I do love Starbucks coffee (just regular coffee with a bit of cream – nothing fancy), though that was only a very small reason why I read Onward, by Howard Schultz. Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, had stepped away as CEO in the early 2000s, only to return to that role in 2008 when the company had made a turn for the worse. The company had focused on growing the number of stores as their core mandate in the early 2000s, rather than focusing on quality, values, and economic efficiency. The book begins with his transition back into the CEO position, and tracks the changes and struggles that he faced over about 18 months while turning the company around.
I have two core reflections on this book, but before I do, a contextual note. Onward is PR for Starbucks (and maybe Schultz himself) as much as it is a tale of how to change a business. This meant there was a lot of repetition about his and Starbucks’ core values, and waxing on about the wonderful things that Starbucks does for its partners (employees), farmers, etc.. I found this a bit annoying and excessive, and learned to skim when necessary. And yet, it was a lesson in over-communicating messaging as a leader, which resonated with me as something I think about a lot in my own leadership.
The story itself is interesting. I enjoyed being on the inside (at least in a relative sense) of how difficult and stressful it is to make change in an organization, and even come to terms with the need for change. This was true both in the sense that it’s hard to assess what changes are necessary, and how painful change can be for people. The hardest decisions were clearly about closing stores, and creating system proficiency that resulted in a lot of people losing their jobs. Leading through this was incredibly painful, and I felt it reading the book.
The second reflection is a bit of a second-guessing of the story itself. Schultz tells the story of change, quite naturally, as he sees it. For him it was about going back to Starbucks’ core values of using their stores to create community, brew wonderful coffee, and demonstrate how much they value their employees. What I saw as the biggest takeaway of his version was his quality as a leader to connect with people, see what inspires and connects them, what seems to be an incredibly upbeat and optimistic personality, and share, re-share and re-share again his vision for the company and its values. I think this was a not insignificant part of what helped the company get through a rough time, and a big learning for me.
But at the same time, I think Schultz seems to assign way too much significance to the non-economic decisions he made, like introducing the Pike Place flavour, or ordering new espresso machines. No doubt these were good and helpful decisions, but what seemed much more significant in the turnaround was overhauling their entire supply chain, and closing lots of unprofitable stores. He talks about this, to be sure. However, the limitation of this genre (first person business memoir) is the degree to which the story of what he tells reflects a PR version, or a reflection on which decisions really made a difference and why. Onward seems more of the former than the latter. It was still enjoyable and interesting, but limited in what can be learned from the experience.
Some additional small critiques. I wish he would have spoken in more detail about his personnel decisions. There were lots of people who ‘left’ Starbucks during this time, and an almost 100% turnover in the senior leadership. And while he talked a lot about the new people he hired and how wonderful they were, he never said what was wrong with the people who he fired. Now, I realize that wouldn’t probably go over well in a public book, let alone one as PR oriented as this one, but it made for a large gap in a change-narrative. The second is a pet peeve. He kept speaking about his sixth sense for hiring people. Now, it may be true that he has great instincts, and that may in fact be one of the reasons for his success. But anyone who’s done significant hiring knows that we all have sixth senses (or at least think we do), and that only gets us so far. I wonder, if he took a step back and looked at all the people he’s hired over the last thirty years, whether his sixth sense would bear out as he suspects.
A Quote I Liked:
“Although I never stopped believing that Starbucks would emerge from the darkness, I was nonetheless experiencing an emotional roller coaster daily. I tried, admittedly not always successfully, to keep my feelings in check when interacting with our partners. I was acutely aware of my mood’s domino effect, and first and foremost our people needed reassurance of my own confidence. That’s why the freedom I felt to be candid with Olden (HR Director and Board member) and trusted friends proved as psychologically beneficial as it was educational. Quite Simply, I am human and needed an outlet.” p.222
Just Because I Liked It:
- How do you teach about Israel if it’s going to be education and not just advocacy? It’s not simple. Listen to this podcast with Noam Weismann of Israel Unpacked on 18Forty.
- The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling is a podcast series that explores some of our societies deepest tensions, using the life and writing of J.K. Rowling as a point of reference. I found that some episodes dragged on longer than needed, but overall, it was interesting and insightful about the social ills we face today.