The Starbucks Experience

Strip this book of its eye-catching, texturized(!) cover and its subject of Starbucks, and you get a lukewarm read (get it?) It's really a shame, because a book about as big of a success story as Starbucks Coffee should be packed with wittiness and quality rather than excessively enthusiastic adjectives, redundant sentences and self-evident knowledge that is not repackaged in a fresh, clear way. There were simply far too many instances when an entire paragraph could have been revised to be a single sentence. I realize that the book's main aim is to be as accessible to as many as possible, yet it comes at the expense of substance. Furthermore, the best of this book cannot really be credited to the author--the heartwarming stories of the show more Starbucks employees ("partners") transformed my understanding of the company culture, though I still am not a customer of the brand.

I will give credit to the fact that Michelli's five principles are explicitly stated, and the examples he provides have been picked carefully. Nevertheless, (at the expense of sounding too critical,) there are many other authors who write these sorts of business-success books and achieve what Michelli has failed to do. The book's tips can be summarized as "be a good person, show you're a good person, don't compromise your good character and apply these values to your business". In short, I will be keeping my copy because I did learn some things, but it is certainly not because of its literature.

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There is no doubting the success of Starbucks, and Joseph Michelli sets out to identify the principles behind that success in Leading the Starbucks Way. Ultimately, he identifies five driving principles to which he attributes the Company's success: maintaining focus on the product; strive to earn loyalty; respect the identity of the community; be an active part of the community; respect the traditions of the company and its need to evolve. (These are all paraphrased and summarize my take on his principles.)

The book is rich with meaningful examples of the Starbucks way of doing business. The principles Michelli identifies are not just idle conjecture - he shows how Starbucks operates, and how it puts its corporate philosophy into show more practice.

After reading this book, I came away with an understanding of why Starbucks is as successful as it is. Whether the principles that drive this company can be generalized and used effectively by others is another matter, but any good corporate leader would learn a lot about success from this very accessible book. show less

More a love letter to Starbucks than a business book, but somewhat interesting, if you can step away from the excess of laurels heaped upon Starbucks by the author.

I found it was a little too reliant on sporadic quotes and needed more depth and evidence.

Fun read for a minor Starbucks junkie. I liked the customers' stories and how Starbucks reacts.

Enjoyed this look inside Starbucks. Some of my favorite quotes include:
5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary: Make it your own, Everything matters, Surprise & delight, Embrace resistance, Leave your mark
Make It Your Own: 5 Ways of Being: Be welcoming, Be genuine, Be considerate, Be knowledgeable & Be involved.
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." Anne Frank
“workers at all levels must become attuned not only to what their customers are saying but equally to what they aren’t”
"Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language." Dale Carnegie

Summary: Starbucks good. Your business should be like Starbucks.