Onward

Just finished Howard Schultz's book Onward. Schultz is the founder of Starbucks, built the coffee company into the American fabric of life, stepped away for awhile, and then returned as the CEO when the company began to falter in 2007 and 2008. I know for some folks Starbucks is akin to WalMart- a too big company that pushes independent and smaller mom and pop coffee shops out of business and off of main street. And perhaps there is some truth to this, but after reading this book, the sketical reader will at the minimum come away with a different take on the company. For instance, they certainly aren't WalMart when it comes to what they offer for benefits, including extending health care plans to part time employees. Their efforts to treat coffee farmers fairly and pay them a living wage is commendable as well.

Those who are leaders or in positions of influence, however, probably have the most to gain from reading this book. You get an inside look at how Schultz and his team brought Starbucks back from the brink (at one time, the stock price hovered around $7 and the team feared a takeover; as of this post it is $35) in terms of vision, personnel moves, strategic partnerships as well as partnerships they passed on, new products they brought to market, some they didn't and some products that they took off of the market.

The part of the book that resonated the most with me was the part where Schultz explains his very controversial decision to not disclose what the company's current 'comps' were compared to previous quarters. For Starbucks and other retailers, your comps are what tell you how well (or how bad) you are doing compared to the same point last year (or any other period in time). Starbucks. As Strabucks underwent its transformation, the comps too a beating. As Schultz writes:

But there was an even more important reason that I chose to eliminate comps from our quarterly reporting. They were a dangerous enemy in the battle to transform the company. We’d had almost 200 straight months of positive comps, unheard of momentum in retail. And as we grew at a faster and faster clip during 2006 and 2007, maintaining that positive comp growth history drove poor business decisions that veered us away from our core (90).

When you're in a turnaround situation- or a situation where you're resetting your mission or fighting for your survival- looking at your comps is tempting, but may alter your decision making processes and lure you into making decisions that you think will raise the comps but not be the right decisions.