From offbeat to bland: how corporate-think ruins a business

A very interesting article from the LA times.

[quote]COFFEE ADDICTS WERE SHAKEN, and stirred, recently when a memo written by Starbucks Corp. founder and Chairman Howard Schultz was posted on the Internet. Noting with a mixture of pride and horror that Starbucks has gone from 1,000 to 13,000 stores in 10 years, Schultz expressed regret over a “series of decisions that, in retrospect, have led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience and what some might call the commoditization of our brand.”

“Some people,” Schultz wrote, “even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee.”[/quote]

[quote] Some people," Schultz wrote, “even call our stores sterile, cookie cutter, no longer reflecting the passion our partners feel about our coffee.”[/quote] Totally true … you’re just a number that buys mediocre coffee and industrial pastry …