the company’s employees on the site approve of
CEO Craig Jelinek, while four in five say they
would recommend the company to a friend. That
performance can be attributed to many factors, but
when The CEO Magazine sat down to speak with
Richard Chang, Senior Vice President of Costco
Asia, he highlighted the company’s flat structure
as a major selling point.
“In companies like this, you have a lot of room
to excel and be recognised because of the looseness
of the structure,” he explains. “You can’t hide behind
people; you’re accountable for everything you do.
If you do well, you’re recognised for it; if you
do poorly, well, you’re recognised for that, too.”
The lack of hierarchy and other formalities
carries over to Costco’s internal dealings. Richard
shares that although he may be Senior Vice
President, he rarely goes by that title. In fact, no-one
in the company is addressed with an honorific or by
surname. “Our CEO? We call him Craig. My boss?
I call him Jim.” As for himself? “Right now, I’m
wearing a name tag that says ‘Richard’ on it. That’s
it. Everybody calls me Richard.”
CAREER BREAK
Richard will be the first to admit that he’s not
like most other executives, and that’s not just
because he’s playful and plainspoken; at 6’6” in
height, his background isn’t in the boardroom but
the basketball court, as a semi-professional player
in the NCAA. “From third grade all the way through
to college, I was playing in professional or national
teams,” he says. “That was my life up to then, but
I was smart enough to know that I had to transition
out of it and begin a new chapter in my life.”
At the University of California, Berkeley, Richard
played for four years, managing a 3.5 point average
per game during the 1985–86 season. As the only
Taiwanese player in his division, he earned inevitable
comparisons to NBA great Jeremy Lin, eventually
playing for the Taiwan National Team for three years
after he finished his studies in the US.
Richard admits his transition from basketball star
to Senior Vice President of Costco Asia was not
obvious or expected. “The fact of the matter, though,
was that my basketball days were fast coming to an
end and I had to look for a secure career; I couldn’t
be an athlete forever. It was out of necessity that
I went into the real world and found a stable job.”
When he explains it that way, it sounds as if
he was giving up on his dreams for a corporate
role. That couldn’t be further from the truth,
though. “I never viewed my lifelong career as
being in basketball,” he explains, likening it to
a phase he had to go through in his youth and
exorcise from his system.
“You ask athletes – at least, the ones I know- and they tell you they’ve had a lifelong dream
of playing basketball at the professional level. I think
that’s at the back of everyone’s mind. But a lot
of us are more realistic and know that sports and
athletics are a means to an end, but not the end.
Those who figure that out early are more practical
than those who try to pursue their dream and end
up not achieving it. It may sound a little pessimistic,
but that’s the reality of the situation.”
However, Richard doesn’t make light of the
difficulty of establishing a professional career after
spending years as an athlete. “People always ask me,
‘How can you say that as a former athlete?’, and
“From third grade all
the way through to
college, I was playing
in professional or
national [basketball]
teams ... but I was
smart enough to
know that I had to
transition out of it
and begin a new
chapter in my life.”
theceomagazine.com | 29“Creating premium food, beverage and nutritional items that delight
and satisfy Costco members has been a Babi focus for 25 years.
Over this time, Richard’s keen leadership and advocacy for innovation
and supplier collaboration has been key to our mutual success.”- Brett Aaron, Managing Director, Babi Group
Interview | INSPIRE