Wake up and stop the coffee

How many times have you paused and asked if you are headed in the right direction and gone deep to address some issues that have thwarted your progress in some way?

Last year, Howard Schultz made news when he announced that he was considering a presidential run. Schultz had bought Starbucks from its original owners when it was still a local coffee shop and then grew it into a chain that has over 30,000 outlets world-wide. His presidential run announcement was met with backlash and disdain and he then announced he was pulling back from the race due to health concerns.

Over the years, like any massive chain, Starbucks has had its share of challenges and critics. It has also made bold decisions with regards to closing its stores to retrain employees in the face of challenges and public backlash, something not many behemoths have the guts to do.

February 2009 — Shutting down to make better coffee

In 2009, Howard Schultz had a comeback as CEO after 8 years to revive sagging sales. It was also felt that Starbucks had lost its focus by getting into the book and music business.

During this trying time, one move which garnered a lot of press was Schultz’s idea to close down all Starbucks stores (the ones in the U.S.) for three hours on a particular day to retrain the baristas on the art of making the perfect espresso, something he felt they had lost touch with.

In a memo to the employees, he wrote “We are passionate about our coffee. And we will revisit our standards of quality that are the foundation for the trust that our customers have in our coffee and in all of us.”

He describes the move in detail in his book Onward, How Starbucks Fought For Its Life Without Losing Its Soul.

I found the move gutsy. For a chain like Starbucks that doesn’t function like a normal office, to close down that many outlets on a weekday meant taking a massive hit to their business. But the move also stemmed from common sense — if they lost their way when it came to making great coffee, they would eventually lose more customers until the decline required a massive course correction.

A coffee chain, a global one at that, doesn’t get weekends or holidays off. So any course correction needs to be done during working hours.

The move seemingly paid off.

Even as the economy hurtled towards a global recession, Starbucks began a long and arduous climb out of mediocrity and its comeback is now a part of business folklore.

In 2014, Starbucks’ sales increased by 54% when compared to 2009.

The single move of shutting down its stores for 3 hours was a sign of Starbucks admitting that it had lost its focus and realizing that if it was to regain the perch it had fallen from, it had to to go back to what it did best — make great coffee. And training its baristas to do that was a start.

April 2018- Shutting down to sensitize employees on racial bias

In 2018, Starbucks was again in news for the wrong reasons. Two men of colour had gone to a Starbucks and were apparently waiting for a friend before ordering anything. One of the men asked to use the bathroom and were told that it was off bounds for non-paying customers. A Starbucks employee then called the police as they were suspicious of the men, ostensibly because of their race.

In a video that went viral and caused outrage world over, a group of policemen is seen arresting the men from a Starbucks, when their only crime was that they sat there without ordering something because they were waiting to meet someone.

The response was swift. Howard Schultz, who was by now Chairman Emeritus and CEO Kevin Johnson issued profuse apologies and even met the men who were arrested. But Starbucks went one step further — they closed down for an entire afternoon to give their employees racial bias training.

Of course, overcoming racial bias doesn’t happen over an afternoon. But the move highlighted the company’s willingness to address a serious issue and lay some sort of a groundwork towards sensitizing its employees. The incident also prompted racial bias training to be incorporated into the company’s employee onboarding process.

Watch the Starbucks anti-bias training video

After the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks sparked outrage, the company shut down about 8,000 stores…

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It’s easy for a critic to say that shutting down the store on both these occasions was in some ways a PR stunt. Sure, it garnered eyeballs and got people talking.

At the same time, how many organizations can you name that have paused business for some time to have serious conversations with their employees when shit hit the fan or when they felt they were headed in the wrong direction?

How many times have you paused and asked if you are headed in the right direction and gone deep to address some issues that have thwarted your progress in some way?

We hesitate to stop and take stock as we feel that we will have to play catch up. But that’s a stupid notion. If you are headed in the wrong direction, how does it matter if you get there quicker?

It really isn’t hard at all to leave important issues unaddressed and hurtle towards obsolescence and eventual catastrophe.

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Making dramatic change while going on the fast lane may be possible in a Fast and Furious movie.

But in the real world, if you feel you’re headed in the wrong direction or that you need to upskill yourself, consider stopping and pausing.

You sometimes have to stop to smell the coffee.