A year ago I was impressed when I heard a story about Chobani setting up a program that gives 10% of the equity of the company to employees if the company goes public. That would make those who have worked for the company since its inception instant millionaires. That level of generosity is astounding, I thought.
Recently, I read a lengthy story about Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani’s founder, and learned more about him and his company. I love his attitude about business, his drive, and his marketing. Most of all, I respect his view of his employees as vital to his company, and I want to share some of what I’ve learned with you.
In 1991 Hamdi enrolled in Ankara University’s prestigious Faculty of Political Science at Long Island, New York. He had grown up in eastern Turkey, working with his family raising sheep and goats and making Tulum cheese. At the age of eleven, he went to boarding school. What he learned there helped him earn high marks on a college entrance exam which gained his acceptance into the Ankara University.
As often happens, a seemingly unimportant assignment from his English teacher changed his life. He was to write on a subject he knew well, and his choice was making cheese. “You can make cheese?” his teacher inquired.
She had a farm in upstate New York and invited Hamdi to her farm to give her a lesson in cheese making. He recalls, “I didn’t know America had farms.”
The area reminded Hamdi of home. He fell in love with it and decided to stay, convincing his teacher to give him a regular job on her farm milking cows and shoveling manure and switching his enrollment to a nearly school. A few years later one of his brothers joined him and his father came for a visit. His father was not happy with the feta cheese in America and recommended his sons import the family cheese to the United States. They investigated that idea and discovered it was not feasible. Instead, they started their own feta cheese company which they built into a successful business in a couple of years.
One evening Hamdi was going through the junk mail on this desk and tossed a flyer from a real estate company advertising a “fully equipped yogurt plant for sale.” He mulled that over a few minutes, dug the flyer out of the garbage, and called the real estate company. He found out the price was $700,000 and thought that was a mistake. “I thought they had left a zero off,” he admits.
The next day he went to see the factory, which was in the process of shutting down. Kraft had built the factory in 1920 to produce Philadelphia cream cheese and in the 1980’s refitted the plant to make Breyers yogurt. The 55 employees at the plant were facing the loss of their jobs, and Hamdi noted that “the feeling was like somebody died.”
Hamdi had never liked the thin yogurts in America so he made his own thick yogurt like what had loved back in Turkey. Thinking about the situation, he wondered if he could turn that style of yogurt into a profitable business. Six months later he had bought the plant with an SBA loan and rehired a few of the employees. He wanted his business to be different. He insisted on placing his product in the dairy case with familiar American brands instead of the organic specialty section. He packaged the yogurt in tubs rather than tall cups and printed brightly colored sleeves that could be applied to the tubs at the factory.
Yet, his employees were the backbone of Hamdi’s marketing. Initially and consistently, they helped him produce and deliver an excellent product. The first order, a trial purchase of 150 cases by a kosher grocery store, took Hamdi and his small staff twelve hours straight to fill. For the next few years, they maintained a frantic pace, pulling all-nighters to complete orders and taking naps before starting the next one. Hamdi recalls, “For five years, I don’t remember anything I did-day or night-that wasn’t related to yogurt.”
Richard Lake, the lead product manager, gives Hamdi credit for keeping it all going. “He always had a vision of where he wants it to go. We just figure out a way and make it happen.”
Indeed they did. The number of employees grew from 30 in 2008 to 600 by 2012, putting out up to two million cases of yogurt per week and selling one billion dollars in product by 2012. In addition to tremendous expansion at the first plant, Chobani added a new second plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, to address the west coast market.
Through it all, Hamdi has rewarded his employees with above-average wages. He recently added a family leave policy that offers any new parent, including foster and adoptive parents, full pay. He regularly focuses on cultivating a spirit of warmth and enthusiasm in his plants. While most people wouldn’t associate that atmosphere with a factory, how his staff is treated and feels are of paramount importance to Hamdi.
He understands that marketing revolves around people and communication between them, which are marketing’s challenges and frustrations. These people aren’t just your customers outside the company. They are also your customers inside the company, your employees. The constant challenge is to keep them focused and happy so that they deliver your product or service in the same consistent, excellent manner.
Remember, the vital role your internal customers, your employees, play in the success of your business. Like Hamdi, make them the backbone of your marketing.
