"Disconnects", Howard Schultz of Starbucks, and His Vivanno
July 21st 2008 19:12
Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks
With the return of Howard Schultz, Starbucks is returning to its core values and introducing Vivanno!
Vivanno
Did you know that Starbucks was at its core a smoothie maker? I always thought coffee was at their core.
Well what else would a returning CEO say? he was being BuzzWord Compliant, nothing more. So we are on to a new vocab word.
"Disconnects"
Basically where you say one thing and do another. You have a policy or a written statement and do not do it. This is not necessarily being hypocritical. There are a lot of reasons for this to occur. Ignorance is a big one.
So good old Howard said no more breakfast sandwiches. Oh but they have been re-engineered to not overpower the coffee smell. You see that was the problem. So breakfast sandwiches are still on the menu, and yes they still destroy the coffee smell.
They planned to open 2,500 stores this year, 1,600 of them in the United States, now they are closing 600.
They say it is because the heavy investment in infrastructure was ahead of the growth curve, I am sure that is true, and was part of the plan originally for market domination. It would have been in my play book!
Misinformation is a good thing to use against your competition, but not your Shareholders!
I think the biggest Disconnect with Starbucks and companies like it is the HR issues. Books like "Fish" and "The Fred Factor" are absorbed into the collective HR Knowledge Management System of the company and used to indoctrinate the employee and essentially persuade them to be advocates for the company.
This makes sense because you want your employees to like their job and the company they work for. But what happens when the employee finds out the "not all that glitters is gold" in the utopia of HR practices?
They turn into marketing terrorists!
Guitar Center knows all about that, they even have an employee video about it!
They say that the pawn is the sole of the game, and companies say that their employees are the sole of the company. But think about how often a pawn is sac'd for better development or position.
Companies are selling their sole by selling out their employees.
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