The Starbucks Experience

Piqued by curiosity, I pickd up the book which highlighted some of the business philosophies that Starbucks held close to their hearts to attain their current global business success. The book summarised the 5 key principles that Starbucks has integrated into their day-to-day operations.
The 5 principles are:
1) Make it your own - where all employees understand busines priorities and look for ways to bring their individual creativity and passion to meet those objectives.
- Be genuine to connect, discover ad respond
- Be welcoming to invite customers back repeatedly
- Be considerate by being mindful of other people's needs
- Be knowledgeable about your products
- Be involved in the community

2) Everything matters - retail is detail
- Missed details and lose customers
- A small detail is the difference between success and failure
- Important details lie in what can be seen or unseen by the customers
- Ask customers what details they notice
- Details affect emotional connection
- Acknowledge, celebrate and play
- Everyone matters

3) Surprise and delight
- Nowadays. consumers expected to be dazzled
- The most effective events are natural and spontaneous
- Surprise can be as simple as offering guidance
- When breakdown occurs, businesses can still surprise by making things right

4) Embrace resistance
- To work with resistance effectively, you must distinguish between people who have a concern to be resolved and those who just want to complain
- When the concerns of critics are addressed, they can be your strongest supporters
- It is critical to correct misinformation immediately
- When errors are made, deal with them effectively and directly

5) Leave your mark - on communities
- Be good corporate citizen
- Employee morale can be enhanced in a socially conscious organisation

There are many anecdotes in the book to illustrate the gist of the principles. I was really inspired by the extra mile of the company and the corporate social responsibility undertaken by Starbucks' management. I am not a strong supporter of Starbucks as I normally get my caffeine fix with instant coffee or coffee shop's coffee. Moreover, I have not seem to seen some of the passion described in the book in the local Starbucks' outlet. However, I am certainly filled with anticipation of what I will see in the Starbucks' outlet when I next pop by.