By way of background, the Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Shultz felt that he should use Starbucks as a platform for race relations after Ferguson and other racial flash points in the past several months. This was executed by the creation of a hashtag (#racetogether) that was meant to spur dialog about race relations.
The problem is Starbucks is a coffee company and their employees are not trained sociologists so the whole effort just came off as self serving and looked to most consumers as a large corporation trying to capitalize off of a current event.
During one of the more embarrassing moments of the campaign the SVP of Communications at Starbucks refused to answer real questions from real minorities, blocked some of the questioners and then deleted his Twitter account. As you could imagine, this effort fell flat on its face amid public ridicule.
According to the Associated Press, the company’s chairman Jim Olson claims the phasing out of the handwritten notes was part of the plan since the beginning of “Race Together.” He also asserted that the changes are not a response to public mockery and outrage over the concept.
Per the AP:
A recently released memo from CEO Howard Schultz says the cups were always “just the catalyst” for a broader conversation, and the company will still hold forum discussions, co-produce special sections in USA TODAY and put more stores in minority communities as part of the Race Together initiative.While there was probably a genuine desire on the part of Schultz to have a positive impact this is a classic example of a company not finding good alignment between core values, people and its messaging. The whole campaign was even parodied in this skit from SNL.
2. I read an article in Fast Company entitled "6 Steps to Being Viewed as More Powerful at Work" and I had the thought that while many of the items on the list are truly effective strategies of being viewed in this way, it begs the question - 'is this truly the objective we should be putting our energy behind?'
