Onward (21 page)

By late Thursday afternoon, the summit's tours, working lunches, and breakout sessions were over. We'd spent three days together talking about reinvention, fine-tuning the Transformation Agenda, and discussing how to execute it at the operational and regional levels. We had also stepped outside ourselves to see great customer experiences in action, and we had heard from two inspiring individuals—Marty Ashby and Bill Strickland—who nurture the human spirit in their own ways. Through jazz. Through social change. By seeing potential in people and giving them opportunities to excel. All in all, it had been an emotional, intellectual journey. Many people in the group were rightly exhausted. Exhilarated, but a bit wiped.

From side conversations I'd had over the three days and snippets of conversation I'd overheard, I sensed that something had taken hold, that most of our people recognized the scope of change required and what they needed to do. My optimism about Starbucks has always come from knowing that when we relegate responsibility to our partners and give them the right tools and resources, they will exceed expectations. After watching our top people work together and embrace our new agenda over the past few days, I felt more optimistic than ever and could only hope that others had been similarly moved and were ready to recommit to Starbucks’ future.

There was only one more thing to do before everyone went home.

I walked back onto the stage, informal in jeans and a dark gray sweater, and took a seat on the first of several red-cushioned chairs. On the seat of the stool to my left, I placed some important papers. Behind me, as a backdrop, was an oversized version of the Transformation Agenda—our Aspiration statement, the Seven Big Moves outline, and the tactics that we would execute—updated with changes from the past few days. I sat back comfortably, rested my forearms on my legs, and clasped my hands in front of me:

When we started here two days ago, I said that the key to all this is to embrace the work that we have done over the years but at the same time recognize the need for constant innovation and to challenge ourselves not to embrace the status quo and push forward.

The pressures of today—economic and competitive, local and regional, national and global—are substantial, and we have to, I think, look within ourselves and try to be different types of leaders and demonstrate a different view of the world than we have in the past.

So, over the last few weeks, when we examined all the things that we wanted to talk to you about these last couple of days, we began to look at a piece of paper that has been in place now for 25 years, and that is the mission statement of Starbucks.

Starbucks’ mission statement had never been just some framed piece of paper posted on our offices’ walls. Perhaps more than any other company, we had for years used our mission as a touchstone to make sure the guiding principles of how we run our business are intact and as a measuring stick for whether or not the company is aligned with its founding purpose, which at the highest level is to inspire and nurture the human spirit. Our mission provided guardrails for the company as we ventured down new roads, and every once in a while we looked in the rearview mirror to make sure we were being consistent.

It was from our mission that we had strayed:

Thinking about the transformation, we came to a consensus that the mission needed to be updated, and updated in a way that would capture the passion we have for the future and the respect we have for the past, but give the people who are with us today as well as new people who will join us in the future a new way to look at the company.

At that very moment, I realized that, of all the people in the room, only one had been with me, with Starbucks, when the original mission statement was written in 1990. Dave Olsen. I always refer to Dave as the conscience of the company, and for more than two decades Dave's pride in and knowledge about our coffee and roasting processes has inspired thousands of partners and customers. Dave lives our mission in every way, the quintessential Starbucks partner.

I was pleased to see his face as the company introduced a new, bolder mission that reflected our heightened ambitions in a world that had changed so much since Dave and I had first begun working together.

I would like to try, in a serious way, to share with you the words that we believe are right for this time: our new mission that will replace the existing one. And I think that when you hear it and read it and live with it for a while, you will agree that the group of people who have been assigned the very important responsibility for rewriting it have done it very well, representing the value and the history and the heritage of the company in a way that is consistent with our past and present, but most importantly the future and where we are going.

I picked up a paper from the chair next to me. “I am going to read to you the overarching theme that will frame the document, and then I'm going to get some help from others.” I stood up and read the first line aloud.

The Starbucks mission: To inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Then, without a cue, a vice president of store design stood up from her chair in the audience and read the next line of the mission statement into a microphone. Her smooth voice filled the room.

Our Coffee: It has always been and will always be about quality. We're passionate about ethically sourcing the finest coffee beans, roasting them with great care, and improving the lives of people who grow them. We care deeply about all of this; our work is never done.

As she sat down, our UK vice president of partner resources stood up
and read the next line aloud in a distinctive Scottish accent.

Our Partners: We're called partners, because it's not just a job, it's our passion. Together, we embrace diversity to create a place where each of us can be ourselves. We always treat each other with respect and dignity. And we hold each other to that standard.

Then, one by one, four more partners stood up, took a microphone, and read aloud.

The president of Asia Pacific:
Our Customers: When we are fully engaged, we connect with, laugh with, and uplift the lives of our customers—even if just for a few moments. Sure, it starts with the promise of a perfectly made beverage, but our work goes far beyond that. It's really about human connection.

The director of marketing for Canada:
Our Stores: When our customers feel this sense of belonging, our stores become a haven, a break from the worries outside, a place where you can meet with friends. It's about enjoyment at the speed of life—sometimes slow and savored, sometimes faster. Always full of humanity.

