About James Sinegal: James D. Sinegal is the co-founder and former CEO of Costco, an international retail chain.
You take an educated gamble. If you don't occasionally make a mistake, you're not doing your job.
I say at our management conferences that the amount Wal-Mart grows in just one year is the equivalent of Costco's size.
Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company.
The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.
I think that most of the people running companies today are motivated and pay is a small portion of the motivation.
If you're going to say to all the people that you're working with, 'We want you to treat the customers honestly; don't lie and don't cheat,' it is somewhat hypocritical if you're not following the same rules.
Obscene salaries send the wrong message through a company. The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant.
If somehow a proclamation were made that C.E.O.'s could only make a maximum of $300,000 a year, you would not have any shortage of very qualified men and women seeking the jobs.
