Starbucks - The Missing Three Hours

Caribou should have seen a little spike for three hours yesterday afternoon as thousands of Starbucks customers were forced to drive down the road to order "grandes" instead of "ventis." Can you communicate the importance of "we'd rather not do business at all than not do business right" by closing your doors to your customers in order to do training?

Jon writes to explain the logic behind Starbucks' marketing decision: Howard Schultz wants everyone to know he has "retaken" the company and is behind this move. They are reigning in growth in the States in favor of more overseas expansion which could make more sense. Building more stores doesn't mean people will stop in more times in a day for coffee just because they pass five more stores on their ride home.

They grew too fast, took business away from established stores, caused managers to miss their bonuses (because of the cannibalization) and created some unhappy baristas. It looks like they are going back to their "happy place" of what makes Starbucks what it really is; a company that is 100% coffee. To wit, they just got rid of their expanded food program. Customers don't go to Starbucks for a salad and sandwich, they go there for a latte and a scone.

It's clearly a great company that had the right marketing going, but got too big and drifted away from their roots and their niche of what they do THE BEST IN THE WORLD. If they get back to what made them great, they'll be fine. An anchor on FoxNews was just ripping on customer service and how it took ten minutes to get a latte. That's not good. You pay $5 for a latte that is made fast, well and with a dash of coffee attitude. Today's closing is for that reason. Back to basics!

Thanks Jon - great lesson here for all of us.

Marketing Darwin and Ben Stein

Thirty years ago, we remembered this as Abraham Lincoln's birthday and every year we cut out silhouettes of the president who guided us through one of our nation's most troubled times. Now the 12th of February is being marketed as "Darwin Day" by several groups in the US, such as PETA.

I have a wonderful dog (boxer) and of course I view dogs as far superior to cats, but I have a tough time grasping PETA president Ingrid Newkirk's claim that "A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy." (In fact, I have to wonder if she has ever had a dog.) There are at least a few, like the author Aldous Huxley in "Ends and Means," who admit that they embrace this kind of worldview without any deeper meaning, "because it frees me to my own...pursuits."

But not former presidential speechwriter (and game show host, lawyer, professor, etc.) Ben Stein. The trailer for his new movie "Expelled" came out today, not coincidentally. An interesting new/old challenge for the 21st century's egalitarian claims in the marketplace of ideas. Every generation has its rebel - see what you think.

Video on Demand and a Worthy Competitor (Redbox)

Have an opinion on downloadable video? With the introduction of Apple's online video offering, Techdirt is running a poll for market input on how Netflix stacks up against the iPod company's foray into the growing market.

In the world of physical DVD's, the innovative folks at Redbox have offered to give you a free rental just to try them out. You can find their kiosks all over, from Walgreen's to Wal-Mart (parent company: McDonald's Ventures). As of late last year, they had over 6000 locations - more than Blockbuster - and you can return the disc at a different location than you rented it with no penalty.

Best thing about the Redbox business model - every rental is $1/night. Can't beat it - except free, which you can get by entering "dvdonme" when you check out.

Measuring Leadership

Leadership is a topic I'm fascinated by - and I am intrigued by the ways it is measured both commonly and at a higher level. I'm enjoying re-reading Maxwell's book on leadership's 21 irrefutable laws at the moment with a group of friends and would recommend his organization highly.

Different people view leadership as distinctly as any other thing in my experience. I remember sitting on a conference call where a silver-fringed senior manager bristled back at the voice on the phone with a vicious, "what do you mean exactly by servant-leadership?!" She obviously saw it differently than Tom Peters does.

My friend Eric Lannert at i.c. stars wrote recently about the difficulty in quantifying leadership in his non-profit organization. He says for-profits have it easy. Thanks a lot Eric!

The Internet Voter

In the building swirl of issues and debates, you may be wondering just which candidates you might want to vote for. Wouldn't it would be helpful to have a guide to some of the key financial, moral and foreign affairs issues (as well as noting how key they are to you) like immigration, Iraq and definition or marriage along with the relative positions of the candidates? Enter my politically savvy friend Tony who sends us this fourteen-question virtual voter quiz to a sort of online candidate dating service to help sort things out. Try it - it may not be give you the result you expect...

12 Questions with Sharon Taylor on ITIL V3

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which has become the best-practices standard in managing technology, has just come through a much-anticipated revision ("refresh") which effectively transforms it into a new kind of animal. I had the opportunity to talk with ITIL's key contributor Sharon Taylor about the impact of the new version and how it changes the best-practice landscape and the role it now plays in the business of technology. Here's a link to the interview in TechRepublic magazine. Feel free to digg, vote, forward...

