“We Are A People Company.”
I’m currently reading ‘Onward’, the latest book by Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz. It’s quite an interesting and surprisingly honest introspective look at both the successes and failures of Starbucks under his leadership.
One thing that I’ve really started to understand at a more fundamental level is the importance of focusing on core values. In 2007 Starbucks began to fail because they had lost sight of the culture that they themselves had created. Howard had to purposefully remind himself and subsequently his partners (Starbucks’ feel-good term for employees) that they were not a coffee company that served people, but a people company that serves coffee.
A people company.
I love that term.
As leaders, where is our focus? If it’s just on the bottom line and the shareholder dividend, are we really making a difference? There’s something innately and undeniably attractive about an entity that focuses on people and community and connection rather than simply the mighty dollar.
As a people company, Starbucks did an amazing thing. They created a culture where the disenfranchised were accepted. The unwelcome were welcome. This played a significant part of their meteoric success. When they lost focus, they started to fail. To Howard’s credit, he course corrected and Starbucks are on the up again.
A few times a week I go to the Starbucks on the corner of Irvine Center Drive and Sand Canyon Avenue. Every time I’m in there, I experience something I don’t experience anywhere else. Everyone who works there remembers me. Out of the thousands of people that dash in and out every week, they remember me. They greet me by my first name and ask me how I am, how my morning is going, or how my weekend was. Then they remember my favourite drink - a grande mocha, extra hot, no whipped cream - and unless I say something different, it’s getting made for me before I’ve even paid for it. No matter how busy they are, they chat with me while they make my drink, and then when I leave they bid me farewell with a smile and say ‘see you again soon’. And because I feel valued, they do see me again soon.
I tell you this because it’s their focus on people that has created their success, not the quality of the coffee. The coffee is of excellent quality, of course (and anyone who says Starbucks burn their coffee doesn’t know coffee, but that’s another discussion), but without people, great coffee is only coffee. With people, however, it’s a culture. It’s something special. And people, above all, want to feel valued.
What type of culture will you, as a leader, create? Who will you choose to welcome, and how will you make them feel valued? It’s a unique and truly honourable leader who chooses to pursue this value.
