Ulukaya is the Turkish-born founder and CEO of Chobani, the upstart Greek yogurt maker recently valued at as much as $5 billion.
Last Tuesday Ulukaya announced he's giving all his 2,000 full-time workers shares of stock worth up to 10 percent of the privately held company's value when it's sold or goes public, based on each employee's tenure and role at the company.
If the company ends up being valued at $3 billion, for example, the average employee payout could be $150,000. Some long-tenured employees will get more than $1 million.
Ulukaya's announcement raised eyebrows all over corporate America. Many are viewing it an act of charity (Forbes Magazine calls it one of "the most selfless corporate acts of the year").
In reality, Mr. Ulukaya's decision is just good business. Employees who are partners become even more dedicated to increasing a company's value.
Which is why research shows that employee-owned companies -- even those with workers holding only a minority stake -- tend to out-perform the competition.
Mr. Ulukaya just increased the odds that Chobani will be valued at more than $5 billion when it's sold or its shares of stock are available to the public. Which will make him, as well as his employees, far wealthier.
As Ulukaya wrote to his workers, the award isn't a gift but "a mutual promise to work together with a shared purpose and responsibility."
A handful of other companies are inching their way in a similar direction.
Apple decided last October it would award shares not just to executives or engineers but to hourly paid workers as well. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is giving a third of his Twitter stock (about 1 percent of the company) "to our employee equity pool to reinvest directly in our people."
Employee stock ownership plans, which have been around for years, are lately seeing a bit of a comeback.
But the vast majority of American companies are still locked in the old hyper-capitalist model that views workers as costs to be cut rather than as partners to share in success.
That's largely because Wall Street still looks unfavorably on such collaboration (remember, Chobani is still privately held).
The Street remains obsessed with short-term stock performance, and its analysts don't believe hourly workers have much to contribute to the bottom line.
But they're prepared to lavish unprecedented rewards on CEOs who don't deserve squat.
Let them compare Yahoo with Chobani in a few years, and see which model works best.
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