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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Starbucks -- Hold that Latte for the Next 3 Hours!

This evening from 5:30 - 9pm this evening Starbucks closed ALL of it's retail stores.

http://tinyurl.com/26xfks

Is this mourning for the 600 employees that will be let go this year, in addition to the planned closing of 100 under-performing stores?

Not exactly. According to Howard Schlutz's "Howard Schultz Transformation Agenda Communication #8" (dated Monday, February 25, 2008), it's a time to stop, reflect on, and celebrate where Starbucks is at, how employees and partners should revel in the fact that Starbucks is the #1 global coffee company, and (in typical CEO-speak), "we are just getting started."

http://tinyurl.com/2wfa93

I have to admit this is first time I've seen anyone close an entire store like this for this long and bring all of the employees together. The only evidence I ever even remotely saw along these lines was stopping in a local Blockbuster around shift-change time and seeing the 16-year old store manager addressing a motley group of equally young and uninspired employees how they were going to do a great job that day, and for everyone not to forget to upsell customers on their download program so everyone could meet their monthly quota.

But apparently not so for Starbucks. I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall earlier this evening, but I'm sure it was a good time had by all (all, of course, except for the latte-obsessed customers that would have had to head over to Dunkin Donuts or (worse) McDonalds to get some burned beans in hot water.

But there's just one thing that struck me about Mr. Shultz' posting. He says:

"We are at our best when we are entrepreneurial and courageous, push for innovation and reject the status quo."

I agree with the philosophy of this statement, certainly nothing tied solely to Starbucks. But with a company of this size and scope, and the rate at which new Starbucks can be deployed on the ground in any number of countries and still serve up a similar tasting experience every time, you HAVE to run on systems, not ideas.

So the question is this: How can you maintain the creativity, freedom, and the spirit of an entrepreneur AND still grow (and stay) big? How do you rise above the standard processes and KPIs and quarterly filings and jump off the cliff with the NEXT BIG THING?

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