1. Synopsis: Through studying the history of Starbucks, we will understand its unique values. How it is people-oriented, how it is based on its own values, and how it injects its heart into a company to make it bigger and stronger.
2. Knowledge Points:
(1) Starbucks and Coffee
Starbucks began as a retailer selling coffee beans, and evolved into a café offering a third space between home and work where you can drink coffee.
(2) Beginnings
Howard moved from the ice rink to Xerox after graduation to study marketing, and then resigned in search of a more challenging job, which laid the groundwork for the later development of Starbucks.
(3) Discovering Coffee
Howard went to work for Kitchen Equipment & Home Improvement and discovered Seattle retailers who were ordering coffee grinders in bulk. He traveled to Seattle to find out what was going on and discovered Starbucks, which grinds good coffee from quality coffee beans, and decided to join Starbucks as he felt that quality coffee beans had great market potential in the United States.
(4) Life Turnaround
Howard joined Starbucks, a business trip to Italy, found the espresso bar, drink coffee with milk latte coffee, want to bring this coffee experience and coffee spirit of the cafe marketing concept back to Starbucks, but was not expected to be Starbucks other partners refused, so Howard decided to come out and go it alone, created their own Starbucks.
4. Insights:
1. When we inject our hearts, minds, and passions into a job, it will produce unimaginable results.
2. When you have a dream, go to work for it, to defend it, even if others ridicule and question. Listen to your heart, don't be intimidated by the negativity of others, don't be knocked down by the possibility of failure.
Second, a different Starbucks
1. Synopsis: Today we learned how Starbucks evolved from a store selling coffee beans to a café that provides a third space for rest and human interaction. Starbucks from a small place in Seattle gradually developed to the United States and even the world, all this is inseparable from Howard dare to think, dare to do, do not lose spirit.
2. Focus: Dare to dream big, because small dreams are not enough to keep you motivated, only big dreams are more able to stimulate your enterprising spirit.
3. Knowledge:
(1) The Road to Financing
The great problem Howard faced when he opened his store was → lack of money funds. In order to finance, he looked for many people, but 97% of them rejected him, but he was not crushed by the difficulties, with his information and perseverance, from 3% of the investors to raise 1.65 million U.S. dollars, including one of the partners of Starbucks, and finally gradually founded three stores.
(2) Acquisition of "Starbucks"
At that time, there was a disagreement between the partners of Starbucks, to sell the Starbucks store and brand. Howard's company at the time could not match the sales of Starbucks and the stores were not big enough, so he wanted to buy Starbucks. But one of the Starbucks partners wanted to compete with him, and in the face of all kinds of pressure, he did not give in, and eventually bypassed one of the partners to raise funds, and took Starbucks.
(3) The Road to Expansion
Starbucks later opened a new store in Chicago, but it also encountered a lot of difficulties at the beginning, and only started to make a profit a year later. After that, Starbucks continued to climb the peak, the branch opened to Los Angeles and other places, to today's various countries, China's provinces and cities have Starbucks traces, can be done to such an extent, can not be separated from Howard's daredevil, dare to dream big spirit.
(4) The third space
The rapid development of Starbucks actually exceeded Howard's imagination. Espresso developed into a popular drink, it can do in different cities are successful, the reason is because it provides an exotic romantic feelings, give people a piece of quiet third space, in the work of exhaustion and family pressure outside to give people a piece of rest, to provide an atmosphere of communication between people in order to deal with social problems.
4. Insight: Dare to dream big, small dreams are not enough to inspire your drive. Indeed, I now have big dreams for the future, but at present there is no clear direction, I feel that I am dreaming big dreams of others, and my own dreams are dependent on others, and I feel that this is also quite dangerous. It is important to have big dreams, but such big dreams should be built on their own foundation, you need to know what your dream is, how to go to go farther.
III. Values of Starbucks
1. Synopsis: How Howard gained the trust of his employees and allowed them to invest in his passion and zeal, **** with making Starbucks bigger and stronger.
2. Focus: the three steps to win the trust of employees: from the perspective of the employees, give employees health benefits, and finally, based on the salary of the employees, the proportion of the stock split, giving them shares, so that they become a part of the company, *** with the go to Starbucks to do a better job.
3: Knowledge:
Reasons to always update yourself: the world is always changing, nothing is static, and expecting to maintain the status quo will only lead to sorrow.
Starbucks values: employees make every cup of coffee with the heart injected into the coffee for customers to drink.
Howard's goal: all employees have pride in the company and can work together for the same goal for a long time, ultimately making Starbucks thrive in the long run.
How to do it:
3.1 Start from the employees
Based on the complex feelings of the blue-collar fathers, start from the perspective of the employees, start dealing with the employees, so that employees can get dignity, and to create an up and down the heart of the work atmosphere.