The vice president of our south-central region in the United States:
Our Neighborhood: Every store is part of a community, and we take our responsibility to be good neighbors seriously. We want to be invited in wherever we do business. We can be a force for positive action—bringing together our partners, customers, and the community to contribute every day. Now we see that our responsibility—and our potential for good—is even larger. The world is looking to Starbucks to set the new standard, yet again. We will lead.

A partner from our Hong Kong field office:
Our Shareholders: We know that as we deliver in each of these areas, we enjoy the kind of success that rewards our shareholders. We are fully accountable to get each of these elements right so that Starbucks—and everyone it touches—can endure and thrive.

I didn't smile as each piece of the mission was being read, but rather listened as if I were hearing it for the first time, pondering this transitional moment in our history. At the end of the reading, I stood up and offered a somber “Thank you.” There was applause, but it was an emotionally subdued moment. I even saw several people crying. We
would not reveal the new mission to the entire company until the timing was right; for now, it had to sink in with our top leaders.

Then, in the back of the room, huge sliding panel walls slowly opened to reveal a scene that no one had expected or knew quite what to make of at first glance. SYPartners had created a remarkable interactive display that took the words we had just heard to another level. “Please, walk through it and enjoy,” I said gesturing toward the back of the room, “and hopefully embrace it, because it is ours.”

People rose from their seats and, with The Beatles’ “Lady Madonna” playing over the speakers, walked curiously toward seven 11-foot-high, three-dimensional displays constructed of stacked cardboard boxes and words in black type that simply yet viscerally represented each of the mission's themes.

For the display representing “Our Partners,” excerpts from letters and e-mails I had received from our people were posted next to a stack of green aprons and photos of baristas working in our stores.

At the “Customers” station, more than 100 grande coffee cups had been attached to the display wall in perfect alignment. On each cup was written a hypothetical moment of connection that anyone might experience over a cup of Starbucks coffee. “I felt like someone understood me,” read the sentiment on one cup. “I worried about the future.” “I came up with an idea for dinner.” “I played peekaboo with a wandering child.” “I wrote a love letter.” These kinds of moments are what Starbucks is all about.

People mulled the larger-than-life displays as if at a museum, talking in hushed voices or silently studying the words. They pulled out cameras and snapped photos. People smiled to themselves.

What happened next was one of the most unexpected and touching events I've ever had at the company. Someone approached and asked me to sign his copy of the new mission statement. Then another person asked. Then another. A line began to form. Rich Nelsen, a regional vice president of the mid-America region, was fourth in line. Behind him was Rossann Williams, a three-year partner who had relocated to Amsterdam from Texas. With all of the requests, I shook hands with and thanked partners old and new. In the end, I must have written my signature on more than 150 mission statements, the entire time somewhat slack-jawed at the emotional display of commitment unfurling in front of me.

Eventually the line ended, the music stopped, and the partners who
remained began filtering out of the room, bound for families, international flights, or rush-hour traffic.

The summit had been a success. I felt it had inspired many of our people, and in the following days I received e-mails that said as much.

Ultimately, the summit helped align our top global leaders around two very important pieces of paper: the Transformation Agenda, which outlined what everyone at Starbucks needed to do, and the mission statement, which reminded us why.

Inside a narrow Starbucks in Tokyo, the store's manager, Mayumi Kitamura, was telling me through a Japanese interpreter about the coffee-tasting parties that her store's partners host for customers who are visually impaired. Twice a year, a group of blind men and women join the baristas to cup coffee and learn about the beans’ origins. Mayumi's colleagues Chihiro Ogawa and Yukiko Fukuda came up with the idea after a blind customer came to the store and mentioned that he only orders drip coffee because that was all he knew to order.

Realizing that their store is located near the Tokyo Metropolitan Welfare Association for the Blind, as well as the Japan Braille Library, Chihiro borrowed a Braille kit from a family member and hand-made a Braille menu, which is kept next to the register for use by customers with sight problems.

I rubbed my thumb across the bumpy card and looked up, shaking my head. Extraordinary. “This is something I wish everyone at Starbucks could experience with me,” I said to half a dozen of our Japanese partners in green aprons who had gathered around the table.

Seven days a week, Starbucks’ partners give of themselves in ways big and small. One of the most touching examples I'd heard of was when Sandie Andersen—a mom, wife, grandma, and Starbucks barista—found out that one of her regular customers, Annamarie Ausnes, was on the kidney transplant list. Sandie went and got herself tested. “I'm a match,” she said, grabbing Annamarie's hand when she came into the store for her daily cup of drip coffee. “And I want to donate to you.” Not long after, the two women checked into Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. The transplant was a success. “Life is just too short not to live it,” Sandie explained when asked about her motivation. “And if I can help someone else do that, then it's a good thing. . . . It is the ultimate human connection.”

Admittedly, the gifts our partners give usually are not organs, but their generosity of spirit comes from the heart. We have store managers who send their own Christmas cards to customers’ homes. Many baristas pen personal notes—”Christina rocks!”—on cups of morning coffee. Our partners’ attitude and actions have such great potential to make our customers
feel
something. Delighted, maybe. Or tickled. Special. Grateful. Connected. Yet the only reason our partners can make our customers feel good is because of how our partners feel about the company. Proud. Inspired. Appreciated. Cared for. Respected. Connected.