In 1982, Howard Schultz, the current chairman and chief global strategist of Starbucks, left his prestigious job as national sales manager for a European housewares company to join a small, Seattle-based coffee roaster and retailer. Starbucks had come to Schultz’s attention when he noticed this small business was purchasing a disproportionately large number of coffee makers from his company. When Schultz visited Seattle, he stopped to check out Starbucks and became intrigued with the possibilities. “I saw Starbucks,not for what it was but for what it could be,” he has said.
The key to Schultz’s vision was simple: create community. The idea came to him while visiting Milan,Italy, where he observed how people gathered at their neighbourhood espresso bars “like an extension of the front porch, an extension of the home,” he liked to say. At Starbucks, Schultz saw a means to bring people together in America, just as espresso bars bring them together in Italy.
Unfortunately, the founders of Starbucks didn’t share Schultz’s vision and preferred to remain a coffee roaster with a small retail presence. Schultz’s belief in the idea, however, was so certain that he eventually left Starbucks in 1985 to start an espresso bar retailer. Two years later, he bought Starbucks from its owners and merged it into his small company.
Schultz, a passionate, visionary leader, went on to revolutionise coffee retailing in the USand is rapidly taking Starbucks worldwide. Howard Schultz carefully nurtured an inspiring identity for the company in the hearts and minds of employees. At first he told his story and explained in detail how Starbucks would become an oasis for people as they took time out of their increasingly busy days to stop by for a brief period to relax.
As the company grew by 1997 to more than 1,300 stores and 25,000 partners, it became impossible for Schultz to reach everyone in person. So he did the next best thing. He compiled his stories into an inspiring book entitled Pour Your Heart into It.
Pour Your Heart into It is a compelling account of the Starbucks story. Every Starbucks partner who reads it will understand Starbucks’s history and where it’s headed. The book is filled with vividly told stories,including Schultz’s vision for creating a community. By articulating his vision, he helped to transform their work experience from one of selling coffee to a higher calling of creating communities among people.
Howard Schultz also brought human value to the Starbucks culture by paying employees well relative to other retailers, and also providing generous benefits such as health-care insurance and participation in the Starbucks stock option plan.
Schultz increased knowledge flow in the Starbucks culture by making it everyone’s responsibility to share their ideas about how to continuously improve the business. Schultz also presented a very approachable persona that made people comfortable that it was safe to be honest with him.
Fostering a connection between employees (or ‘partners,’ as they are known at Starbucks) and customers is an integral part of the Starbucks experience. Partners are trained to understand how to make a customer’s visit true to Starbucks’s mission (i.e. frontline employees’ behaviour is aligned with its mission to create a community). Habits such as making eye contact with customers,remembering regular customers’ drink orders, and anticipating customer needs are developed through orientation and ongoing training programmes.
The results speak for themselves. By 2005, Starbucks had more than 100,000 partners, 10,801 retail locations,35 million customers walking through its doors, and a record $6.4 billion dollars in revenue during its fiscal year. Its success should come as no surprise, given that Starbucks says that “The human connection . . . is the foundation of everything we do.”
Howard Schultz increased inspiring identity by telling the Starbucks story in writing so that anyone could read it and understand how Starbucks developed its values. He increased human value by calling everyone a ‘partner’ and compensating partners above industry norms. Howard Shultz’s approachable persona increased knowledge flow because he made it safe for people to be honest with him.
Do you know the inspiring identity of your organization? Could you articulate it for yourself and others? Do you feel that everyone is on the same page?
Courtesy: www.economictimes.com
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