The experience continues

Reading The Starbucks Experience is a bit like riding the old manually operated giant wheel. The speed and sense of adventure doesn't compare with the latest mechanised roller coasters, but the little joys and pleasures such as waving to people as you go up and down the manual giant wheel are quite different. The Starbucks Experience, just like the manually operated giant wheel, has a slow start, and as you navigate through the five principles that the book is built on, you experience the little anecdotes based on simple pleasures and joys that both employees and customers have experienced during their associations with Starbucks.

It must be said, though, that the book's central premise is quite the opposite of the internal memo sent by Starbucks' Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz that reportedly raised issues of how the Starbucks experience had been watered down over the years. The memo was recently leaked in a website and sent Starbucks' stocks down.

In the book, Joseph A Michelli is convinced that the company's "phenomenal success" stems from its generous HR policies and lively work environment, its attention to detail and genuine concern for social causes. And, to demonstrate this, the author uses real-life stories of Starbucks customers and partners (read: employees) to explain the five principles that he has derived and according to him, these are the tenets that have driven Starbucks' "phenomenal success". The five "simple, yet not simplistic" tenets that he derives are: make it your own; everything that matters; surprise and delight; embrace resistance; and leave your mark.

In his exploration, Michelli first stops at the Green Apron Book that Starbucks management developed as a pamphlet that would fit neatly into a partner's apron pocket. Innovatively developed, the book offers five ways of be-ing""be welcoming, be genuine, be considerate, be knowledgeable and be involved with the customer. This is surely something that is applicable to most businesses, particularly those in the service industry even if the "partners"' do not don the green apron.

The book is short enough to finish in one sitting, but it is definitely not easy to digest the contents in one go. For, in some places, the author's tenets tend to become a little vague. For example, in its attempt to delight customers, the company distributed books on poetry written by authors from the places where coffee comes from""Indonesia, Africa and Latin America for Starbucks. This may not have to be taken so literally. For, some things are just meant to be in the background. They silently assist; they draw no attention to themselves per se.

There are also many narratives that just seem too good to be true. For example, a tea drinker in Michigan goes to Starbucks to have her tea, because for her it is the company's value systems that matters more.

Throughout the book, the author provides several questions to consider under the heading "create your own experience" and tips in the form of "ideas to sip on". Certainly, customer experience is determined more by the people who develop the product or the service, and those who represent the same in the market. Michelli urges the reader to distil the Starbucks experience into a single sentence and then ponder why that has led to the company's success.

Truly, the essence of Starbucks is Howard Schultz's leadership. He is known to be hanging out at two dozen stores a week. He pulls a hat over his eyes and puts on a pair of jeans and hopes he isn't recognised. Often he is; still, it is very different from knowing that Howard Schultz is coming to your store with an entourage of fifteen executives from Seattle.

The company just seems to have grown along with its partners and customers. From building drive-throughs for customers who do not have the time to sit and experience the coffee, to building packages that kept the coffee powder fresh came from customers who pointed out these little nuances to the respective store managers.

Before he closes, Michelli points to the most sensitive topic of today""how to embrace criticism. While a negative column posted by a journalist is usually dismissed as the opinion of an angry journalist, the management of Starbucks willingly participated in a candid self-exploration in response to the column.

The to-do list given by the author towards the end of the book, perhaps, best summarises the whole Starbucks Experience for us. The company's management practices are undeniably innovative and inspiring. Even if most of them aren't directly relevant, there's surely something in this book that's applicable to most businesses today. But, going back to the memo, how do you explain the contradiction between it and what the book says? Only Shultz can answer that.

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The Starbucks Experience

Joseph A Michelli
Tata McGraw-Hill
Price: Rs 299; Pages: 208