Character in Advertising

A friend of mine thought this ad from Hyundai was unusual enough to point out its decidedly narrow-appeal message in a society where commitment isn't trendy. I think so too - interesting angle for a car company.

The more democratic our society, the more its success depends on our collective character. And on keeping our commitments.

Spheres of Influence

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday! As we get closer to the end of the year and looking back on what was important in 2007, it's certainly the relationships and interactions that are at the top of the list. Especially the ones where we made a difference to someone.

Spheres of influence are being highlighted by the growth in the number and varieties of online social networking mediums. The emphasis for most of these is mainly on breadth rather than depth - lots of superficiality: a mile wide and an inch deep.

Other influence is laser-focused. Take Tony Dungy's story. After his son committed suicide he said he was not going to continue with his career. A friend asked him if, knowing where his son was when he was living and where he is now, he would want to bring him back. After considering this awhile, he decided he really wouldn't do that and was able to return to football and ultimately bring the Colts to their Super Bowl win last year. I would trade that kind of positive influence in someone's life for a record-breaking Facebook network any day.

Most of the time it's more a matter of being ready for the opportunity than seeking it out. The genuineness and spontaneity are hard to fake. Here's a clip of a 13-year old whose influence would be tough to match. I hope we all see our opportunities for real influence in the new year.

Christmas Booklist

Here's a list of books that are on my Christmas wishlist - send me your own recommendations.

Anti-Christmas Entertainment

The battle lines of Merry Christmas vs. Happy Snow Season are being drawn up earlier each year. "The Golden Compass" rolls out with its story for children "about killing God" according to author Philip Pullman in a neo-Nietzsche quip.

But on the other hand there's Mitt Romney saying there's room for religion still/again in politics. And Oxford philosophy professor and distinguished atheist Antony Flew has just come out with his long move toward faith with the long title, "There is a God - How The World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind."

Abel's lamb was for a man. The passover lamb was for a family. The lamb on the temple altar was for a nation. The Lamb on the cross was for all of us. The world is flat - as of 2000 years ago.

- link to 24-hour Christmas music on your PC

Pleasure to burn...

Do people ever ask you what you think of television? Not of "24" or MTV or The Antiques Road Show, but television itself. Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man,...) said this:

The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little.

His assessment of the internet is a bit more optimistic: "Well, I hope it's an experiment that works." Here's the whole clip: Bradbury on the internet

The i.c. stars Technology "Boot Camp"

Here's a recent article from the Tribune about a technology training program in Chicago I'm proud to be a part of called i.c. stars.

Thankful

Are you thankful today? Of course you are. "If you've got three or more TV's in your house, you're richer than 95.4% of the world; if you've got two refrigerators, you're richer than... etc."

Are you humble today? (Be careful - as soon as you take any pride in it, you're not humble anymore!) I think these two are hard to separate. It's hard to be proud and thankful.

It seems to me there are three areas where we are most often thankful. There are probably more but to keep it simple let's say we're thankful for things, people and ideas.

We have a lot of great stuff that improves the quality of our daily lives, no question about it. And of course a lot of that is recent technology that makes us more fortunate than those before us. Beyond that, we know we should be thankful for our relationships. Pop stars are thankful for their fans, authors are thankful for people who buy their books, athletes are thankful for season ticket holders and bloggers are just happy for people's attention.

At another level, we are thankful for the bigger things -- the goodness in the world. Freedom, for example. The freedom to do what we should (and not necessarily what we want to) do is a true cause for thanks. Things like mercy and kindness, hope and forgiveness. To me, these are the things we need to be more thankful for. And only when we are humble enough to realize we don't deserve them can we be truly thankful for them. And that true thankfulness motivates us to give them to others.

In just a few lines I hope this is an encouragement to you. A friend of mine, Josh, expresses it better talking about his own genuine thankfulness in spite of circumstances in his iTunes download here.

Persistence

Are you persistent?

Really persistent when you believe in something?

More persistent than the other guys?

Watch the difference in the responses of these two division 3 college teams as the play gets more and more incredible.

On Giving Thanks

At the risk of recommending something that those who are inclined to appreciate already know about (because it's been out for awhile now)... I was picking some music out for Thanksgiving and came across Chip Davis' Holiday Musik from 1996. If you like this one, there's a #2 album also, but this one is the best, imho. In an era of specific, splintered, niche collections on your iPod, this is one everyone should have. Pop it in your playlist and see if it helps you to think of things you're thankful for.

And to start things off, find someone who is a veteran today and thank them for their part in our continuing freedoms in the most free nation on this earth. Lots of great people, our veterans. People who know how much something costs always appreciate it more.

