Pursuits

Roger Duarte, Miami's King Crab

Roger Duarte left investment banking to take over Miami’s high-end seafood business. His plan is working

“I didn’t feel I was going to grow at an investment bank. ... It was my turn to start my own business”Photograph by Emiliano Granado

Roger Duarte darts his new Mercedes through Miami traffic at frightening speeds. Still hurting from the previous night’s partying, he parks in the downtown warehouse district and walks past some prostitutes and fenced-in pit bulls before opening the gate to the office of George Stone Crab, of which he’s founder and president. He greets Wesley Inigo, whom Duarte first hired as a crab cracker before firing him. (For each position, Duarte hires two people and fires one two weeks later.) He wound up hiring Inigo back, eventually putting him in charge of customer service. Taped up to the wall above Duarte’s desk is a New York Times business article with the headline, “Fire Your Relatives, Scare Your Employees, and Stop Whining.”