Leadership Aspects of Starbucks: A Case Study of Kevin Johnson's Leadership Style

This report explores the leadership aspects of Starbucks, focusing on Kevin Johnson's leadership style. It discusses servant leadership, challenges, and the strong personal brand of Kevin Johnson as a global leader. The report also provides recommendations to build on current success and maintain Starbucks' sustainability and competitive advantage.

Leading Business
Organisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Servant Leadership Style-............................................................................................................3
Kevin Johnson's Leadership Style- .............................................................................................4
Strong personal brand of Kevin Johnson as a global leader-.......................................................6
Recommendation to build on current success and maintain Starbucks' sustainability and
competitive Advantage- ..............................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION- ...........................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
This report includes leadership aspects of Starbucks, which is a coffee company and
American coffee house chain. This report includes details and style of leadership of Kevin
Johnson, CEO of Starbucks and past CEO of Starbucks and evaluate how leadership of both
leaders affected Starbucks and its business. Both CEO's of Starbucks share same goals for the
company but their approach to achieve them is different and Kevin Johnson have a more
disciplined approach (Mason, Cole and Goza, 2017). Current CEO focused on ethical aspect of
the company that customers should be served nutritious food and drinks. Then report also
includes perspective of management and employees about working in and working for company.
Servant Leadership Style-
A philosophy of leadership in which individuals interact with each other and leaders
include everyone's opinion while making decision. Aim of this leadership is to achieve authority
rather than power. This is present in decentralised organisation. These leaders look after well
being of all who are around them and exhibit characteristics like empathy, commitment to
growth of self and those around them (Seto and Sarros, 2016). These leaders are concerned about
fulfilling wants and requirements of others and considering themselves as servants. These leaders
also encourage others to look for others requirements rather than personal gains. Servant leaders
share powers with others in various forms including delegation of authority and involving
subordinates in decision making. Servant leaders possess some qualities that are valuing opinion
of others, building a culture of trust., developing others and leadership in them, helping everyone
even with their personal issues, motivate and guiding rather than commanding. Servant leaders
believing in leading through involvement of everyone rather than commanding what to do and
how to do. That are most likely to be trusted by employees and other stake holders of
organisation.
There are various challenges associated with this style of leadership, they are as follows-
Reduce motivation of employees- Employees tend to work faster and better when they
know that they are answerable to strict leader. In servant leadership leaders are not strict but very
patience and kind towards employees so employees can take them for granted. This can give
hard time to leaders (Burch, Swails and Mills, 2015). In a volatile environment of organisation
where employees are required to be always ready to change themselves according to

requirements of market. Servant leaders can be effective as other traditional leaders to convince
employees to change their motives and work techniques as per changing environment.
Reduced Managerial Authority- When employees see their manager catering their
needs, managers start loosing their authority in a sense that employees may avoid orders given
by managers. ambiguous environment can make it more complex that leaders get overheard and
employees do not know what they are required to do. This will impact productivity and
performance of organisation in a negative manner.
Doesn't fit every business- this leadership style cannot be adopted by every organisation
specially those who are very keen to achieve their goals and objectives on time. As this
leadership style takes time to develop (Fields, Thompson and Hawkins, 2015). Uncertain
business environment does not allow to take much time than what is actually required to perform
activities. Those business whose nature is uncertain cannot adopt this leadership style. Because it
will make it difficult for servant leaders to implement and process all the changes fast in
organisation.
Involvement is not always feasible- In a complex environment involvement of
employees is not always feasible. Managers most of the time needs to decide everything on their
own and cannot include employees in decision making because it may increase chances of
increasing complexity. Which in servant leadership is not possible as this requires to include
employees in decision making. Sometimes quick decision making is also essential in case of
uncertain environment which is also not possible in servant leadership.
Kevin Johnson's Leadership Style-
Servant leadership which is required for a company like Starbucks because of having a
legacy of human connections. Kevin Johnson from 2017 onwards looking after operations of
globally operating Coffee company with a holistic approach of leadership which is recognised as
Servant leadership (Laub, 2018). Kevin Johnson being a servant leadership has always been
liked by everyone including employees and other stake holders of the company. Kevin Johnson's
more discipline approach in financial aspect have helped company to improve financial position
financial management is key success factor which needs to be proper and effective in order to
bring desired results and achieve financial goals in terms of increased profit and reduces cost.
Kevin Johnson tested returns in more disciplined way before opening new stores. Kevin Johnson
also decided to close stores which were underperforming as a measure to improve company's

