Leadership - Tough decisions to turn Starbucks around

Here is a gem of an interview with Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks. In this short (3 minute) clip he discusses the difficult decisions he had to make about the business when he returned as CEO, including closing stores and making staff redundant. One of the success stories of the 1990s, Starbucks had grown too big and lacked clear focus. Excellent material to generate discussion on leadership, management, motivation, marketing, strategy, retrenchment and more.

For example, to encourage them to develop and/or improve their skills of application, analysis and evaluation, this clip could also be used as background to role plays (students play role of CEO or affected employees), presentations (to affected stakeholders) or creative tasks (draft a press release or record/storyboard a promotional video explaining the need for action and the future direction of Starbucks).

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