There was a lovely moment in the Acquired podcast episode with Howard Schultz where they discussed the Starbucks mobile app.
Howard’s reflection was that while the mobile app was undoubtedly seductive, the trade-off is that it has significantly hit the Starbucks experience. It replaced that intimate connection between barista and customer with a connection with the app.
There was a moment around then when one of the podcast hosts said – “I look at the mobile app and see which Starbucks around me is accepting mobile orders. If a store isn’t accepting mobile orders, I don’t go there.”
“That breaks my heart.” was Howard’s pithy response.
I was struck by this discussion and reflection. Every growth strategy has trade-offs. I’m sure the numbers from Starbucks’ app made the strategy feel trade-off free. Higher utilization, record usage, and so on.
But the trade-offs existed. And it would have taken a very disciplined and thoughtful team to say no to immediate explosive growth.
It’s just really hard to do.
Every decade has a few breakout hit – ChatGPT, for example, looks to be that business for this decade. Outside of a few other exceptions, you are just doing your best to eke out some respectable set of growth numbers.
And, in the face of those challenges, saying no to something that makes you money is the test of all tests.
Then again, values aren’t values unless they cost us money.
That’s why it is infinitely easier to talk about values than it is to live by them.