3.2 Welfare Medical Programs
To establish a sense of trust with employees:
(1) Provide better benefits for employees -- Provide full health insurance for part-time employees -- Reduce turnover -- Employees have more trust in the company and costs are reduced accordingly
(2) Effect of the health insurance program -- Employees are more motivated to work because of their improved morale
3.3 Coffee Bean Stock Program
Let the company's employees to participate in the development and drafting of Starbucks' mission statement: to provide a perfect working environment and create a working atmosphere of mutual respect and trust.
Implement a long-term stock option plan:
Give a portion of the entire Starbucks stock to employees as options, so that employees also own stock and all Starbucks employees become partners.
Give every Starbucks employee company-wide stock in the business, from the top leadership to the coffee makers, and use everyone's base salary as a base to split the stock proportionally.
If you work harder and give more, you'll be able to get more stock. Someday, if Starbucks goes public, your equity could eventually be realized into a very large sum of money.
Convince the board of directors that this kind of stock increase can make the company better, so that the company's sales and profits are lifted. Although the investor's stake may seem relatively small, the value of the shares in your name will certainly grow faster.
3.4 The value of the stock plan
(1) The professional attitudes of Starbucks employees changed dramatically, as they invested their passion and enthusiasm, and the entire company began to work towards the same goal. Because their self-worth is recognized, this passion comes from a sense of ownership, trust and loyalty.
(2) the embodiment of the transformation: employees will reduce the cost of innovation, do not need a union
4. The focus on wages will be reduced accordingly. During the university period, summer and winter vacations I will be a training institution part-time, to be honest, the institution's wages are very low, many people are not quite willing to go, but I'm very happy to go, because the principal will be very concerned about the needs of the staff to give some other aspects of the welfare benefits, so I feel happy to work there, I have been working part-time there for three consecutive years of summer and winter vacations for many years. Therefore, it is very important to meet the needs of the employees so that they can trust the company and have a sense of belonging to the company.
(2) The share plan is also a very innovative point. Many companies want to improve the enthusiasm and initiative of their employees, but employees feel that the company is not theirs, so it is difficult to put all the enthusiasm and passion. If employees own part of the company, they become part of the company, and then they can really put all their enthusiasm and passion into it.
Fourth, the crisis of Starbucks
1. Synopsis: Starbucks in the face of the cost crisis, but still adhere to their own values, to ensure that the price, quality, and always care about the interests of the customer, for the sake of the customer, to win the trust of the customer, the default Starbucks on behalf of high-quality coffee.
2. Focus: In the face of the crisis, Starbucks did not choose to buy lower quality, relatively cheap coffee beans, but adhere to their own values, did not compromise on principle for higher profits. If quality is sacrificed for profit, it will be a cost that cannot be compensated.
3. Knowledge:
How do you think about security?
First of all, it is human instinct to seek safety to avoid danger, but we can not avoid danger forever in our life, so we need to have the ability to cope with crisis. Second, a person who stays within his comfort zone forever will be too fearful to take risks, and there is no way to capitalize on the opportunities that may come his way.
In the long run, hiding from danger is no safer than being fully exposed. Life is either daring or nothing.
No matter what you do, it's never going to be smooth sailing. Don't do things the old-fashioned way, don't ossify the modus operandi. If you're stuck in your ways you'll never be able to outperform others.
3.1 Crisis of Rising Costs
Due to the severe frost in Brazil, there is a shortage of coffee beans, and in turn, Starbucks is likely to experience a crisis of rising coffee bean prices (rising costs). Even though Starbucks had a certain amount of inventory, if the price of coffee beans kept going up, Starbucks would end up having to raise its prices. At that time, the price of coffee beans kept increasing, no one could expect the price of coffee beans to go up or down afterwards. In the end, they assumed that the two probabilities were equal, and the question was which risk they could accept. In the end, they chose to buy the beans because they could afford the consequences, even though the price of the beans fell a few months later.
Instead of buying lower-quality, cheaper beans, Starbucks stuck to its values and didn't compromise its principles for higher profits. If quality is sacrificed for profit and there is no adherence to coffee quality, this will be a cost that cannot be compensated.
3.2 The Birth of Frappuccino
Coffee stores near Starbucks introduced their own specialty coffees, and this special drink was so popular in the summer that a certain number of customers were lost when they couldn't get a blended flavored drink at Starbucks. Starbucks' lower level store managers then requested upwards if they could add a new drink that blended the other flavors, only to be rejected by headquarters. But the store manager was not discouraged, and experimented on his own, blended, and later improved, and finally perfected by a food consultant, the Frappuccino was born.
