"Culture itself is our business strategy", which is both thorough and bold, because enterprises in reality can rarely be as transparent and frank as Qiaoshui. Recently, I saw some similar scenes when I read howard schultz, the founder of Starbucks, Injecting Heart: A Cup of Coffee Makes the Legend of Starbucks.
A successful enterprise team based on unique values and codes of conduct
1987, howard schultz took over the weak Starbucks from the two founders and turned it into a world-class enterprise. He believed that the success of Starbucks "proved that a company with a mind-oriented and nature as its soul can still make money, indicating that a company can make profits for a long time without sacrificing respect for the core values of its employees". These "values and norms are rarely seen in other enterprises in the United States", and Starbucks can do it because they have a leadership team that believes that this is the right thing to do and that it is the best way to run the enterprise.
In business operation, Starbucks' basic strategy is to win customers with the best coffee, the best service and the most cordial atmosphere; Relying on fair competition and the principle of dignity and height, we become the best one in every market. To do this, we must create an excellent workforce. Therefore, "Starbucks continues to attract and hire people who work together for the same goal. They don't fight with each other and like to challenge goals that others think are impossible." Howard schultz said that he wants to create a corporate culture in which "individuals can not only be satisfied, but also be respected and envied by others".
To this end, Starbucks put forward a "meaningful mission statement" and used these six principles to "help us judge the correctness of the company's decisions": first, provide a perfect working environment and create a working atmosphere of mutual respect and trust; Second, adhering to diversification is an important principle of our enterprise management; Third, adopt the highest standards for purchasing and baking, and provide the freshest coffee; Fourth, always meet customer needs with a high degree of enthusiasm; Fifth, actively contribute to the community and the environment; Sixth, realize that profit is the foundation of our future success.
There are several steps worth learning from the introduction of Starbucks' mission statement:
The first step: the senior management team carefully analyzed the company's values and beliefs, and drafted a mission statement in a retreat, "trying to clearly express a powerful message and relay it as a program of action to guide us to examine every decision made by the company at every level";
Step 2: Send the draft to every employee of Starbucks and ask them to make changes on the basis of their comments. The resulting mission statement "is not a certificate to decorate our office wall, but the essence of faith; It is not a list of inspiration, but the principle basis that we have to lead the development of enterprises. "
Step 3: A consulting company was hired to set up several teams from coffee shops, offices and factories, and the participants were all selected from non-executives. They often get together from their respective posts to discuss related issues and make suggestions on management decision-making, market expansion and personnel size.
Step 4: They insist that it is not enough to just write the mission statement and tell everyone. Starbucks also needs a set of methods to ensure the implementation of the mission statement. Therefore, they suggested setting up a "mission evaluation" organization, and every employee in every store should be encouraged to fill out a postcard-sized "evaluation card". If they see that the decision made by the management violates the mission statement, they can report it to the "mission review" organization.
Friends who are familiar with the practice of corporate culture construction may know that this fourth step is the real "killer". Therefore, even a well-prepared person like howard schultz said, "Most business executives are afraid of this system, and so am I." "I listened to their speeches and thought: Do I really want employees to form such a team to supervise the management, so as to improve our management level? If I refuse, then what is the sincerity of the management to make such a mission statement? " Interestingly, after many considerations, "we approved this proposal". Since the introduction of Starbucks' mission statement, this kind of appraisal activity has continued:
Any employee in any department has the right to criticize and suggest any behavior that does not conform to this declaration, and we also promise that the manager of the relevant department must respond within two weeks, whether by phone or letter. We print "suggestion cards" for every new employee, including of course those forms issued by other companies. We receive hundreds of cards every year, and the proposer can be unsigned. Of course, the proposer who doesn't sign can't get a direct response. I carefully read the suggestions that come with other reports every month. With the development of enterprises, "mission evaluation" has become an important link between our scattered labor force. Every quarter, teams selected from various departments of the company get together to discuss some issues that employees are most concerned about, seek solutions, and submit reports to our "quarterly public forum". This process not only keeps the mission statement full of vitality, but also provides an important channel for open communication. Many great suggestions have therefore been adopted and implemented.
Today, in the long-term management practice, howard schultz's experience of corporate culture is that one of the biggest responsibilities of an entrepreneur is to inject his own values into the enterprise. It's like raising children. "You start this job with love and compassion. If you inject correct values into their hearts, they will make responsible decisions when they grow up." Therefore, he believes that no matter how big the development is, the basic core values and ultimate goal of Starbucks cannot be changed. He believes that Starbucks can maintain its passion, style, creativity and personality after becoming a global enterprise.
