Starbucks’ new CEO, Brian Niccol, revealed the worst advice he has ever received in his professional career. Niccol said that his former boss once asked him to adopt a hardline approach against workers and make an example out of them by demonstrating that he had the ability to fire them as CEO.
Niccol did not name the person who gave him this strange advice but stated he was in a managerial position at the time. The CEO believes that this was poor advice that overly relied on a hardline approach toward the workers.
Instead of firing someone for the sake of it, Niccol believes that companies thrive when everyone works together to find opportunities for mutual success. He stated that he always prefers finding a way to make sure his workers are successful instead of wasting his time finding faults in them.
However, this does not mean that Niccol is a fan of laid-back culture in the corporate world. He emphasized that those who do not work in a competitive environment must face the consequences of their actions.
Niccol’s efforts to publicly denounce such advice show the mindset he brings to the historic coffee chain, which is going through a severe business crisis. He replaced Laxman Narasimhan on September 9 as the leader of the beloved coffee chain after Narasimhan miserably failed to do the job he was expected to do. Narasimhan’s tenure at Starbucks was marred by a massive decline in sales, a rise in politically active investors, and clashes with union workers.
Narasimhan was the hand-picked CEO of Howard Schultz, who served as the head of Starbucks for more than 23 years.
However, Schultz became an outspoken critic of Narasimhan and his administration after seeing the decline of a company he rose to fame. In May, Schultz posted on LinkedIn that Starbucks’ management should improve customer service, sales, and their mobile application to help the company regain its lost glory. He also advised Starbucks to “overhaul” its business strategy. When Narasimhan was forced to resign during a major shakeup at the company, Schultz did not acknowledge Narasimhan’s services but welcomed the new CEO and expressed his confidence in Niccol’s leadership abilities.
Under Narasimhan’s leadership, Starbucks clashed with its union workers multiple times. The workers accused the company of disrespecting its LGBTQ+ employees and preventing them from celebrating Pride Month. Starbucks denied these allegations, claiming that the company did not change its policy about the Pride Month celebration. Both the coffee company and its union workers also initiated legal actions against each other last year when union workers announced their support for Palestine by using the company’s logo and name.
