Learn from Starbucks: Starbucks doesn't just offer coffee shops how to run them.

I often wonder, do we really know how to taste coffee? Does Starbucks coffee have to be good? Is it reasonable to charge dozens of yuan for a latte or clear card? The answer may be no, but Starbucks is still successful. its success lies not only in changing our drinking habits, reshaping our sense of consumption, but also, more importantly, profoundly affecting our cultural touch. But how is all this done?

When Howard Schultz founded Starbucks, he made it clear that Starbucks didn't just sell coffee, it was a place for social gatherings outside of work and life.

This positioning is good, so that Starbucks from the beginning to win in the differential, innovative starting line. In terms of market competition at that time, drinking coffee and socializing seemed irrelevant, but Starbucks was able to combine the two organically to open up its own business blue sea. Looking back at its history, its management practice has always revolved around one purpose: not to run the business of selling coffee to customers, but to run the business of people who provide coffee.

"people-oriented"-it is not difficult to find that this common idea is also the secret of Starbucks, but Starbucks is obviously doing a good job. As we can see, from the beginning of hearing the first ebullient and well-intentioned welcome to Starbucks, behind the purchase of every cup of coffee is meticulous homework and a humanized concept of service. it is the guarantee of the executive power of customer supremacy and insight into human nature. "in essence, we are all just human beings." Howard Beha's remark can be described as revealing the secret.

In Starbucks: nothing to do with Coffee, the meritorious vice president of Starbucks said: "if no one buys, transports, bakes and prepares coffee, we wouldn't have Starbucks. The essence of Starbucks is: without people, there will be no coffee. " When Biha was in charge of Starbucks, he single-handedly created and implemented Starbucks'"people-oriented" corporate culture.

And this culture itself and Schultz's position of Starbucks "social gathering" is like a match made in heaven and link up with each other. In this sense, Starbucks' way of operation has its genes for success, and it should have been foreseen a long time ago.

As far as this book is concerned, like its title, "it has nothing to do with coffee", it has nothing to do with Starbucks. The 10 rules put forward by Biha in his book are based on the practice of personal leadership, or, to be exact, to explore how to improve management style to ensure the implementation of the "people-oriented" concept.

Like "know yourself", this is actually more like a "know yourself" philosophical proposition. What it requires is to construct the goal and pursuit of life by constantly asking who you are, who you want to be, who you can be, and so on. For both leaders and led employees, knowing yourself is the first step towards personal excellence and the beginning of "people-oriented".

Another example is "meeting the Challenge". Biha's interpretation is that "in essence, we are all human beings in the first place." How do you interpret that? Biha revealed a truth by citing several difficulties encountered by Starbucks (such as rioters storming a branch and setting fire to several employees): in those great enterprises that really adhere to "people-oriented", employees are as valuable as customers. Care for them from the heart, understand them, respect them, they will often be grateful to share adversity and glory with the company.

As an effective leader, Biha provides us with a set of simple and concrete principles. It focuses on the improvement of personal leadership, but the goal is to "people-oriented" management practice.

Now, we can understand why Starbucks can export culture and ideas while selling coffee, and there is no doubt that its premise is based on insight and respect for the relationship between people. In this way, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that Starbucks has nothing to do with coffee, but it's really more than just coffee!

About the author: Howard Bihar, who joined Starbucks as a senior executive in 1989, had only 28 stores that year. He has served as Executive Vice President of Starbucks sales and Operations, President of International, and President of Starbucks North America. He has been a member of the company's board of directors since 1996. He and his wife Sen now live in Seattle, USA.

From Sohu net