I was reading John Moore's manifesto born on April 4th 2007. He asks the Starbucks Board of Customers to respond to Howard Schultz's worried memo that the Starbucks brand has been watered down and the observation that what some might call 'the commoditisation of our brand' is happening. I found out today here that 44 million people go to Starbucks a week and a new shop opens every six hours. Yikes.
I'd agree. To me Starbucks is losing touch with it's values and the essence of Howard's soul which made that first Starbucks shop what it was. Using Porter's Generic Strategy Model (I'd hate to think my degree wasn't of some use), Starbucks is getting 'stuck in the middle'. Are you proud to walk down the street carrying a cup with this logo?
The focus on revenue, profit, numbers of new stores opened, sales of merchandise, required to satisfy Wall Street have taken the focus away from the customer.
The Board of Customers (mere mortals like me) suggest:
- Getting back to being a coffee company
- Free wireless (I have walked out of Starbucks to a coffee shop opposite to get free wireless)
- Employ baristas who are passionate, as opposed to those that see it as better than McDonalds
- Get rid of merchandise and poor quality 'freshly baked' cakes
I liked John's approach, to open the conversation, via his blog to the customers.
What it made me think about was that the three person company I work for with limited resources to compete against the bigger 'Starbucks' type players, who doesn't have Wall Street to satisfy, is in as much danger of forgetting the customer in the pursuit of revenue as Starbucks. Cash is king in for our company. We are a content company that struggles to invest in creating content and trust that the customers that we want to be talking to will come.
I think there's a huge leap of faith into the unknown that needs to happen to focus on being a company who's mission is to be an idea amplifier. To forget revenue and focus on what matters to the customer. Hugh MacLeod puts it succinctly in here, 'Merit can be bought, passion can't'. For me it's about unleashing the passion. Being confident and trusting that the pursuit of passion is the only road to drive down and never look back. And if I start to doubt, well quite frankly the only thing to do is 'fake it to make it'. That has saved me many times.