“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”
You always hear the story about the CEO that started out at the bottom and was able to work their way to the top. We've all been told the fairy tale before; maybe its at a new job orientation, or maybe on TV in an episode of CNBC ® Undercover Boss. But often times, people at the top have forgotten what its like at the bottom and that we all put our britches on one leg at a time.
Management will even send out company surveys on ways to improve company morale, looking for fresh ideas and new innovation, only to be returned and fallen upon deaf ears. It would appear they are sent out annually or once in a while as a formality. The upper-management in many of your larger corporations are considered your "opinion leaders" and they are making the decisions for the "greater good" of entire company. As we learned from last week's blurb, Everett M. Rogers states in Diffusion of Innovations:
Authority innovation-decisions are choices to adopt or reject an innovation that are made by a relatively few individuals in a system who posses power, status or technical expertise. The individual member of the system has little or no influence in the authority innovation-decision; he or she simply implements the decision. For instance, the president of a large U.S. computer corporation some years ago decided that all male employees should wear a white shirt, conservative necktie, and a dark suit; this authority decision had to be followed by every man who worked for the computer company (pg. 29).
Howard Schultz, founder and former CEO of Starbucks® realized in 2008, their sales had started to fall once he decided to return to a more "hands on", daily management position. So, he did something truly remarkable. According to AdAge, Schultz created MyStarbucksIdea.com, which is an online forum for their customers to make suggestions, ask questions, or even bitch and complain if they wanted (2010). It was brilliant! They actually decided to listen to their customers and even implement some of their ideas into the stores.
Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks' VP-brand content and online, wanted to do something positive with all of the social media followers they had amassed from their MyStarbucksIdea.com campaign. Their social media following had grown impressively large in a short amount of time and store sales were back up within a matter of two years from the start of the campaign (AdAge, 2010). Mr. Bruzzo realized just how much their social media following was working, when on "Free Pastry Day", he couldn't believe the masses of people lined up at the participating stores, with their printed coupons in hand, all just to receive their free pastry. Starbucks realized they didn't invent coffee, or pastries. In fact, Chris Bruzzo (2010), said he almost feels as if they had an unfair advantage in that their stores are set up for people to just come in and hang out. They are the ideal social network. So, I think when ideas and innovations moved in the direction of social media, it really wasn't a far stretch for Starbucks®. They just grabbed a hold of something they already did, and made it better; they re-invented the wheel in a way.
But they went even farther than that. In this 2010 article, AdAge states their Twitter account is managed by a former barista, who worked his way up the IT chain in the company. Back in 2008, when Starbucks was trying to come back, Brad Nelson approached Chris Bruzzo about wanting to do more than just being a barista. He knew he could utilize their social media to communicate more with their customers. Mr. Bruzzo pretty much thought he was crazy and told him no. But luckily with Brad's persistence, Mr. Bruzzo was willing to listen to him. So, Brad the Barista introduced Mr. Bruzzo to Twitter and wowed him; showed him all the possibilities and benefits of direct communication with their customers. Brad hooked Mr. Bruzzo by telling him,"It's a lot like being a barista on the internet", (AdAge, 2010). And apparently the rest is history.
There are many reasons Starbucks has been so successful over the years. Again, they didn't invent coffee, or pastries or deserts; so what sets them apart from the others? In 2009, Simon Sinek tells us that great leaders are driven by a particular cause or the 'why'. The rest of the world settles for the 'what', or rational "this is what our product does" aspect of it all. While there are many delicious and popular coffee chains in the world, none of them seem to have the success of Starbucks. In fact, its not uncommon to hear people refer to their coffee drinks using Starbucks names and terminology. There are even blogs and articles to help the confused newbies learn the Starbucks lingo so they can order drinks like a pro (2016).
Starbucks has also adapted well to the various social changes, they have tried to stay innovative as far as drinks (can anyone say Pumpkin spice latte, 2016), as well as they are very supportive of their employees and are known for their generosity. In 2016, Trefis Team Contributor and Great Speculations Contributor Group found that:
As part of a national initiative, Starbucks last summer announced a program to support economic development in some of America’s low to medium income communities. The opening up of a new store in Englewood, IL is an initiative in line with this, aimed at creating 26 jobs, and help to solve some of the problems plaguing the region. At the opening in Englewood, the director of community investment at Starbucks said “this is not just an opportunity to grow our business, but to be part of a local solution for social change.” The company also announced plans to open five similar stores in other communities, beginning in 2017. Some of these regions include Baltimore, Birmingham, Long Beach, CA, the Miami-metropolitan area, and the Greater Seattle Area.
And there are always stories being shared on social media, whether on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter about #payitforward. Reading about Brad the Barista made me think, so I checked Starbucks Twitter page, . Sure enough, there are heartwarming stories posted on their feed about someone having a bad day and a barista making it better, or what Starbucks is doing to try and better the environment. They may have started out making coffee, but they became so much more. While the majority of the other big name coffee companies have focused on speed and how fast they can get their customers out the door, Starbucks wants their customers to come in, sit down, relax, use their WiFi, and hang out. Their customers are family. If you treat them like family, show them you care and are interested in them, they will keep coming back for more.
References
Rogers, E. M. (2010). Diffusion of Innovations (4th ed.). New York: Free Press.
Seet. (2016, March 18). A Guide to Starbucks Lingo and the Secret Menu [Blog post].
Retrieved from https://delishably.com/dining-out/A-Guide-to-Starbucks-Lingo-and-the-
Secret-Menu
Sinek, S. (2009, September). How Great Leaders Inspire Action [Video file]. Retrieved
from http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
(Links to an external site.)
Trefis Team Contributor, & Great Speculations Contributor Group. (2016, October 13).
Starbucks is Maintaining Its Competitive Edge. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/10/13/how-is-starbucks-
maintaining-its-competitive-edge/#5d31a973759c
York, E. B. (2010, February 22). Starbucks Gets its Business Brewing Again With Social
Media. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/special-report-digital-alist-2010/digital-a-
list-2010-starbucks-brewing-social-media/142202/ (Links to an external site.)
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