The Floor to the Boardroom

Ron Vachris started at Costco forty years ago as a forklift driver. He unloaded pallets, worked the floor, learned the business one job at a time — merchandising, operations, real estate — for four decades, before eventually becoming the company's CEO. There was no shortcut through the middle. He walked the whole path. It's tempting to read that as a nice story about one particular warehouse, one…