Revelation: There is no solidified statute in the way of the introduction of the Starbucks, it is a spontaneous action, a bottom-up action. If Starbucks had become a typical rigid company, the Frappuccino could never have been made, so Starbucks had to stick to the spirit of innovation and had to go for some self-reinvention. As a wise leader, you should never try to block the enterprising spirit of your subordinates.
4. Insights:
1. Learn to get out of the comfort zone, dare to try and take risks, when the opportunity comes you may be able to seize it.
2. Learn to learn to constantly learn, update their knowledge, try to innovate, rather than thinking rigidly, stuck in a rut, applying the template.
3. Stick to the principles, there is a bottom line for doing things, and you can't compromise on principles. China's annual 3.15 exposure of many safety issues are rooted in the producers in order to profit the quality of doctors, did not adhere to the principle, if more than one adhere to the principle of the producers, then our society is more than one safety and security.
4. When faced with two bad results, we have to learn to weigh the pros and cons, choose to cause less damage, rather than get entangled in how to solve the perfect solution, because when some force majeure factors occur, to learn to accept and choose a better solution.
V. Howard's growth with Starbucks
1. Synopsis: How Howard continued to reinvent himself after his success, becoming a leader after three conversions from a dreamer.
2. Focus: the spirit of reinventing oneself
3. Knowledge Points:
3.1 Howard's Growth
Howard started investing in his own coffee shop at the age of 32, and by the time he was 40, he had already developed Starbucks into a success, and was on the cover of Fortune Magazine as the president of the fastest-growing company in America. Howard was celebrating his victory, worrying about the absence of adversity and not knowing how to go next, so he had to figure it out on his own, with his worries and questions to consult with others.
3.2 Self-Reinvention
The Dreamer - Knocking on the door of every potential investor in Seattle, going to people to tell them about his plans and dreams, and then raising money for his coffee shop.
Entrepreneur - Took over Starbucks, he was very entrepreneurial and took people on a hands-on approach to make Starbucks a fast growing company.
The manager - as the company got bigger and bigger, many decisions needed to be delegated to others, and there was no way for him to do it himself, so he needed to learn to manage others, and then give authority to others to do it.
The leader - the establishment of the company's chief operating officer and general manager, so that they will be freed from the day-to-day management affairs, to do some more visionary creative action, and then to foresee the future, to create greater value for the company.
3.3 Role reversal
From manager to leader: Learn to step out of day-to-day management and let go of the reins, because the process is a little tough. You have to trust your general manager or other managers and let them do the work instead of meddling in everything.
In Howard from professional managers to lead the role of the transition process encountered conflict, but in the end the transition was successful. The role of the leader is to find a path to the role of the company's future to find new directions, to predict the competitive situation, as well as the company to face some of the strategic layout.
4. Summary:
(1) Both long-term vision and short-term goals.
(2) If you want to reinvent excellence, you have to reinvent yourself first. The words "reinvent yourself" are especially important for entrepreneurs. If an entrepreneur is weak in his or her ability to reinvent himself or herself, he or she will not be able to keep up with the development of the company, and will not be able to bring the company to a new development starting point.
(3) Howard thought that work would get easier after the company expanded, but it actually got harder. This is a process that many entrepreneurs will go through, and they keep finding that the problems they face become more complex and bigger.
For example:
Can a company hold on to its original values when it doubles or even triples in size?
How do you manage a company in the midst of innovation?
How do you stay focused on long-term goals when you have immediate problems to deal with?
How do you keep yourself creative in your long-term plans?
These are entrepreneurial questions. Howard believes that these answers cannot be found in books, and there are no ready-made answers, but only to figure it out themselves. He goes to the experts, consults the people he has worked with, and everyone it meets who he feels has wisdom, and then goes to them for advice.
(4) When you are able to go from being a dreamer, to being a leader, your life is completely different from the original stage. This is a time when people are more energized and are able to do more things. If you don't keep up with this change, if you are too slow in molding yourself, if you are not able to fit into the role, it is very likely that you are going to be a step behind in your life. Your life is already in the next stage, but people still stay in the previous stage, when life has changed, and you have not changed, many new dilemmas and crises belong to you are not able to deal with, life will be in conflict.
(5) Entrepreneurship is the most capable of exercising a person's ability, the most capable of forging a person's heart, because you have to maintain a rapid learning state, and then quickly complete their own upgrading, so that you can go with the whole enterprise to develop.
(6) In order to maintain vitality, a company actually needs all types of talents, including dreamers, entrepreneurs, professional managers and leaders. With all four types of talent in place, the entire company environment is exciting and more challenging. If you can't do that, there's a high risk of becoming a bureaucratic, mediocre business.
5. Insights:
Reinventing oneself is necessary in today's society because society is constantly changing and developing, and only by updating oneself can one keep up with development. A person can play many roles and go through many stages of development. If you cannot change your role to adapt to the development, you will easily be eliminated by the society.