Category: 
July 12, 2010
It’s Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks
During his many years as a senior executive at Starbucks, Howard Behar helped establish the Starbucks culture, which stresses people over profits. He coached hundreds of leaders at every level and helped the company grow into a world-renowned brand. Now he reveals the ten principles that guided his leadership-and not one of them is about coffee. Behar shows that if you think of your staff as people (not labor costs) they will achieve amazing results. He discusses the importance of building trust, telling hard truths, thinking independently, and more. And he shares inside stories of key turning points for Starbucks, as it fought to hang on to its culture while growing exponentially.
Rating: 
(out of 18 reviews)
List Price: $ 15.00
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Horaayy..there are 5 comment(s) for me so far ;)
Review by Craig Matteson for It’s Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks
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Well, Starbucks has to be about its coffee at some level (and the book admits it on page xiii). For heaven’s sake they sure make a big fuss about it, right? In any case, I am not a real Starbucks customer because I don’t drink coffee, they don’t serve soda, and I think their pastries have no flavor (but they look nice). That being said, I like this book even if it is another in the many books trying to catch some of the glow in the success of Starbucks. Behar at least has the credibility of actually having led a good chunk of the growth.
The book is about getting your core understanding of yourself just right and having people centered values. Howard Behar joined Starbucks in 1989 and was named its President in 1995 and retired in 2003. In this book he lists ten principles and then discusses each in its own chapter (plus an introduction). They are:
1) Know who you are
2) Know why you’re here
3) Think independently
4) Build trust
5) Listen for the truth
6) Be accountable
7) Take action
8) Face challenge
9) Practice leadership
10) Dare to dream
While these seem awfully like light fluffy clouds in a list like this, the chapters do flesh them out in ways that will help you get at why a serious man like Behar believes in them. Really, it comes down to how you work with people. You cannot run a business of any size by yourself and in order to work with people and earn their trust you first have to know something about yourself. Once you have a solid core with serious values you actually live by, you can then reach out and lead others because you are worth following.
This is a helpful and concise book and if you appreciate reading about principles for self-development, this will be a book you enjoy.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
Review by Conor Cunneen for It’s Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks
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The problem with most of the books written about Starbucks is they lack a caffeine jolt! Howard Behar’s book falls into this trap. Yes, it does contain some interesting (though few if any) new nuggets.
The best book on Starbucks continues to be Pour Your Heart Into It by Chairman Howard Schultz who essentially wrote about the same concepts as Behar, but in an interesting and lively manner.
Schultz and Behar are master business people. Schultz is also a masterful, inspirational story teller, as anyone who has seen him give a keynote speech will testify
Behar takes the reader through ten business concepts, all of which make good sense but few of them are illustrated in anything but a general way. Combine this with multiple sub-concepts and you have a book that fails to be a page turner. Some of the concepts are downright trite e.g. celebrate failures, which he admits Starbucks doesn’t do either!
Despite its current problems, Starbucks has done so many things so well that it should be studied by business people. Thus taking any of Behar’s ten concepts and implementing them in your business might well be worth trying. Implement them though with passion which is probably what this book is missing.
Review by Philip R. Heath for It’s Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks
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It’s Not About The Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks by Howard Behar is an excellent book for today’s busy leader. It is easy to read in spurts, but it also goes very quickly. In a mere 165 pages, Behar takes readers on a journey of insight from the time that he spent running the operational side of Starbucks for Howard Shultz. I don’t mean to trivialize Behar’s work, but it all has its root in a simple principle of honesty. He starts the first few chapters by dealing with being honest with oneself first. It meant a lot to me reading about the idea of “Wearing One Hat”. It is tempting for many reasons to try to be something other than what you are in your profession. Knowing what you enjoy and what you stand for sound like simple ideas, but they are harder to follow through on than one might expect. Then he moves on to being honest with others through empowerment, caring, listening, and being accountable. As he says, “Only the truth sounds like the truth.” I’ve experienced listening to a presentation or reading a memo that I know is total nonsense. People can spot a phony almost every time, yet I would love to have a dollar for each occurrence for a single day. I know that I want to work for people who follow the kind of principles that Behar discusses, and that is why I hope that I am able to carry them out as a leader myself. I hope that I can look back on my career and describe similar things when the time comes. You will not be a worse leader for having read this.
Overall: A
Review by David L. Neidert for It’s Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks
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As a leadership author and teacher, I recommend Behar’s work for its challenge to live the idealism of leadership. While Starbucks is less than perfect as an organization [just witness their recent court battles], Behar outlines how he tried to inspire leadership in all ranks of the company. The chapters on mission, personal development, and the complexity of collaboration are important areas for those desiring to become effective in their leadership roles. Too many organizations live subpar–in the “real” world of corporate practice. Behar challenges the reader to live leadership idealism. What a difference it would make in corporate America if some leaders lived out even a few of Behar’s principles. A simple, yet worthwhile read.
Review by Anna Dodonova for It’s Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks
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Silly book! The title says “IT’S NOT ABOUT THE COFFE” when you open the book, the first page will tell you exactly the opposite! Another PR for Starbucks.