When you share your company’s success, it grows

Income inequality is a key component of the economic issues that decided the presidential election. Yet for all the attention to this matter, inequality has continued to grow: Half of all the income earned in the U.S. in 2015 went to the top 10% of the wealthiest people. Some CEOs in this country earn 200 times more than their workers, and more than half of today’s parents believe their children won’t do as well as they did.

Business is not always seen as a force for good, but it can and must become one. One doesn’t have to be a political or policy expert to see within these gaps a need for changes that reach people at all levels.

The business leaders, politicians, academics and others gathering at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week are committed to improving the state of the world. I’m going with a simple message: The private sector needs to answer this problem with bold, decisive leadership on income and wealth inequality.

These are issues I have worried about, and worked on, for years. I launched my company in 2007, just as the Great Recession hit. And while this set the stage, it didn't determine how we'd run things. 

I believed that companies could be about more than profits—that they could become a powerful force for progress in people’s lives.

When I was growing up in Illic, a village in rural Turkey, I saw that people who ran big companies got richer while farmers and working-class families struggled. From where I stood, business seemed to be looking out for itself. When I came to the United States in the mid-1990s, I viewed this country as a land of opportunity—a place where anyone with passion, a strong work ethic and a good idea could secure a better future.

Compensating our workers fairly was not only the right thing to do; our record shows that it has also been economically smart. 

Good wages and strong benefits created more stability for our employees and our company. In less than five years, Chobani’s impact on our community in Upstate New York was visible: the economy started to recover, and local unemployment is at a modern-day low. Our second plant, in Twin Falls, Idaho, has produced similar effects in its community.

Still, the backdrop to these achievements is grim: The people who build companies in the U.S. today generally don't have a shot at sharing in their success and creating lasting wealth unless they’re an executive in the C-suite or part a well-funded tech start-up. Workers in manufacturing, for example, almost never have a chance to share in the success. 

Understanding this, we launched a profit-sharing program that gave all full-time employees a chance to share in our growth. 

This wasn’t a gift but a renewed commitment to building our company as a team. If we succeeded, we knew more than 2,000 people could all rise together.

A nice thing about success is that when it is shared, it grows. And the importance of generating not only economic growth for business but also long-term wealth and more sustainable income for employees and their families points to broader goals.

In the 19th century, the American dream was about owning land. In the 20th century, the American dream was owning a home. In this century, the American dream for millions more workers could include having a stake in the companies they help build.

There is no single playbook for companies to give workers and their families more economic security. And I’ll be the first to admit that our approach isn’t the only way and that it may not be the best one for every business. But every company, mine included, can strive to do more for employees and their communities. 

Helping to create greater long-term wealth and more sustainable income for employees and their families is a strong start.

Hamdi Ulukaya is CEO and founder of Chobani. The opinions expressed here are his alone.