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my response is that I can say it because I’m a former
athlete. I know people think that’s sad, but sport has
had a positive impact on my life. At the same time,
I’m realistic about the value of sport. Even if you
think it’s going to be your career and you can rely
on it for the long-term, you’ve got to have a backup
because there’s a chance it won’t happen for you.”
At the same time, Richard is hardly dissatisfied
with where his career has gone since then. Now
celebrating his 26th year with Costco, his career
began when he joined a company called Price Club
in the mid-1990s. Working as a merchandiser for two
years, the company would eventually merge with
Costco before being bought out altogether.
“I was living in San Diego, California, at the
time, and I was looking after the merchandising and
imports. I was travelling to Singapore, Malaysia and
Thailand frequently, inspecting factories and making
assessments about the quality of the household goods
manufactured for the company.”
After Costco and Price Club merged, he was
given the opportunity to work overseas, transferring
to the International Development and Expansion
department. At that time, Costco was investigating
opening stores throughout Asia, with one of the firstcountries to express an interest being Taiwan.
“We started working with partners over there,
and I was involved in due diligence and negotiations
of a joint venture agreement.”
When contracts had been finalised 12 months
later, Richard was asked to operate the business
in Taiwan. “At that time, I had no experience in
operations, but I decided it would be a good
opportunity. So, I moved over, started hiring people,
rented an office and scouted for property. In 1997,
we opened our first store – or, as we call them at
Costco, warehouses – in Kaohsiung.”
Richard describes the first five years as a
“roller-coaster” and “challenging”, revealing that in
that time, Costco didn’t turn a profit in the region,
only breaking even in its fifth year. “There was a lot
of soul-searching and explaining we had to do with
our employees, members and headquarters. They were
as puzzled as we were. They wanted to know why
growth wasn’t as fast in Taiwan as it had been in the
US, and the truth was that our business model and
the principles of our company weren’t aligned with
people’s expectations of what a retailer should be.”
Richard is referring to Costco’s wholesale
membership model. As opposed to other departmentINSPIRE | Interview