[Reflection #3] Let it go—Embracing and Energizing in Starbucks

The key strategy that the chapter 9 to chapter 12 of Groundswell bring to us can be condensed into "Let it go", which is reflected by the objectives applied in not only customers but also employees.   "Let it go" doesn't mean let everything out of control, but means that let customers' ideas spark and keep employees active on the company's intranet. Great examples on embracing customers include salesforce.com, which launched IdeaExchange and invited customers to spark and prioritize ideas; Loblaw, a Canadian grocery store that has a highly visible feedback mechanism; and Adobe, which used sweepstakes drawings to drive followers on Twitter to surveys and embraced their ideas.  In terms of the groundswell inside companies—employees, companies like Best Buy, Razorfish, and Bell Canada all nurture internal groundswell by building wikis, improving connections and creating opportunities to support each other.  The main reason for their success is the confirmation and engagement of the management.

Starbucks built a unique site for collecting innovative ideas from customers and employees. IdeasStarbucks is a place where anyone could submit his or her ideas for Starbucks, ideas ranging from an improvement to existing to a request to bring back a product.  Advantages of this tool are obvious.  Thoughts coming from customers and employees could direct Starbucks where to improve and what to concern in its future development.  Unlike what Salesforce.com created, this tool for embracing the groundswell cannot prioritize ideas itself, though the submission page has categories for contributors to choose before submitting, there is still a lot of work for people working on this.  Lessons can be learned from Salesforce.com that letting customers vote and prioritize ideas for businesses makes innovation faster than ever.  Overall, Starbucks still did an excellent job since it won the name "One of the most innovative companies" by Fast Company in 2018.

Starbucks' Valerie O'Neil talking about employee Engagement in Starbucks:

Starbucks values its employees in many ways in which helping employees to earn their degrees shines.  Starbucks's efforts on engaging its employees—StarbucksPartners, are showing on social media platforms like Twitter and Snapchat.  On these two platforms, Starbucks set separate accounts for existing employees and potential employees as well.  From its daily tweets and posts, we could see Starbucks was trying to energize its partners and stimulate word of mouth.  For example, in the tweet of Starbucks Partners "Calling all future Barista Champions", a photo showing happiness and a sense of achievement was released, commented with "I miss being a partner every single day! Bring Starbucks to Messana, NY!"  That comment is similar to the posts on blueshirtnation.com by Ashley Hemsath, one of the blueshirts workers in Best Buy, expressing her love and loyalty to her company.  There're also other posts like sharing in-store creative artworks by partners and conveying gratitude to employees contributing ideas.  Those contents encourage existing employees and tell job hunters how much Starbucks values employees.

Different from strategies in the groundswell outside of companies, objectives could blend when it comes to making connections and boosting communications among employees.  In such case, Starbucks could consider providing inside platforms for employees to get in touch and help each other.  The Case of Razorfish tells us how to let employees collaborate a wiki that educates the management and helps themselves as well. The case of Bell Canada shows us how to corral and pick valuable ideas via a TV show.  Such strategies let employees make the difference and let the management see top ideas.  Though Starbucks has already done a great job, it can do better by learning from such cases.  However, as what is described in Groundswell, coerce never works.  The management should let the company be ready for intranet collaboration and not be afraid of failing.  Original works are always skunk, but if the management actively participates in it, the inside groundswell would themselves improve the tool for a better experience.