Page 58 - The Starbucks Experience

Make It Your Own

It doesn’t matter what your business is; people want to
make a difference. When leaders encourage involvement and
the sharing of ideas that affect both the business and the
community, the staff is given opportunities to be more
engaged and effective.

Make It Your Own: Five Ways of Being
as a Legacy
The Five Ways of Being and the Green Apron Book reflect
the core values of Starbucks. In many companies, these val-
ues would only be hanging on a plaque at the corporate
office. At Starbucks, however, they come to life. They have
been fully embraced by the leadership team and are well inte-
grated into the Starbucks culture. Starbucks management
understands the importance of leading by example. This can 43
be seen in the very top leadership of the company.
At a retirement party for Orin Smith, outgoing president
and CEO, held at the Starbucks Support Center, Jim Donald,
his replacement, spoke of Orin: “If you look at all the attrib-
utes: be genuine, be welcoming, be considerate, be knowl-
edgeable, be involved . . . that really is Orin Smith, in every
way, in every corner, in every country in which we operate.
The biggest thing we can do for Orin is to continue to build
on his legacy, to make sure that the Five Ways of Being are
alive and well in this building, and that they’re alive and well
as you go out into stores—whether it’s your neighborhood,
it’s in the United States, Canada, or any other country where
we operate. That’s the biggest tribute that we can give Orin.
We must continue to ramp this up.”
Starbucks leadership does ramp up the Make It Your Own
concept at all levels of the organization. This concept is