The Future of Starbucks

Howard Schultz recently retired as the CEO and President, of Starbucks, the coffee producer and distributer in Seattle. For nearly thirty years Schultz led Starbucks’ growth from a small chain of coffee shop in the Pacific northwest to an international corporate behemoth with more than 28,000 shops in 77 countries producing net revenues of $22.4 billion in 2017.

Bryant Simon observed in his book “Everything But the Coffee”, that Starbucks customers believed because of their grande lattes—that they were “cooler, richer, and more sophisticated” than non-Starbucks coffee drinkers.  As long “as Starbucks customers could get all of this for the price of a cut of coffee, even an inflated one, they eagerly handed over their money, three and four dollars at a clip.”

One might think that Schultz’ successor to this empire would be facing a “slam-dunk” future in the coffee business, but one would be wrong. Today, Starbucks faces declining sales, a problem with social issues in many locations, and difficult choices in planning the opening of new locations and closing existing, under-producing stores.  Starbucks must find ways to continue to satisfy its legacy customers while also developing new product offerings to attract new customers into its 28,00 stores world-wide.

As I listened to this story, I thought of the Episcopal Church. A long-time successful “brand” in the Christian Church marketplace, the Episcopal Church struggles to continue to offer the style of worship that appeals to its legacy member base, and to attract new, young congregants to its wide network of churches. In addition, too many churches were built in areas that are no longer supportive of their multi-church presence. Arlington (Fla) is a good example with five or more Episcopal churches located in a five-mile radius.

Unlike Starbucks, however, the Episcopal Church has a superior CEO and President who always has a plan for his church. It doesn’t take much to see that God is firmly in control of God’s church and will never let it fail if we continue in our mission to bring all people into discipleship of Jesus Christ.

We may change—shrink and expand—but failure is not an option.