Of course, howard schultz also understood that "it is easy to talk about values, but it is difficult to practice them, and it is even more difficult for an outsider to judge which ones are from the heart and which ones are displayed in the window". So, how does Starbucks practice the six mission statements? Below we combine the three most important levels, namely, products, customers and employees, to make a brief analysis.
Second, productism: stick to high-quality coffee and freshly roasted coffee beans.
Howard schultz said, "Whether as a parent or an entrepreneur, from the first day, you began to imprint your beliefs on your children or your business, whether you realized it or not.". This sentence is right, which reminds us of Ben Holovitz's famous saying that what you do is what you are. So, what is the "imprint" of Starbucks' products?
At the beginning of his business, howard schultz said, "If we can promote the Italian romantic espresso making skills and freshly roasted coffee beans to the whole country, it is possible to revitalize an ancient commodity and attract thousands of people, just as it strongly attracted me." Therefore, he thinks, just as every company must represent something, "Starbucks represents not only high-quality coffee, but also the deep processing method of baking coffee beans until they are black, which makes the products extraordinary and genuine." Based on this, he emphasized: "Deep roasted, fresh and pure flavor coffee beans are the touchstone of the success or failure of our business, our lifeblood and our spiritual wealth. No matter what we do, we won't buy cheap coffee beans at all. Customers must enjoy high-quality coffee at Starbucks. We will not give up deep roasting or pollute our coffee beans with chemicals and artificial additives. " To sum up, customers can buy the best coffee in the world when they walk into any Starbucks store with respect for the core products. In howard schultz's book, there are two examples that can well verify the above viewpoint.
The first example is 1994, when the world experienced the crisis of coffee bean price increase, Starbucks also suffered for a long time and paid a great price. Howard schultz said that the decision made during this extraordinary period has never deviated from our aim of "providing the best coffee". If we buy relatively cheap coffee beans, we can save millions of dollars a year, and maybe only 10% of our customers can tell the difference. But if we compromise on this principle for higher profits, what will we get? In the end, all customers will find our compromise on quality, so they have no reason to walk a few more blocks to our store. Therefore, he believes that "sacrificing quality for profit can only make Starbucks people lift their heads all their lives, which will be an irreparable regret."
The second example is the story of Starbucks cooperating with United Airlines to provide Starbucks coffee on the plane. Howard schultz said that in order to ensure the quality of coffee, we carefully checked every process-from the ingredient list to the grinding process, and then to the water filtration system. United Airlines' on-board cooking equipment is the best among all airlines, but we found that they want to replace stainless steel utensils with cheaper plastic products. We compared the performance of the two in the cooking test, calculated the solid soluble components in different utensils, and asked them not to do this replacement, and they agreed. In addition, Starbucks also requires training flight attendants of United Airlines not only to know how to cook and keep coffee fresh, but also to know the history and values of Starbucks, so that all flight attendants can answer the relevant questions raised by passengers.
On the persistence of productism, howard schultz said:
Whenever I encounter difficulties in decision-making or corporate bureaucracy prevails, I will go to the founding store of Parker Market. My hand touched the worn wooden counter, grabbed a handful of roasted coffee beans, and let them gently slide through my fingers, leaving a faint oily fragrance. I always remind myself and people around me that we have a responsibility to those who have visited us.
We can innovate, we can rediscover the full potential value of the enterprise, but the principle of Starbucks' high-quality coffee and its freshly roasted raw coffee beans remains unchanged. This is our spiritual property.
Third, clientelism: "Say yes" to the requirements of customers.
The product is for customers, which is no problem. But interestingly, in the growth process of many enterprises, productism often covers up or even defeats consumerism. In other words, some enterprises will eventually fail because they are obsessed with their own products and ignore and ignore the needs of customers, although in reality, the opposite is more common.
At Starbucks, this problem also makes the leadership team continue to struggle. The world's best quality Harraca coffee beans, deep roasted, fresh and pure in flavor, are the capital of Starbucks. The principle that Starbucks pursues has always been to train customers to accept their favorite coffee, which conflicts with the demand of more customers who are "attracted by the name" but "unable to adjust their opinions" during their growth. Therefore, Starbucks has two seemingly contradictory beliefs: one is that they believe that enterprises must build on their most authentic products, which can only be better than what customers want. The other is that they believe in "saying yes" to customers' requirements, and good retailers should break away from convention to meet customers' needs. Howard schultz said, "The two values often collide violently, sometimes even in my own mind.". In the early days of Starbucks, they refused to bargain on some things, such as refusing franchise chain, refusing artificial flavor coffee beans and refusing to sell coffee beans in supermarkets.
