1. How does Costco’s famous and oft-recounted salmon story help management create a culture of performance and quality?
2. What role does the Salmon Awards program play in Costco’s system of control?
3. How does Costco reduce its operating expenses by investing in technologies that enable outside suppliers to manage inventories and ship orders directly to customers?

Continuous improvement isn’t a mere buzzword at Costco Wholesale: it’s a modus operandi. To offer high-quality products at rock-bottom prices, the $60-billion-a-year warehouse club must manage its daily operations and supply chain with ever-increasing efficiency and innovation. Without this commitment, selling stacks of AG darkrinse jeans and Canon high performance digital cameras at deep discounts would be a losing business proposition.