Starbucks is Excellence

January 8, 2012 By 1 Comment

Excellence comes in several containers. One container is the people container and another is the product container. Let’s examine the product container of excellence.

Photograph by Spencer McDonald

A few years back Starbucks was wavering in their direction as a company. I believe Starbucks had always been an excellent business model and given excellence in service to their customers. They simply lost their way on the excellence trail and replaced it with mediocre.

Tall coffee grinders hid the smiling faces of the Starbucks partners. The smell of fresh brewed coffee had been mixed with the smell of high carb food. That Starbucks connection to their customers was losing excellence.

Then… Howard Schultz regained the helm of his prized creation and put the excellence stamp on the brand once more. He lowered the grinders so that the barista could see, smile, and interject with their customers. He fought to keep the food out of the stores so that Starbucks could get back to the roots of excellence as an Italian inspired coffee bar/café.

You can read about the Starbucks transformation back to excellence in the book Onward by Howard Schultz.

All of that was wonderful in regaining excellence in the brand. The one improvement that was the topper for me was the addition of Pike roast to their stores. This blend was much smoother, richer, and something I could drink every day. Starbucks had hit a home run. They had found consistency and excellence in their drip offerings. It was nirvana for me.

What brands have embraced excellence for the benefit of their customers?

Filed Under: excellence, leadership Tagged With: , , ,

One word… FOCUS

January 2, 2012 By 3 Comments

Allow the New Year to bring you a renewed joy for life.

New Years always brings a sense of need for new resolutions. The trouble with resolutions is they are short lived. Usually by the third week in January we are done with those darned resolutions until next year. Then in the New Year regret sets in and we declare one more time our resolutions. Sounds much like insanity.

There is a better way.

That better way is by declaring a commitment to living based upon one single word throughout the year. I discovered this at Grit and Glory. You can read more about living this one word at One Word 365.

For 2012 my word is FOCUS.

I have four intentional focus areas I am declaring and working in for the year. They are as follows:

  • I am committed to intentionally focus on my health and fitness so that I can live without disease, full of energy, and for my family.
  • I intentionally focus on supporting and loving my wife so that our relationship and friendship grows.
  • I will intentionally focus on creating “Visioneers” so that others can design a life that matters for them and their families.
  • I intentionally focus on capturing beautiful images from the Northwest so that others can see and feel what I see through my lens.

These intentions/goals are written as affirmation statements.

  • I am fit and healthy.
  • I love and connect with my wife.
  • I create dreams by visioneering lives that matter.
  • I capture beautiful photographs of the Northwest.

I encourage you to drop the resolution thing and instead do something that feels easier and more powerful… one word.

Invest some time thinking about your word and then make a commitment to share it and act on it. I would love to hear what you selected and how it is going for you throughout the year.

Filed Under: affirmations, excellence, Fitness, inspiration Tagged With: , , ,