Starbucks Management Lessons

Paul Williams is a former Starbucks marketer who runs the Idea Sandbox. Often, Paul challenges the way I think with his refreshing way of looking at marketing in a whole new way, in a way that removes all the crap and just focuses on the key points.

Recently, Paul wrote Starbucks Has Nothing to Lose – Freakin’ Go For It!. He’s got 5 great points for Starbucks…and if you shift the focus away from Starbucks towards your team, you’ll see they are very applicable for those of us who manage people.

I’ve revised them to make them most relevant to managers like me.

• Fix <insert your product or service here> so they’re again hand-crafted with pride and skill.
• Fix the training so every customer is greeted with a smile and feels valued.
• Teach your employees about what’s most important to your customers
• Stop focusing on creating new <products and services> and more on being experts – <insert your 3 most important things>.
• Stop opening new stores, and make the ones you have remarkable.

If you, and those you report to and those who report to you, invested 40 hours a week on these 5 core competencies, think of the amazing things you could create?

What other tips do you have to get you back to your management basics?

Photo credit to David Davies