Should a company’s CEO use the vast tentacles of the local
retail stores to prompt public discourse on race in America? Even though
improving race relations is a good cause, extending a CEO’s personal influence
beyond the products societally requires its own justification. For a week in
March 2015, baristas at 12,000 Starbucks coffee shops implemented CEO Howard
Schultz’s intent to “spark customer conversation on the topic of race.”[1]
Schultz even made a video in which he told the baristas how they should steer
their respective conversations. If this sounds a bit like George Orwell’s Big
Brother in the novel, 1984, the
question may be whether such societal influence is legitimate from a position
of management in business.
Perhaps Shultz ought to devote some time to figuring out some better places for electric outlets in the stores. The middle-underside of a long table is not so good on knees. Put another way, if the management can't get something as simple as that right, what makes them think they can manage conversations on a controversial issue?
The complete essay is at "Under Starbucks' Star."
