Starbucks doesn't just offer coffee shops.

I often wonder, do we really know how to taste coffee? Does Starbucks coffee taste good? Is it reasonable for a latte or a clear card to cost tens of dollars? The answer may be no, but Starbucks is still successful. Its success lies not only in changing our drinking habits and reshaping our consumption concepts, but more importantly, it has profoundly affected our cultural sense. But how is all this done?

When Howard Schultz founded Starbucks, he made it clear that Starbucks did not only sell coffee, but also provided social gathering services outside of work and life.

This positioning is very good, let Starbucks win at the beginning of differentiation, innovative starting line. As far as the market competition at that time was concerned, drinking coffee and socializing seemed irrelevant, but Starbucks was able to organically combine the two to open up its own business blue ocean. Throughout its history, its management practices have revolved around one purpose: not to run a business selling coffee to customers, but to run a business serving coffee to people.

"People-oriented"_It is not difficult to find that this common concept is also the secret of Starbucks 'business, but Starbucks obviously does it well. As we have seen, from the first warm, well-intentioned welcome you hear when you enter Starbucks, behind every cup of coffee purchased is a refined, personalized service concept that ensures the execution of customer first and human insight. "We're all essentially human." Howard Bihar's words are a revelation.

In Starbucks: It's Not About Coffee, Starbucks 'distinguished vice president notes,"Without people buying, transporting, roasting, and preparing coffee, we wouldn't have Starbucks." The essence of starbucks is: without people, there can be no coffee." During his time at Starbucks, Bihar created and promoted Starbucks '"people-oriented" corporate culture.

The culture itself and Schultz's vision of Starbucks as a "social gathering" are a natural fit. In this sense, Starbucks has a successful DNA that should have been foreseen a long time ago.

As far as this book is concerned, like its title,"It's Not About Coffee," it's actually not about Starbucks. Bihar's 10 principles are based on personal leadership development, or, more precisely, on how to improve management styles to ensure that "people first" is implemented.

Like "know yourself," it's more like a philosophical proposition about "know yourself." It requires constructing goals and pursuits in life by asking who you are, who you want to be, and who you can be. For leaders and for the people they lead, knowing yourself is the first step toward personal excellence and the beginning of putting people first.

Another example is "responding to challenges", Bihar's interpretation is "essentially speaking, we are all human beings first". What do you think?" Biha through the example Starbucks has encountered several difficulties (such as thugs rushed into a branch set fire and killed several employees, etc.) revealed a truth: in those who really adhere to the "people-oriented" great enterprises, employees and customers are equally valuable wealth, from the heart to care for them, understand them, respect them, they will often be grateful to report with the company through thick and thin together glory.

As an effective leader, Bihar provided us with a simple and concrete set of principles. It focuses on personal leadership, but aims at people-oriented management practices.

Now, we can see why Starbucks sells coffee while exporting culture and ideas. There is no doubt that its premise is based on insight and respect for human relationships. It seems that Starbucks has nothing to do with coffee, but it is really more than coffee!

About the author: howard behar joined starbucks as a senior executive in 1989, when starbucks had only 28 stores. He served as executive vice president of Starbucks Sales and Operations, president of Starbucks International, and president of Starbucks North America. He has also been a member of the company's board of directors since 1996. He and his wife, Sean, now live in Seattle, USA.