Is Starbucks’ stuck in the middle?

Thoughts after tag surfing….  A lot of the comments on the Starbucks store closings claim that the 600 closings are driven by location mistakes.  The recent internal memo from Howard Schultz listing the stores to close in July 2008 headlined the “poor real estate decisions” made (story here).  There has been a lot of talk of cannibalization (here) [...]

No surprise that Starbucks is closing more stores than first planned

I’ve always been amazed that the most popular post on Crossderry remains my first post on Starbucks’ attempts to re-invigorate their operations and brand (here).  Unfortunately, as some of my follow-ups on customer service issues hinted (here and here), the turnaround will be slower and more painful than it first appeared. 
In fact, I haven’t been to my local [...]

Confronting Reality using “Emotional Risk Management”

Charles Green’s Trust Matters blog (here) is another HR World Top 100 blog – he focuses on the important of trust in professional relationships (with an emphasis on professional services). 
Here he highlights a simple formula for gaining trust — Name it and Claim it — in challenging situations.  In particular, when you’ve found that there is:
…an elephant [...]

Innovation and Leadership Lessons from Pixar

The McKinsey Quarterly always has some excellent work on-line, even without a premium membership (though you do need to register).  This interview with Brad Bird, a two-time Oscar winning director at Pixar, caught my eye (here).  Three points in particular from both technically challenging projects (The Incredibles) and team turnarounds (The Iron Giant):
When coming up [...]

Starbucks Sunday PM Closing

More on the saga of Starbucks and its renewed commitment to customer service…(earlier posts, here and here). 
My local Starbucks was closed on Sunday PM, apparently to introduce a new refill policy (here).  What was aggravating was that lights were on full blast and it looked open.  Very frustrating to get to the door and see [...]

Starbucks unveils new expresso machine

Before I forget, I want to close the loop on an earlier thread on Starbucks (here and here).  From a news item on Howard Schultz’s unveiling of the new expresso machine (here), it looks like they’re quickly implementing some of the changes hinted at earlier.
More interaction with customers…
Schultz announced the arrival of the Mastrena…about seven [...]

Early returns on Starbucks customer service “upgrade” mixed

We’ve discussed this here and this link is to the Starbucks Gossip blog (if you ever want to know more about Starbucks).  A more ominous possibility is mooted by The Onion here (hat tip to Starbucks Gossip).
My experience has been mixed so far… Day One (Wednesday) was so-so, though I’d never seen this dude before.  [...]

Starbucks customer service boot camp — McDonald’s surge redux?

Jeff Nolan — at one of my favorite blogs  Venture Chronicles – comments here on Howard Schultz closing down Starbucks for customer service re-training.  I wasn’t surprised to hear about this move, considering what Schultz had to say in the memo referenced in this WSJ article. 
Jeff was a bit down on the PR, but I [...]