This week's marketing trivia challenge is How can you do that? E-mail me your answer.
Recently, I read a lengthy story about Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani’s founder, and learned more about him and his company. I love his attitude about business, his drive, and his marketing. Most of all, I respect his view of his employees as vital to his company, and I want to share some of what I’ve learned with you.
In 1991 Hamdi enrolled in Ankara University’s prestigious Faculty of Political Science at Long Island, New York. He had grown up in eastern Turkey, working with his family raising sheep and goats and making Tulum cheese. At the age of eleven, he went to boarding school. What he learned there helped him earn high marks on a college entrance exam which gained his acceptance into the Ankara University.
As often happens, a seemingly unimportant assignment from his English teacher changed his life. He was to write on a subject he knew well, and his choice was making cheese. “You can make cheese?” his teacher inquired.
She had a farm in upstate New York and invited Hamdi to her farm to give her a lesson in cheese making. He recalls, “I didn’t know America had farms.”
The area reminded Hamdi of home. He fell in love with it and decided to stay, convincing his teacher to give him a regular job on her farm milking cows and shoveling manure and switching his enrollment to a nearly school. A few years later one of his brothers joined him and his father came for a visit. His father was not happy with the feta cheese in America and recommended his sons import the family cheese to the United States. They investigated that idea and discovered it was not feasible. Instead, they started their own feta cheese company which they built into a successful business in a couple of years.
One evening Hamdi was going through the junk mail on this desk and tossed a flyer from a real estate company advertising a “fully equipped yogurt plant for sale.” He mulled that over a few minutes, dug the flyer out of the garbage, and called the real estate company. He found out the price was $700,000 and thought that was a mistake. “I thought they had left a zero off,” he admits.
The next day he went to see the factory, which was in the process of shutting down. Kraft had built the factory in 1920 to produce Philadelphia cream cheese and in the 1980’s refitted the plant to make Breyers yogurt. The 55 employees at the plant were facing the loss of their jobs, and Hamdi noted that “the feeling was like somebody died.”
Hamdi had never liked the thin yogurts in America so he made his own thick yogurt like what had loved back in Turkey. Thinking about the situation, he wondered if he could turn that style of yogurt into a profitable business. Six months later he had bought the plant with an SBA loan and rehired a few of the employees. He wanted his business to be different. He insisted on placing his product in the dairy case with familiar American brands instead of the organic specialty section. He packaged the yogurt in tubs rather than tall cups and printed brightly colored sleeves that could be applied to the tubs at the factory.
Yet, his employees were the backbone of Hamdi’s marketing. Initially and consistently, they helped him produce and deliver an excellent product. The first order, a trial purchase of 150 cases by a kosher grocery store, took Hamdi and his small staff twelve hours straight to fill. For the next few years, they maintained a frantic pace, pulling all-nighters to complete orders and taking naps before starting the next one. Hamdi recalls, “For five years, I don’t remember anything I did-day or night-that wasn’t related to yogurt.”
Richard Lake, the lead product manager, gives Hamdi credit for keeping it all going. “He always had a vision of where he wants it to go. We just figure out a way and make it happen.”
Indeed they did. The number of employees grew from 30 in 2008 to 600 by 2012, putting out up to two million cases of yogurt per week and selling one billion dollars in product by 2012. In addition to tremendous expansion at the first plant, Chobani added a new second plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, to address the west coast market.
Through it all, Hamdi has rewarded his employees with above-average wages. He recently added a family leave policy that offers any new parent, including foster and adoptive parents, full pay. He regularly focuses on cultivating a spirit of warmth and enthusiasm in his plants. While most people wouldn’t associate that atmosphere with a factory, how his staff is treated and feels are of paramount importance to Hamdi.
He understands that marketing revolves around people and communication between them, which are marketing’s challenges and frustrations. These people aren’t just your customers outside the company. They are also your customers inside the company, your employees. The constant challenge is to keep them focused and happy so that they deliver your product or service in the same consistent, excellent manner.
Remember, the vital role your internal customers, your employees, play in the success of your business. Like Hamdi, make them the backbone of your marketing.
This week's marketing trivia challenge is How can you do that? E-mail me your answer.
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