Reference no: EM133214805

Assignment:

Here is something to consider: $35 million, 5000 live coffee plants, 1000 lighting instruments, 120 speakers, 21 projection screens. These are just a few of the "numbers" describing the spectacle known as the Starbucks Leadership Lab.95 Starbucks invited 9600 store managers to a conference center in Houston to be immersed in a massive interactive experience. While there, these managers were steeped in the Starbucks brand.

Immerse yourself in a leadership experience.

The Leadership Lab was part leadership training and part trade show. The company's store managers were given a behind-the-scenes look and introduced up close and personal to what makes Starbucks go-from an exhibit featuring live coffee shrubs and a drying patio where they could get hands-on experience raking through coffee beans to an enormous exhibit of used shoes with customer experiences noted on cards (sort of a "walk in my shoes" theme). Most of these experiences were designed to be instructive for the store managers. However, in addition, the store managers-who are on the "firing line" day in and day out-had the opportunity to interact with top managers of the company's roasting process, blend development, and customer service functions. Managers also were encouraged to share what they had learned from the Leadership Lab by stopping at a station lined with laptops.

The lights, the music, and the dramatic presentation were all designed to immerse the store managers in the Starbucks brand and culture. The goal was to "mobilize its employees to become brand evangelists." And since presentation is a significant component of what the Starbucks experience is built on-the sights, the sounds, the smells-the entire presentation at the Leadership Lab was well thought out and intentional.

Question:

1) What role do you think an organization's culture plays in how its leaders lead? Relate this to the story told above.

2) Using the behavioural theories as a guideline, what do you think would be more important to a Starbucks store manager: focus on task, focus on people, or both? Explain. How might a Starbucks store manager use situational leadership theory? Path-goal theory? Transformational leadership?

3) Describe the leadership lessons you think Starbucks Leadership Lab provided store managers.