From the Ground Up by Howard Schultz

Author:Howard Schultz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2019-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

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Back in Seattle, I shared Michael’s insights with Starbucks’ new head of strategy, Matt Ryan, who had recently joined the company from Disney, where he was head of brand management. Matt has a quick intellect and a brisk walk, and prefers a workplace that matches his pace. He’d come to Starbucks to do groundbreaking work, he told me, and wasted no time getting started.

When senior executives join Starbucks, they spend time working in stores. After tying on a green apron, they learn how to make espresso beverages behind the coffee bar, stock the pastry case, and serve customers. During Matt’s store immersion, he had made it a point to get to know his fellow baristas. How old were they? Why did they choose to work at Starbucks? Where were they in their own life journeys? He’d also popped into other Starbucks stores and chatted up our people behind the counter. Listening, Matt picked up a few common threads. A lot of partners had begun college but not finished, or they were enrolled but struggling to balance classes with work.

Their questions to him, about how to get ahead in their own careers, revealed their ambition. If they hadn’t completed their college education, Matt concluded, it wasn’t for lack of trying. His anecdotal observations matched the data from our company-wide survey.

Matt had been in the boardroom the day I called for our leaders to innovate the partner experience. Now, upon hearing about my conversations with Michael Crow, his mind churned with the possibility of a new partner benefit that paved a path to college completion. Our current program only provided partners one thousand dollars toward tuition. Could we find a way to get our full- and part-time partners a degree without significant cost to them, or to the company? Such an employee benefit would be as rare and innovative as providing all employees with healthcare insurance and stock ownership in the 1980s and early 1990s. I gave Matt free rein to figure it out.

He pulled together a three-person team led by Dervala Hanley, another whip-smart partner with an imaginative bent, whose pace could match his own.

Online education immediately intrigued them as a possible solution. Economically, it could be less costly than if students spent four years on a college campus. Without expenses for housing, food, and general living, the prospect of helping partners pay for school was more affordable for Starbucks. Online courses are also accessible anywhere, ideal for a large, nationwide workforce like ours.

As Matt and Dervala investigated ASU, they discovered the school’s established online program offered a wide variety of respected, accredited degrees. And given the relationship I had established with Michael Crow and our like-minded values, ASU seemed a slam-dunk choice as an educational partner.

But as more people got word of our thinking, questions arose. Was online education the best way to go? And if Starbucks affiliated itself with only one school, would partners sign up if they couldn’t choose their academic institution?

The team’s due diligence dispelled some of these concerns.

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