Book Notes: The Starbucks Experience

You knew it had to happen.
There I was in the Borders Bookstore in downtown Santa Cruz trolling the business and marketing aisle when my eye befell a wonderful sight. A real business book about Starbucks! Oh happy day. OK, java jokes aside, I knew it had to happen.

The Starbucks Experience
Some years ago another book about Starbucks hit the shelves but didn’t do so well. This time, McGraw Hill has a winner in The Starbucks Experience: The Five Principles for Turning Ordinary Into Extraordinary by Joseph A Michelli. Michelli, the founder of Lesson of Success and a talk radio host in Denver, Colorado chronicles why when you walk into any Starbucks in the world, the same values are present.

It’s not about the coffee.
Really. It’s about the best example of customer service training I’ve come across since Ken Blanchard’s work in Raving Fans. This is a book that can easily translate to your business. It’s about how to follow the Starbucks model and reach out and into the community where you do business. It’s about seizing growth opportunities even if you’re only a one-man-shop like me.
So what are the five leadership principles that transformed an ordinary coffee shop into an extraordinary religion?

1. Make It Your Own - make your business truly unique
2. Everything Matters - make attention to detail for trademark
3. Surprise and Delight - make it a point to continually surprise and delight your clients
4. Embrace Resistance - make naysayers the rule instead of the exception; they’re good for business
5. Leave Your Mark - make doing it ‘your way’ a good thing and something that will last

What can I say?
It had to happen.

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