Conversation with Doug Rauch (Ex-President of Trader Joe’s; Founder of Daily Table)

Notes from 022719 evening (v1.0)

• Doug started a presentation with a photo of him throwing a ceremonial first pitch. The best advice he received? Aim a bit higher; the mound is about 6 inches taller than the ground. He encouraged the audience to do the same as we build ventures in social enterprise space–aim a bit higher. Actually, a lot higher because the need in our field is huge.
• In discussing the purpose of oneself and business entities, he drew his experience from his days with Peter Drucker. Many are misled to think that the sole purpose of business is to generate profit to maximize the shareholders’ return. However, Doug argues that profit is not the purpose of business. It is essential but not the ultimate goal. The purpose of a business is to be needed — in other words, if the business were to go out of business, it will be missed. Doug then went on to explain the purpose of profit-generating; to him, profit is like air. No one thinks that breathing air is the sole purpose of his/her life (“no one wakes up thinking that ‘today I’m going to breathe as much air as possible’”), but the air is crucial to sustaining our lives. Profit is the same; it’s not the purpose of your business, but it enables the business to carry out its true purpose.
• Doug is a master of scale. He grew Trader Joe’s from 9 store chain in CA to now 450+ stores Nationwide; he was in his early 20s when he started working there bagging groceries.
• His passion as an operator still burns today. A doer who couldn’t stay idle and just sit on boards post-retirement, Doug founded the Daily Table, a hunger relief nonprofit mascaraed as a retail store. More on this amazing initiative here.
• The innovation behind the Daily Table is 1) its retail experience (based on studies that show that humans are more likely to eat what they choose vs. given), and 2) affordable and healthy to-go meals that compete with fast food.
• Lastly, I want to share his remark on leadership/founding ventures. To Doug, matching skill sets is a must. He gave an analogy of “Kite and String.” The kite flies high in the sky painting the vision and mesmerizing others to join. String grounds the kite to reality and adds structure to the mission. More on this later.