I just had the unique opportunity (I say unique because only 300 or so of us tuned in) to hear Howard Schultz on a webcast this morning because I bought an advance copy of his new book, “Onward“. I have not had a chance to read the book yet (too many papers to grade!), but did not want to miss the opportunity to hear Howard (virtually) in person.
Here are a few tidbits I picked up from him.
1) The reason those baristas are all so happy is that their goal is to enhance someone’s day. What a great goal.
2) His biggest challenge: Getting big as a company, but staying small. Even though there are over 200,000 employees, he wants them all to understand and know the Starbucks’ culture and feel like it is a small, intimate culture.
3) The reason Starbucks can successfully implement something new like mobile payments: they have their customer’s trust.
4) He feels that companies should embrace digital technologies and marketing not to sell, but to build trust and confidence with customers and to demonstrate transparency.
5) Customers want to buy from companies whose values are like their own, so customers will buy from Starbucks because they appreciate that Starbucks gives their employees health benefits and that they buy coffee beans at a fair price. This also builds trust with customers.
Can’t wait to read the book–probably while I’m drinking my grande decaf nonfat no-whip mocha!
-karen
Total Trust 
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The reason why Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is losing his steam is because of too much Corporate Crap in their Seattle headquarters. You cannot even plead to his vanguards that I flew 18 hours from Asia just to get 5 minutes of “Face Time” with him and he’s talking of “Getting In touch with the Masses” and I pleaded further if I can just leave it to them and check whether his “Trustees, Product Development People will sanitize it”, No Way. I think it’s easier to get an audience with the POPE than with Howard. It’s a pity coz I bought his book and was thinking of getting into his Mantra, or it’s all Cheap Talk to get the buying public’s support. How sad.
I really would like to believe what am ready and to a point. My son is a Batista in temcula ca and has experienced a very unhealthy treatment by his supervisors. He has worked for the company for 8 years. I remember how proud he was that he was a part of this company. Recently it feels like they want him out. How can I advise him?
Janie,
I am so sorry to hear about your son’s experience. I am not an expert, but I have spent time interviewing baristas, managers and district managers at Starbucks and this is what I would advise. I would encourage him to first talk with his district manager (if he feels comfortable) and explain that he is not feeling that he is being treated well by the store manager. If necessary, he might want to request that he be moved to a different store. In my interviews with baristas, they said that they did have different experiences at different stores and that sometimes, just a move to a different store with a different manager made all the difference in the world. When I talked with district managers, however, they said that their goal in interviewing store managers is to make sure that they are hiring the kind of people who are ethical and treat all employees well. One of the things everyone told me is that open communication is important to everyone at Starbucks so he should be able to ask for honest feedback and give it as well. Good luck to your son.
-Karen