It is another Howard who really breaks Starbucks' productism culture and guides it to change to consumerism. Biha initiated it. As the president of Starbucks, Biha pointed out from the beginning that Starbucks pays too much attention to products. Howard schultz said, "This is the most valuable criticism of Starbucks and the harshest statement". Biha put forward two changes. First, he emphasized that "people" are making coffee, and that "people" directly affect the quality of products and services, which is the key to the success or failure of Starbucks, while products are lifeless. Therefore, "those excellent people must be hired", "It's not just individuals who come and go here, it's full of souls." The second change is to further shift to the concept of customer-oriented. Biha believes that Starbucks pays too much attention to the quality of coffee and sometimes ignores customers' preferences. He encouraged his partners to stand out boldly and "say yes" to customers' demands. Biha believes that "as long as it is moral, just and ethical, as long as customers like it, we should do everything".
Howard schultz once thought that Biha's principle was contrary to Starbucks' long-standing tradition. Therefore, he is not only opposed to adding flavored syrup to lattes, but also opposed to adding fat-free or skim milk to coffee. At that time, from the perspective of health and weight, it was a fashion for Americans to avoid drinking whole milk. However, Starbucks still thinks that milk with milk fat is more mellow and will make coffee taste more exciting. It is a perfect match with Starbucks coffee. Therefore, in the history of Starbucks, mentioning fat-free milk even means betrayal, because their goal is to bring authentic Italian espresso to the United States.
Interestingly, the fat-free milk incident actually triggered the biggest debate in Starbucks history: one of the staunchest dogmatists told Biha: "This is not to maintain the quality of coffee, it will make the taste of coffee very poor, and we should stick to our own taste." "Are you crazy?" Biha retorted, "Of course, we must do everything we can to satisfy our guests!" This incident ended when howard schultz went to the store for observation and investigation, and saw a lady who wanted a "double latte with fat-free milk" disappointed and left. He said, "In hindsight, the decision was made without thinking. But at that time, we were really not sure whether this would impact our brand and consistent style ... An Italian would still go to Starbucks to ask for a real cappuccino, but another customer would ask for a fat-free vanilla mocha ... We must make it clear that the customer's requirements are right and it is our duty to give them a variety of choices. " So, in the next few years, "we are getting farther and farther away from the original dogma. In addition to fat-free milk, customers can also ask to add vanilla or raspberry pulp to espresso, and we have also developed special drinks with ice cream flavor and beer with ice. "
Starbucks has come to the conclusion that any product-oriented company must innovate its core products, and it can only do so if it wants its products to succeed rather than just survive. For example, at that time, Intel eliminated a whole generation of personal computers every 18 months and replaced the old products with newly developed Microsoft chips. To solve the narrow thinking of productism, Starbucks has made a lot of efforts to innovate and activate various factors of coffee experience, such as store decoration, commodity configuration, espresso drinks, coffee brewing, jazz music CD, and even introduced immunologists to extract coffee essence. Schultz commented on the "coffee essence", saying that it is far from espresso, which is far from immunology, but not far from the market.
Of course, Starbucks' continuous innovation in products has also been opposed by coffee productists. For example, on the cooperation between Starbucks and Pepsi, "purists in the coffee industry accused us of selling our souls". ?
Fourth, let employees become partners of the company.
Whether it is to build quality products or provide quality services to customers, it is inseparable from employees. In this regard, howard schultz said, "The key is people's heart. I gave my heart to every cup of coffee and Starbucks partners. When customers feel this, they will respond accordingly. " In other words, satisfied employees are the premise of products and customer service.
It's amazing that howard schultz's thinking about employees comes from his father's death. For a long time before, he was born in a poor Jewish family in Brooklyn, and he often argued with his father because he didn't work hard and couldn't take on more family responsibilities. 1988 1 month father died. He said, "That was the saddest day of my life. He has no savings and no pension. Worst of all, he never got extraordinary dignity and meaning from his work. When I was a child, I never thought that I would become the boss of a company one day, but I thought silently in my heart that if I had a good day, I would not let others fall to this point. "
Perhaps, "Don't let others fall into this situation" has become the driving force for howard schultz to keep forging ahead and the initial intention of "being kind to employees". Speaking of Starbucks' care for employees, he said, "If there is anything that I am most proud of, it is the atmosphere of self-confidence and mutual trust among our partners". "For the first time, we have provided all our partners with a wide range of medical insurance, and provided stock options to each of them, even part-time partners. We give more respect to warehouse keepers and newcomers. In other companies, only senior management enjoys such treatment. " These methods, which run counter to the traditional business strategy, make Starbucks partners "deeply proud of their work, and few of them jump ship." Our turnover rate is lower than the average level of general enterprises, which not only saves expenses, but also helps to enhance our contact with customers. " Based on this, Schultz believes that "if people associate themselves with the company they work for, and put their feelings and dreams into it, they will fall in love with it and try to make things better." When employees have self-confidence and dignity, they will make more contributions-for the company, for the family and for the world, although I didn't intend to do it from the beginning. "
The medical plan for employees originated from the death of his father, who "wanted to do something for Starbucks employees to establish this trusting relationship". At that time, the company had not yet made a profit, so he hoped to repay the employees in other ways. At that time, employees once asked that part-time employees also enjoy health benefits, but this request was rejected before. Schultz suggested to the board that medical insurance should cover those part-time employees who work more than 24 hours a week. When Starbucks executives expressed doubts about this, he retorted that on the surface, the cost of the company has increased, but if we can reduce the turnover of personnel, we can save the expenses of training and recruitment. The motion was later approved by the board of directors.
