WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Kristina Yoshida McMorris 

Young entrepreneur adopts family recipe for success and puts new spin on 'multi-tasking'

Kristina Yoshida McMorris has the entrepreneur gene. Her father, Junki Yoshida of Yoshida's Fine Sauce fame, emigrated to America from Japan as a teenager and eventually built an empire. The "boss of sauce" began marketing his gourmet sauces in the 1970s, and today he heads the Yoshida Group, a private conglomerate of 20 companies ranging from a snowboarding manufacturer to a fine art gallery.

Yoshida is a self-proclaimed pit bull who never leaves anything for tomorrow - an important lesson that he hammered into his eldest daughter.

It's quite apparent that McMorris took that lesson seriously. Her achievements at the tender age of 27 indicate that McMorris is indeed a chip off the ol' block.

McMorris is the director of public affairs and public relations at Yoshida's Inc., the conglomerate's support company, overseeing public relations for all 20 companies. She is also a test market leader and consultant for Pittsburgh-based H.J. Heinz Co. Heinz acquired the North American rights to Yoshida Food Products in 2000, a deal for which McMorris handled the press.

On top of that, she has established herself philanthropically in the community. McMorris fund-raises and volunteers for organizations such as Doernbecher Children's Hospital Foundation, the Red Cross, the Oregon Symphony, various regional food banks and local women's shelters, to name a few.

McMorris attended Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., and studied international marketing (an independent major she created, according to her father). As an undergrad, she dabbled in showbiz, starring in soap operas and independent films. Hollywood proved to be "a hard life," though.

McMorris returned to Oregon after graduating a year early from Pepperdine in the summer of 1995. She worked as an import/export agent and customs clearance broker for OIA Global Logistics (a Yoshida Group transportation company); and then as a sales manager for the Yoshida Group's Endgame Entertainment. There was also a brief stint as a public relations specialist for Gov. John Kitzhaber's office in 1997.

In September of 1998, McMorris took over her current position at Yoshida's Inc., where she leads advertising campaigns for the art gallery, transportation and logistics company and food company. She also manages the Yoshida Group's annual philanthropic budget and authorizes all sponsorship proposals and donation requests.
One of her biggest jobs as PR director for Yoshida's Inc., though, may be maintaining a public image for a CEO who is known for his blunt and sometimes off-the-wall personality.

McMorris acknowledges her father's colorful side with a laugh. Junki Yoshida also concedes it. Both maintain they are a good team - mainly, Junki said, because his daughter is "softer" than her "forceful, old-fashioned businessman" father and because "I can always count on her."

But Junki Yoshida can't count on his daughter indefinitely - not as his PR director anyway. McMorris has other plans.

In 1998, the same year she took over public relations at Yoshida's Inc., McMorris founded Best Kept Secret Wedding and Event Co., a full-service event planning business. She discovered her passion for throwing parties while planning her own wedding, an occasion she organized in just two weeks. She also recreated her parents' wedding for their 25th anniversary, complete with the original bridal party and ruffled tuxedos. The experiences inspired Best Kept Secret. "It was so easy for me," she said. "I thought, this would be my perfect job. A perfect job is one that I would do even if no one paid me."

Due to hectic travel and work schedules, Best Kept Secret is on a self-imposed hiatus at the moment. McMorris hopes to focus her full attention on her company in two years or so, "when things get a bit more settled." At that time, she wants to hire a full-time staff and possibly build an indoor/outdoor event site on the east side of town, where such venues, she said, are scarce.

In the meantime, McMorris indulges her passion for party planning inside and outside of Yoshida's. She organizes the Yoshida Group's annual 500-guest VI.P. party, a themed event so ornate "that it's like walking onto a movie set," she said.

Recently she volunteered to plan the welcome event for the Oregon Symphony's new conductor, and she founded an annual wine and food sampling event that raises money for Doernbecher. Then there are all the theme parties and dinners she throws together for family and friends.

And she feeds her passion for weddings by writing free-lance pieces for Portland Bride and Groom magazine and hosting the weekly regional cable television program, called "Weddings Portland Style."

But the need to grow her own creation is great. McMorris founded Best Kept Secret at age 24 completely on her own. "It was an opportunity to do what I love," she said, which is the same reason she needs to go back to it and expand it.

McMorris is careful talking about where she sees her business going. "It's limitless. There's a lot of potential. It depends on how big I want it to be ... not so big that I don't have a life outside the company."

She's seen firsthand what it takes to run a company, how it can take over. She witnessed the sacrifices her parents made to grow the Yoshida Group. She'd like to maintain a balance between her personal life and her career.

Junki Yoshida displays the same hesitation at the thought. "Do I really want my daughter to be an entrepreneur? She knows my struggles," he said. "I don't want to see my daughters struggle."

But that struggle he so fears for his eldest child, he attributes as one of the best lessons he passed on to McMorris. In hard times, "she [saw] how I operate[d] to survive," he said. His apprehension for his daughter, though, seems nothing more than a parental instinct to protect his child. Junki Yoshida knows his daughter will succeed.

"I respect her. Once she's got a goal, she doesn't sleep. She's a genius organizing events. I never see her fail," he said.

Given McMorris' success thus far, failure seems unlikely. Though turning her hobby into a growing business should be an easy transition, McMorris is geared up for challenges.

Her history of working in what she calls male-dominated industries like transportation and food exposed her to boundaries and limitations.

To combat the "good ol' boys" climate of those trades, McMorris relied on confidence, people skills and her secret weapon: a mean golf game.

"In Japanese business, half the negotiations happen on the golf course," she said. "It establishes a level of respect and makes everyone more approachable."

McMorris said she took up golf seriously about five years ago on a business tip from her father. These days, she "plays a decent game from the men's tees."

True to form, Kristina McMorris takes a family recipe and makes it her own.

Business Journal - November 15, 2002; by Maureen McDowell