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						STEWART IS ACCIDENTAL CEO OF A COOPERATIVE THAT FLOURISHED Call Rick Stewart, XP-62 (’93), the accidental businessman. All he did was volunteer to repackage herbs for his local food cooperative. Today, he is CEO of Frontier Cooperative Herbs, a $33 million operation with 285 employees in four locations. In 1976, the co-op was about to phase out herbs because distributors only sold 10-pound bags no shoppers would buy. Stewart and his wife suggested repackaging them, and soon found themselves bagging basil at home in their Iowa cabin. Soon the cooperative suggested that they ship products directly to the customers, and they were in business. Stewart, then a policeman who was pursuing a course in diesel mechanics, had no college degree and no business experience. “I’d never had an econ class; I didn’t know what a market was. No one I knew was in business. I had absolutely no models to follow,” he says. Instead, he followed his ideals and principles. Frontier originally was organized as a collective. Everyone drew equal pay. Everyone started at the bottom of the organization and worked up. Ironically, in the early days Frontier outcompeted other suppliers simply by being businesslike–“answering the phone, shipping orders on time, being nice to customers,” Stewart explains. The collective flourished. As Frontier gradually evolved, Stewart upgraded his skills to guide its growth. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, then enrolled in the Executive M.B.A. Program, pony tail and all. “It was the right thing to do and the right time to do it,” he says. “When the dollars involved were becoming bigger, it helped me make the correct decisions,” including the strategic acquisition of a competitor. Over the years, Stewart has reevaluated some of the company’s founding principles. For example, equal pay for all employees led to problems over time. “It encourages people with less-than-average skills to stay and earn above-average wages, while people with above average-skills leave. What you get is an organization filled with less able people,” he points out. “The real goal is equitable pay, not equal pay.” Stewart’s attitudes toward work and wealth formed early, when he hitchhiked around Europe and Asia for two years with just $400. He met a lot of people with a lot more money but less time. “They worked hard for two years doing something they didn’t enjoy to spend six months doing something they do enjoy,” he said. That’s a tradeoff he’s not willing to make. In a job he didn’t like, he’d rather work less, do without material goods, and experience more. But Stewart loves his job with Frontier, so it ranks up there with leisure activities like a volleyball game or riding a bike across Iowa (he made the trek this summer.). “Now I come to work and every day is like a day off, because I like it. It’s fun.”
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