Chief Operating Officer, Usana Health Sciences
Search every verified Walter Noot interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Walter Noot, Chief Operating Officer at USANA Health Sciences, appeared on the President McCormac Podcast on February 17, 2025. During the conversation, Noot described USANA as a public company with approximately $1 billion in revenue, trading under the ticker USNA on the New York Stock Exchange. He discussed his approach to business management, emphasizing the importance of maintaining cash reserves to preserve options and choices, and criticized companies that run short on cash as making a major mistake. Noot stated that he favors an acquisition model similar to Berkshire Hathaway, where capital is generated and invested in businesses that produce further capital. Noot also shared perspectives on operational strategy, noting that he has sometimes deprioritized conventional practices such as minimizing inventory, arguing that having sufficient cash makes such concerns less critical. He commented on the difficulty of spending money on acquisitions compared to consumer purchases, and stressed the importance of understanding finance, marketing, sales, and IT. Additionally, Noot remarked on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements, describing them as a "left-wing push" that has become mandatory in public filings.
“We should talk though so so where are you currently working I work at USANA Health Sciences so we're a public company USNA is our ticker New York Stock Exchange so we're about well we're about a billion in Revenue.”
“We've been when we we've kind of we've thrown some of this stuff out the window that everybody else would say that's important to do I've thrown some of that out the window because it's like that's not really that critical right now like I don't care if I throw a little extra inventory in the supply chain doesn't matte...”
“The very first thing in a business is you want to have choice you always want to have choices and options you want to make sure that you can go and do whatever the crap you want to do as a business because something changes and you can change because you have options right that's like that's the number one thing you wa...”
“I think in most businesses the biggest mistake the companies make is that they run short on cash and when they run short on cash they they don't have options and choices.”
“When you look at acquisitions and companies I think of more a little bit more like the Berkshire Hathaway model where you're generating a capital and with that capital you invest in businesses that generate capital and then you build a portfolio of cash that's that's what I'm trying to do at least that's what we're try...”
“It's surprising how hard it is to spend money right it's like if I want to go out and buy a Ferrari well it's kind of hard to buy a Ferrari right now but let's just say I want to buy a used Ferrari I can go find it pretty quick you want to go buy companies it's not that easy.”
“A lot of companies don't have good turnover with their cash and they don't turn their cash fast enough and you don't turn your cash fast enough you don't make a lot of money.”
“If the financial guys are talking and you don't understand what they're talking about that's a problem you know and typically saying something useful to you and if you don't get it there's a problem so you should understand finance and marketing well sales and then marketing and IT I would say those four things there's...”
“Most of the players in the NBA that he knew that he was interacting with were just kind of very indifferent didn't really care knew that it was a business knew that the NBA was just trying to capitalize on something rather than really setting a statement they just wanted to capitalize on the opportunity.”
“There's a push there's definitely a push it's kind of a left-wing push on ESG it's gotten to the point where even within your public filings there's stuff you have to say about it about sustainability and all that stuff.”
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