Word: schultze
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...wake up and smell the coffee at Starbucks. That's the lament of Howard Schultz, the founder and chairman of the ubiquitous java chain, in an internal memo that recently became external. In this wistful missive, Schultz fretted that, because coffee is delivered in flavor-locked packaging, the atmosphere had changed, the romance evaporated; the Starbucks "experience" of baristas grinding beans, pulling expresso shots and hand-crafting beverages had been automated away by machines that can knock out an expresso with the press of a button...
...McDonald's doesn't try to behave like a chain of boutiques, and that's where the tension inside Starbucks lies. "The battle within the company is making sure growth doesn't dilute our culture," says founder and chairman Howard Schultz. In the Starbucks ethos, the best authority is decentralized, and the best decisions are made store by store. The company stays clear of focus groups, acts on its instincts and doesn't open franchises for fear of losing control. Schultz decided to sell the New York Times, not USA Today, in stores because, he says, "it felt right...
...great empty slogans, but at Starbucks, executives tenaciously hold on to the idea that every store is like an independent coffeehouse. "You see the banter, the customers' knowing the people behind the counter," says CEO Jim Donald. "It's part of the reason they go." But Schultz and Donald are aware that it will be hard to keep the intimacy thing going. As Starbucks branches into more products (22 new drinks in two years, its own section of iTunes), spreads to more countries (from China to Brazil) and sees sales increase 22% a year, to nearly $8 billion annually, life...
...what happens when Starbucks introduces drive-throughs, which are at 58% of the stores it builds today? It took a decade for the company to put in its first drive-through because, says Schultz, "we wanted to ensure that once we did, we didn't take Starbucks down this road of fast-food mentality." Again the dreaded FF words. Next year Starbucks will open some 600 drive-throughs, many on busy highways--a huge departure from the store's original Main Street philosophy. Here's why: drive-throughs significantly boost a store's total sales...
...final HUDSIE is the “Charles Schultz Award for Artistic Humor.” This award goes to the artist who made a few “improvements” to my columnist mug shot in one of the copies of the Crimson left on the table at breakfast last week. Personally I think I look kind of handsome with a mustache and devil horns, but that arrow you drew going through my head looks fairly uncomfortable. Also, clever work modifying my column title to “Are You SeriousLY THIS UNFUNNY.” I don?...