Page 191 - The Starbucks Experience

A Final Word

industry. For example, if you run a hospital, you might add
“be compassionate,” or a high-tech firm might wish to
emphasize “be innovative.”
In any case, your guiding tenets need to offer a flexible
structure so that you can implement those values while fos-
tering the special gifts and passions of your people. Just as
leaders at Starbucks help their partners understand that be
welcoming means “offer everyone a sense of belonging,” you
will need to operationally define what your “ways of being”
will generally look like.
Howard Schultz looks to his own experiences to help part-
ners understand what it means to live the Five Ways of Being.
In an interview with Context magazine, Howard reflected on
a positive and unexpected experience that he had after a sushi
dinner in Tokyo. After the meal, Howard went to thank the
176 70-year-old restaurant owner for both his skill in preparing
the sushi and the overall quality of the experience, but the
proprietor couldn’t be found. Howard notes, “It turned out
that [the owner] was waiting out on the street on a cold night,
holding the door to my car open. He didn’t just finish the
meal by bringing us a cup of coffee, as most places do. He
finished the meal by putting me in my car and thanking me
for coming to his restaurant.”
While being interviewed on a popular morning television
program the next day, Howard was less interested in talking
about Starbucks than about telling the story of his dining
experience and mentioning the name of the restaurant. For
Howard, the emotional connection he felt as a customer at
that sushi restaurant was equivalent to what he wants part-
ners to do on a daily basis. Howard went on to ask, “Do we
do it with everyone? No. But that is the intent. We try to
enhance people’s days and make them feel good about being