Romance and Theater

The original design and intent of your business are important assets for your company. And it’s crucial that you don’t let the growth of your business squeeze out and overwrite your original design!

Years ago, Starbucks developers created a coffee house experience for its customers. In the words of President and CEO Howard Schultz, there was a “distinctive Starbucks experience” that was vital to the company’s original design. It was the “romance and theater” of a customer’s trip to Starbucks that was envisioned when their first coffee house was opened.

Yet the world’s largest coffee house chain experienced something less than distinctive in 2007 when sales slowed considerably.

Why? Customers understood what Starbucks management did not – the original design of a warm and intimate neighborhood coffee house had been replaced by automatic espresso machines, flavor-locked packaging, and mass-designed store layouts. All very efficient progress, but lacking the envisioned experience originally intended.

Redefining your own original business design may be difficult, but in the face of a slowed economy, it’s important that you maintain the culture and commitment to who you are.

Read more about how Starbucks is making changes in order to win back customers and return to its roots. Read Article…

Change is Inevitable Progress is Optional

Change is often discouraged or debated in organizations until there are no other options, and sometimes at great calamity. Tom Neff taught me that organizations must embrace and plan for change by choosing progress instead of letting inevitable change just happen to them. We have seen countless industries migrate through the revolutionary transitions of the last 25 years, and we have also observed others that have refused or fought change at every step.

Organizations and individuals that are paying attention, taking a leadsership position and adapting choose to progress through their change paradigm and often succeed in becoming stronger, better companies. There is a great article about General Patreaus and his Adaptive Leadership style. Let’s face it, the military has gone through significant change and if you think they have realied on old style top down management style you are wrong. Give this article a read to learn about a great “soldier, scholar and statesman,” I hope it encourages you to choose progress during this time of change. Read more…