Maybe he’s scared of AI and starting to train on skills that are harder to replace by computer, at least in the short term.
Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
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Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#122Ron Johnson used to do this when he headed Apple retail. Would just go into a store totally undercover to the customers (obviously staff would recognize him) and work for a bit. Occasionally fairly major changes, both to the staff side and to the customer experience, were made based on his visits. I don't recall ever seeing a press announcement about it. Saying you're doing it to win brownie points sure makes it seem…
I wonder if he did the same thing at JC Penny when he was running it into the ground.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#123[flagged]
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
to be fair half of what made that funny/awkward is Kylo fishing for compliments. If Narasimhan is chill, it might be less super-awkward. Plus, who knows Narasimhan. This is the first I've heard his name. I wouldn't be surprised if most starbucks counter employees don't know the name of the CEO, much less what he looks like.
It's not really name or face-recognition usually. Execs slumming it in the trenches just speak and listen differently. And they have very specific priorities there that day (it's not "I'm just covering my shift" like everybody else). They stand out, clear as day.
Plus someone involved in the running of the store has to know why there's a highly educated, highly curious 50 year old who doesn't know how to make a latte or work the till added to the crew today, and that person is going to want to make sure everyone is on their best behaviour.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#125SpaceX (at least in my experience) requires design and manufacturing engineers to spend shifts on the production line to make sure there isn't low-hanging fruit in improving either the design or the manufacturing flow. If your manager hears complaints from the production team and you haven't spent some shifts on the floor getting to know the issue personally, you won't be long for the job.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#126If this was not a PR move, but a desire to get a sense for work conditions, real problems, etc, it would not be publicized.
> If this was not a PR move, but a desire to get a sense for work conditions, real problems, etc, it would not be publicized. And it wouldn't work. I don't think a lot of people would be comfortable sharing real complaints with the CEO who parachuted in for a single shift. It will probably end up being a bit of a Potemkin village situation. The shift will probably be filled up with the highest-motivated, most ass-kis…
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Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#127IIRC, Starbucks has a store at their HQ. Hopefully it's not that one.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#128They should pick a barista to be CEO for one day a month.
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#129The only way things like this really work is by not giving any heads up to the store or the store management. Otherwise store management spends a huge amount of time trying to tidy up before “corporate” comes by. At least that was my experience when things like this happened at the fruit stand.
I saw this happen too. Lots of people doing overtime to tidy up the store for when the regional manager came by. I had my hand in a cast at the time in a work related incident, so I only did some menial tasks. The regional manager focused on me for a time, and was extremely frustrated with how slow I was. He proceeded to show me how much quicker he could do those menial tasks with just one hand. It was weird. I feel…
Was his demonstration helpful? Or do you mean that he was only able to do the tasks faster because he was rushing them, or that fast completion of these tasks was not really meaningful to the overall performance of the store?
Re: Starbucks CEO will work a shift at the company’s cafes once a month
#130I recall Amazon used to do something similar. Executives would sometimes take customer service shifts. The goal isn't PR or worker morale - most people see through stunts like that. The real goal is to help leaders better understand their product, its problems, and customer frustrations.
as always, Silicon Valley covered/predicted this https://www.vulture.com/2017/04/silicon-valley-recap-season-...
> “You’re doing what Bob Iger does at Disney!” Jack tells Gavin. “He makes every manager wear the Goofy suit one day out of the year.”