn't have much incentives. So I went there. I
met with the local people, I met with the farmers. We shook hands, we broke bread. I
said, "I want to build it right here." I don't need to see financial studies. And the result
-- its community is thriving. There's new schools that open every year. New food
companies are coming up every year. And they told me, "You're not going to find any
trained workers here." I said, "It's OK, we'll teach them." We partnered with the local
community college, and while we were building the plant, we trained hundreds of
hundreds of people for advanced manufacturing. And today, our factory is one of the
largest yogurt plants in the world. 

12:21

(Applause) 

12:24

The new way of business -- communities. Go search for communities that you can be
part of. Ask for permission. And be with them, open the walls and succeed together. 

12:40

The anti-CEO playbook is about responsibility. Today's playbook says, the businesses

should stay out of politics. The reality is businesses, as citizens, must take a
side. When we were growing in New York and looking for more people to hire, I
remembered that in Utica, an hour away, there were refugees from Southeast Asia and
Africa, who were looking for a place to work. "They don't speak English," someone told
me. I said, "I don't really, either. Let's get translators." 

13:16

(Laughter) 

13:19

"They don't have transportation." I said, "Let's get buses, it's not a rocket
science." Today, in one of America's rural areas, 30 percent of the Chobani workforce
are immigrants and refugees. 

13:33

(Applause) (Cheers) 

13:39

And it changed us for better. 

13:43

The new way of business -- it's business, not government, in the best position to make
a change in today's world: in gun violence, in climate change, in income inequality, in
refugees, in race. It's business that must take a side. 

14:00

(Applause) 

14:04

And lastly, an anti-CEO playbook is about accountability. Today's playbook says, the

CEO reports to the corporate boards. In my opinion, CEO reports to consumer. In the
first few years of Chobani, the 1-800 number on the cup was my personal number. 

 14:26

(Laughter) 

14:27

When somebody called and wrote, I responded personally. Sometimes I made changes

based on what I heard, because consumer is in power. That's the reason the business
exists. It's you -- every single one of you is in power to make changes today. If you
don't like the brand and the companies, what they are doing with their business, you
can throw them into the garbage can. And if you see the ones that are doing it
right, you can reward them. In the end, this is all in our responsibility. 

15:03

The new way of business -- it's the consumer we report to, not to the corporate
boards. You see, if you are right with your people, if you are right with your
community, if you are right with your product, you will be more profitable, you will be
more innovative, you will have more passionate people working for you and a
community that supports you. And that's what the anti-CEO playbook is all about. 

15:35

The treasure that I found in that factory -- dignity of work, strength of character, human

spirit -- is what we need to unleash all across the world. 

15:55

Brothers and sisters, there are people and places all around the world left out and left
behind. But their spirit is still strong. They just want another chance, they want
someone to give them a chance again, not to just build it back, but build it better than
before. And this is the difference between return on investment and return on
kindness. This is the difference between profit and true wealth. And if it can happen in
a small town in upstate New York and Idaho, it can happen in every city and town and
village across the world. 

16:50

This is not the time to build walls, this is a time to start painting the walls. I leave the
colors all up to you. 

16:57

Thank you so much. 

 16:58

(Applause)