Why Starbucks' "Sensitivity training" is Too Little...Too Late

On 29 May 2018, Executive Chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz penned an open letter to customers informing them of store closings to "Discuss how to make Starbucks a place where all people feel welcome."  In 1983, he wrote of his trip to Milan where he saw "cafés and espresso bars on every street." He added, "When I ventured inside I experienced something powerful: a sense of community and human connection" He continues, "I returned home determined to create a similar experience in America—a new ’third place’ between home and work—and build a different kind of company."

The problem with this story is that it is too little...too late and Starbucks' attempt to put a band-aid on a festering wound, in order to sway public opinion, is disingenuous. Starbucks has never been about "community" or inclusion. Whilst they had dominated every street corner, sometimes, right across the street from each other, it was obvious that Starbucks catered to customers and; the bathrooms were off limit to non-customers. Some stores even had key pad access to the bathroom and signs posted discouraging its use by the general public.

In addition, Italy was one of several stomping grounds in my early years. I also lived there for six months. Starbucks is a "glorified" coffee house, similar to Americanised Chinese cuisine or inventions such as General Tso's chicken, Kung Pao chicken, Chop Suey and the fortune cookie. Howard Schultz has built Starbucks on a fantasy, using fancy Italian names for VERY Americanised beverages, then sold the concept to an unsuspecting public who probably never traveled much outside their communities. In the process, he made LOTS of money! He even got credit for creating the "Latte Factor" a term used by Personal Financial author David Bach to explain how much consumers could be saving if they skipped the "latte." To Howard Schultz's credit, he built a global brand and I think even sold Italians on his made-up American coffee beverages.

The issue I take with corporate "apologises" is that it mostly happens when they are caught doing something and publicly called out for it. Of the incident in Philadelphia, he writes, "The incident has prompted us to reflect more deeply on all forms of bias, the role of our stores in communities and our responsibility to ensure that nothing like this happens again at Starbucks. The reflection has led to a long–term commitment to reform systemwide policies, while elevating inclusion and equity in all we do." 

This is what they are planning to do today, "More than 175,000 Starbucks partners (that’s what we call our employees) will be sharing life experiences, hearing from others, listening to experts, reflecting on the realities of bias in our society and talking about how all of us create public spaces where everyone feels like they belong—because they do." THAT'S correct, they are going to just talk about it and express their feelings. Can a training process be more BORING? What's next? Videos on how to treat people of colour?

What Starbucks should have done from the VERY beginning was to get the "right people on the bus and in the right seats," a reference to Jim Collins, "Good to Great."

---