Making employees partners in the company began in 1990 10, which was Starbucks' first profitable year. The core of this work is to launch the stock option plan-"Coffee Bean Stock", which gives corporate shares to every employee in the whole company, and divides them proportionally from the top leadership to the coffee master based on the basic salary. The implementation of this plan has turned all employees of Starbucks into partners. After Starbucks becomes a listed company, their equity is a lot of money. 199 1 In August, Starbucks launched this plan for employees, that is, from that day on, Starbucks stopped using the word "employee" and began to call everyone in the company "partners". Anyone who has worked for the company for more than 6 months is a legal shareholder. Even part-time partners enjoy the same rights as long as they work no less than 20 hours a week.
How to keep alive when the company is getting bigger? How does a company provide an exciting and challenging atmosphere for its employees? This is a long-term consideration of the company after the implementation of the "partnership plan". Schultz said that if this can't be done, Starbucks will eventually become "a mediocre enterprise" and "I am determined not to let this happen".
What should we do? Schultz said that Starbucks' early partners were motivated by the intimate atmosphere and the goal of working together. On that side, how to make 25,000 partners feel intimate with the company now? Starbucks' practice is that their hourly wages are always higher than the average level of the same industry except for giving stock options to their partners, and there is no other example of welfare in the same industry. In addition, Starbucks has drafted a series of clauses to ensure the independent personality and status of its partners, and set up an open forum in response to the "mission review" of its partners, so that the partners can communicate directly with the management.
For example, every autumn, Starbucks will call managers from the United States and Canada to Seattle to hold a leadership team meeting to communicate in large groups and small groups. For another example, every store has an email address called "Starbucks Journal", trying to keep in touch with its partners in retail stores. When there is important news from the company, Schultz will send voice messages to all his partners. Wait a minute.
Of course, Starbucks is not so "doting" on its employees. For example, in 1996, Starbucks "Mission Statement" added a declaration on diversity (Article 2 of the "Declaration" above). This "declaration" puts forward higher requirements for the multidirectional and rich relationship between employees in the company. For example, there used to be a situation in the company, that is, when superiors saw the shortcomings and mistakes of their subordinates, they were often unwilling to point them out frankly, so that their subordinates were greatly shocked when they were finally dismissed. The content of the new manifesto advocates speaking frankly about the shortcomings of partners, so as to make people progress.
V. "Keep your voice"
Corporate culture has made Starbucks and howard schultz, so he regards corporate culture as the company's most valuable resource. "If Starbucks achieves the large-scale expansion, strong sense of existence and awareness we want at the expense of our core values in the next 20 years, I may collapse." Then, how to keep this corporate culture forever, Schultz's answer is: "Keep your own voice".
The answer comes from a talk show he once watched in The Beatles, Paul? Mccartney said about a concert in an open-air stadium, "When those people were screaming at us, it got worse and worse," Paul said. "It's good that they liked us, but we couldn't hear the singing ourselves." So they stopped touring since then.
Howard schultz said, "This sentence touched me deeply" and "really hit my heart". When singers in The Beatles can't hear music, they lose the meaning of making their own music. They can only go back to the recording and find their voice again.
From this, howard schultz thought of Starbucks: When we just want to concentrate on one thing on a certain day, there will always be such trivial things and troubles to spoil the situation, which will always make us unable to concentrate on what we really should do. This situation is like musicians "can't hear music". Therefore, Schultz said, in the development of Starbucks, "if we lose our keenness and sense of responsibility, if we start to feel that we can leave people behind when climbing the peak, I think we are actually losers." No matter how much noise there is around, we must ensure that we can still hear the sound of music. " So he sighed and made up his mind:
In this era of moral vacuum, people are eager for something to touch their hearts. It may be just a movie, a TV program or an evocative cup of coffee, but these are the beautiful sounds in the noisy noise around us.
Every week, 5 million people come to Starbucks, and the queue seems to be just a cup of espresso. When customers visit Starbucks several times a week, they want more than just a cup of coffee, but to get the feeling that this space brings them. Directly related to this feeling is that we don't live in the world like some others, and we don't give up the hope of serving the public in a better way.