Chapter$-10$: Business Case: Serving up Leaders

Here is something to consider: $$35$ million, $5000$ live coffee plants, $1000$ lighting instruments, $120$ speakers,

$21$ projection screens. These are just a few of the $$numbers$$ describing the spectacle known as the

Starbucks Leadership Lab$\mathrm{.}95$ Starbucks invited $9600$ store managers to a conference center in Houston to

be immersed in a massive interactive experience. While there, these managers were steeped in the

Starbucks brand.

Immerse yourself in a leadership experience.

The Leadership Lab was part leadership training and part trade show. The company$$s store managers were

given a behind$-$the$-$scenes look and introduced up close and personal to what makes Starbucks go$$from

an exhibit featuring live coffee shrubs and a drying patio where they could get hands$-$on experience raking

through coffee beans to an enormous exhibit of used shoes with customer experiences noted on cards $($sort

of a $$walk in my shoes$$ theme$).$ Most of these experiences were designed to be instructive for the store

managers. However, in addition, the store managers$$who are on the $$firing line$$ day in and day out$$had

the opportunity to interact with top managers of the company$$s roasting process, blend development, and

customer service functions. Managers also were encouraged to share what they had learned from the

Leadership Lab by stopping at a station lined with laptops.

The lights, the music, and the dramatic presentation were all designed to immerse the store managers in

the Starbucks brand and culture. The goal was to $$mobilize its employees to become brand evangelists.$$

And since presentation is a significant component of what the Starbucks experience is built on$$the sights,

the sounds, the smells$$the entire presentation at the Leadership Lab was well thought out and intentional.

Questions:

$1)$ What role do you think an organization$$s culture plays in how its leaders lead? Relate this to the

story told above.

$2)$ Using the behavioural theories as a guideline, what do you think would be more important to a

Starbucks store manager: focus on task, focus on people, or both? Explain. How might a

Starbucks store manager use situational leadership theory? Path$-$goal theory? Transformational

leadership?

$3)$ Describe the leadership lessons you think Starbucks Leadership Lab provided store managers