Technology in Vancouver

I visited Vancouver, British Columbia for the first time last week at a conference -- what a beautiful city! Just over the border, things are familiar enough but have a European air about them. You know you're not in Iowa (no offense, I love Iowa). BC and Canada in general seem to have a larger share of long-haired men, demure women, cigarette smokers and panhandlers. Vancouver is bustling with construction projects everywhere.

And payphones. Hard to figure out why, unless they are subsidized by the government. There seems to be a Telus payphone every couple blocks while in the states the only one I can remember seeing recently is the one in the basement of the library.

Here are some photos and I recommend it as a place to visit - be sure to see Stanley Park and Granville Island, formerly an industrial park now converted to a quaint shopping area. The photo with the two gentlemen is of Doug Mueller, the father of the top-rated Remedy Service Desk and our presenter Marc Thames, who spoke to a packed out Friday morning session on the difference between asset and configuration management.

MTV Nation

Wow - a friend of mine sent me this poem recently. I don't read enough poetry, but I found this incredibly powerful. It's the long version of "no rest for the weary/wicked." One cursory note that occurs to me as I read it is how shallow and banal television has become by contrast - perpetual desperation for least-common-denominator appeal.

Unless you're in the mindset of watching "my show" at a certain time of day, TV can only become more obsolete. Some of the last hurrahs are in tivo-ing out commercials, growing screen size and quality -- 90" plasma, HD, etc., but as the web becomes more compatible with this technology and video takes an increasing foothold, more televisions will be out on the sidewalk each week.

Even with MTV...

Warning: It's not a single-read. At least it wasn't for me.

THE PULLEY.

WHEN God at first made man,
Having a glasse of blessings standing by ;
Let us (said he) poure on him all we can :
Let the worlds riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way ;
Then beautie flow’d, then wisdome, honour, pleasure :
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone, of all his treasure,
Rest in the bottome lay.

For if I should (said he)
Bestow this jewell also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts in stead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature :
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlesnesse :
Let him be rich and wearie, that at least,
If goodnesse leade him not, yet wearinesse
May tosse him to my breast.

George Herbert

Intentional Obfuscation

Marketing should be clear, focused, unobfuscated... Why would you want to confuse your audience about what you are selling?

When you want to sell on impulse and not confuse with the details.

There's a particularly ambiguous commercial that comes up and I've tried to pick out any clue of what it is about before the final seconds -- party supplies? dance lessons? a nightclub? No, it's the Illinois Lottery.

It makes me think they don't really want you to think about what it is they're selling, i.e. casinos double the rate of gambling addiction within 50 miles. For every dollar of gambling revenue the state takes in, there are 3 dollars in social costs. The top state for suicide, divorce, gambling addiction and men killing women is Nevada. (Those aren't in the commercial - btw.)

But how else can we pay to educate our children and grandchildren? It sure does look like a great party for the first 25 seconds.

A Moment of Silence

One quiet minute. Controversial? You bet.

As of today Chicago schools are mandating a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day. As in "stop talking." By a vote of 74-37, the house joined the senate in an override of the governor's veto(!) Does it seem at all ironic that this is a point of contention in government-run pedagogy?

The problem? You guessed it -- those kids might be tempted to do some praying or other contemplative activity on government time.

I'm not going to talk about "back when I was in school" because of course before the internet the world was a different place, but suffice it to say my chums and I wouldn't have thought a requirement to be quiet would ever be a shocker. The plan's opponents focus on the testy move from "you can" to "you will."

Our media culture makes a business of bandying about the offensiveness of exactly how casual we can be in speaking to both the vulgar and the divine. But the offensiveness of not speaking for a minute?

Mayor Daley came through in great form: "I believe we always have to move forward." Write it down.

Simplicissimus

I like simplicity. There's undeniable value in being overprecise and overconcise, especially in communicating something complex. Not because the people you're talking to are simple or can’t understand complex thoughts, but because there’s a true beauty in being able to communicate succinctly and well in efficient terms.

In English, the word “simple” doesn’t really lend itself to any convenient philological breakdown. In German on the other hand (where a refrigerator is a cool-cabinet and a glove is a hand-shoe), the word simple – einfach – means one thing, one subject, one stuff something is made of. When you want to keep something simple, keep it uncluttered. Find your main idea and stick to it.

When you see the single swoosh stripe on Jorge Posada’s chest and knee protectors (the only player without any other insignia showing) every time the camera zooms in at a Yankees game, you don’t have to know the Nike corporate vision or the layers in their marketing strategy. It’s just that simple statement of quiet strength and athletic style. The fact that you have so much in so little makes it all the more powerful.

As you're getting together your next presentation and see all that verbiage in your slides, think of Hamlet’s response to Polonius about "the matter that you read." "Words, words, words.” Cut out a few. Make the font readable from the back row. Speak your presentation instead of using it as a prompt. Your audience should want a copy of your notes, not your slides.