Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of Chobani, LLC, left his family dairy business in Turkey to learn English in the United States. Soon after he arrived, he noticed that the strained yogurt popular in Greece and Turkey, known for its rich flavor and high levels of protein, was not widely available in U.S. grocery stores. In 2005, that realization and Ulukaya’s dairy background led him to take the opportunity to purchase a 100-yearold dairy plant in central New York state. He started out small. As he recalls, “I hired five people from the 55 [applicants], and those five are still with me.” It took 2 years of work to perfect the yogurt recipe; the company’s first order didn’t ship until 2007. However, Chobani caught on quickly, with annual sales of $1 billion in 2012. That same year, Chobani opened its second plant. In 2019, Chobani is the best-selling Greek yogurt in the United States, employs over 2,000 people, and boasts the world’s largest yogurt plant at its state-of-the art, million-square-foot location in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Along the way, Chobani’s HRM system needed to evolve in response to the company’s astronomical growth. How did Chobani’s 30 full-time HR professionals help manage the 3,000 full- and part-time employees in Australia and the United States who make over 2.2 million cases of yogurt each week? Craig Gomez, Chobani’s former chief people officer, describes how his experience in HR at PepsiCo, GE, and Cisco helped him strike a balance between where Chobani’s HR had grown organically and where it needed to go. Gomez’s strategy was to find solutions to existing organizational “pain points.” He and his HR colleagues realized that they couldn’t do everything all at once. “We have picked items that add tremendous value and do not unduly burden the client with administrative headaches,” Gomez says. He further notes, “I think, with all due respect to all of my peers in HR, a lot of times HR comes at an organization with a set playbook and they just lead with a set list of things they think that every organization should have instead of really listening to the client and really matching up what they deliver with what the specific client’s points of pain are.”.....

Case Discussion Questions 1. Chobani has grown a great deal since its founding in 2005. How do you think growth has influenced its HR practices beyond what is mentioned in this case? Please share specific insights.
2. Craig Gomez, Chobani’s former chief people officer, makes a strong case for HR being in the business of solving problems for the organization. Do you agree with this position? Why or why not?
3. Why do you think that Chobani’s founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, gave away 10% of his company to his current full-time employees? Do you think this is a wise idea or a foolish one? Why?
4. Do you consider Chobani’s policy of offering 6 weeks of paid parental leave to all full-time employees a waste of money or a wise investment? Why? Be prepared to defend your response.