The Rise Of Costco | A $250 Billion Business Built By Putting People First

Описание: Most companies go public and immediately start optimizing for shareholders. Costco went public and did the opposite—putting it in writing that shareholders come last.

That decision, made in 1994 under mounting Wall Street pressure, wasn't a feel-good moment. It was a line in the sand. And everything that followed—from the $1.50 hot dog to a CEO who started as a forklift driver—traces back to that single inflection point.

In this video, I break down how Costco built a $250 billion operation not by chasing margins, but by codifying a culture that protected its people, its members, and its suppliers—even when the easy money said otherwise. This is a case study in what it looks like when values aren't wallpaper. When they're operational.

If you lead a team, run a company, or simply want to understand why culture so consistently outperforms strategy, the Costco story is the clearest example I know.

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//CHAPTERS
0:00 The Costco Story
1:00 Act One: The Founding Principle
2:45 Act Two: Wall Street Pressure and the Code of Ethics
4:30 Act Three: Culture Made Operational
7:15 Leadership Lessons

//LEADERSHIP LESSONS
1. Codify your values before the pressure arrives. Costco didn't write its code of ethics when times were good as an exercise—they wrote it when Wall Street started squeezing. The moment of external pressure became the moment of internal clarity.

2. Rank your priorities, don't just list them. Costco's code didn't say "we value everyone equally." It set a deliberate sequence: law, members, employees, suppliers—then shareholders. That ranking is what made the values enforceable.

3. Protect the symbols that carry trust. The $1.50 hot dog isn't a pricing decision. It's a trust signal. The leaders who understand which products, policies, and promises carry symbolic weight are the ones who don't accidentally destroy culture chasing short-term wins.

4. Invest in people as a long-term competitive strategy. Low turnover isn't just an HR metric—it's a performance multiplier. When teams stay together, they get better together. Costco's warehouse-level performance is inseparable from its retention numbers.

5. Build careers, not just jobs. 7,500 employees enrolled in Costco's supervisor training program in a single fiscal year. That's not a pipeline—that's a signal to every employee that a future here is real and worth investing in.

6. Culture isn't what you say—it's what you won't compromise on. Every company claims its people are its greatest asset. Costco made it operational. The difference between a value and a principle is what you're willing to protect when it costs you something.

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This video covers Costco's founding philosophy, its 1994 IPO inflection point, and the leadership decisions—from the Code of Ethics to the hot dog—that turned a warehouse retailer into one of the most trusted and profitable companies in the world.

If you're leading a team through pressure, trying to move beyond performative culture, or looking for proof that people-first leadership actually delivers returns—this isn't just a retail story. It's a blueprint.
Comment below: What part of Costco's story surprised you most—or what's your team's version of the $1.50 hot dog?

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One of the world’s leading business thinkers, David’s forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are changing how companies approach leadership, teamwork, and collaboration.

A skilled researcher and inspiring communicator, Dr. David Burkus is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages. Since 2017, David has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS Mornings.

A former business school professor, David now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA. David’s keynotes aren’t just entertaining and enlightening—they’re evidence-based and immensely practical, offering leaders at all levels a set of actionable takeaways they can implement immediately.

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