financial situation and save it from loss, this clearly shows that changes that were brought by
Kevin Johnson's were on the basis of appreciative inquiry. In addition his contribution for
improving company image which needed to sacrifice ego and come out with more humility about
racial-bias also made him more likeable also his strategic thinking brought Starbucks out of a
situation where company started to miss its targets. This situation needed more innovation and
ethical consideration which was focused by Kevin Johnson. Ethics which are a factor that were
focused by Kevin Johnson while changing organisation and in present day scenario innovation is
also a key factor and force for success. His ethical consideration for company and its operation
included making customers informed and improved nutritional choices (van Dierendonck and
Patterson, 2018). Customers can make choice as per their test from 80000 available mix. It also
led to reduce added sugar in drinks and food items which is unhealthy and emphasis its menu on
how to go lighter. It is completely transfer with customers about what nutrition they are having
and also showing nutritious value of its offering on website, menu board and display board.
Other ethical consideration by Kevin Johnson was when 2 black men were at Starbucks and got
arrested on the basis of suspicion of one staff member and were later released. They recorded
video which went viral with message of boycottstarbucks, after this incident Kevin Johnson
apologised for this from his social media account. Later also to give education about racial-bias
Kevin Johnson announced closing of Starbucks coffee company to educate 175000 employees
and other on-boarding employees. That video also shared motive and technique and attention of
Kevin Johnson to remove racial-bias, specially in Starbucks. Views of current and former
employees were recorded about working at Starbucks and their views were not at all good. They
all in some way or other not happy working at Starbucks. Employees have issues like under
staffing, low pay, work overload. It seems that here appeal of Starbucks of human connection is
not right. Companies should make connection with its employees. This can be done through
paying them fair pay, adequate work load and providing required stuff to facilitate their working.
Here Kevin Johnson's leadership does not seem effective specially when it is claimed that he is
an servant leader. In such case leadership is working everywhere but not where it is supposed to
work best. Main focus of servant leadership remains on employees and people and to look after
their well being is main characteristic of this leadership but in case of Kevin Johnson it is not
same and their leadership seems to fail here as their employees express resentment and feel bad

about working in Starbucks. To understand this situation comment of employees are being
included here that states that-
'My team wants to afford rent and groceries'. This statement clearly says that employees
are not even being paid tom fulfil their basic needs. This is not even ethical and fair to do so. It
questions Kevin Johnson's ethical approach to company operations. Another employee says 'The
stress is overwhelming' it describes a situation that Starbucks is understaffed and employees have
work overload. This situation can create negative implication as employees of the organisation
are key contributor of its success that requires that employees are happy and satisfied working
for their organisation.
If leadership of Kevin Johnson's is evaluated using Appreciative Inquiry technique which
is an approach that focuses on strength of organisation. Kevin Johnson is definitely using this
approach as he has focused on innovation, customers, finance, ethical aspect but left one aspect
that is its employees of the company they are equally important in organisation and can lead an
organisation to another level of success. There are enough example that stress over employee
satisfaction and motivation and its role in organisational success. All these are enough to express
that Kevin Johnson focused on strength of the company and moreover he made factors stronger
like ethical consideration given by him is an example of how he made a factor strong which
earlier was not same. Other than these measures to test return is also a strategic step taken by
Kevin Johnson so that he can decide whether he should focus on underperforming stores or
should close them and focus on those who are performing good and over expectation.
Strong personal brand of Kevin Johnson as a global leader-
Kevin Johnson, current CEO of Starbucks have a very strong personal brand as a global
leader. Though currently Kevin Johnson is CEO of Starbucks but his former life and professional
portfolio are also very influential to determine his strong personal brand image. Kevin Johnson
has worked with companies who are operating worldwide these companies are IBM, Microsoft
and juniper and then at Starbucks (Ratcliffe, 2016). Along with these business organizations,
Kevin Johnson also been associated himself with non-profit organizations working for various
social issues. Kevin Johnson possess some characteristics, which seem to have helped him
become a global leader,these are-
Commitment to Innovation- Kevin Johnson have always focused on innovation whether
it is Microsoft or Starbucks. Innovative spirit of Kevin Johnson is very influential. Kevin

Johnson always worked on innovative practices. He that is why asked employees at Starbucks to
create more innovative beverages. This innovative spirit led Starbucks to the position where it is
now and provides many options in food and beverages. Through innovative spirit he has
managed to improve Starbucks' financial condition. In this regard it is also relevant that, good
leaders are known for the initiatives taken by them which also an important requirement to
become an effective leaders and innovation is simply a result of initiatives that are taken by
leaders so has happened with Kevin Johnson.
Ethical- One of the most important quality and requirement of leadership is that leader
should be ethical in personal context and while leading company too. There are instances where
Kevin Johnson have proved and justified that he is an ethical leader. Whether taking action for
racial-bias or giving customers a nutritious choice. He has always been ethical in his practices
and ethical behaviour without any extra efforts make individual ideal for others.
Realistic- When it came to open thousand new stores. First thing Kevin Johnson did was
to test return of existing stores before opening new. It shows realistic approach of Kevin
Johnson, that he does not rely on theoretical models but believe in doing reality check before
investing money and efforts in new venture. This not only make him realistic but also shows his
great business sense. That made him global leader and built a strong personal brand of him. For
this business sense he was also appreciated by analyst and shareholders of Starbucks also showed
trust on Kevin Johnson's leadership.
Authority and Trust- In a way Kevin Johnson has compromised his authority as he is
known as Servant Leader, that requires to share authority and work for others and their
requirements. This way individual enables himself to trusted by others and be an object of
respect. Kevin Johnson too have enabled himself for being trusted. Sharing authority and
including subordinates in decision making have added in this trust and respect he was getting
from others. Shareholders of Starbucks also showed trust on him that strength his personal brand.
Getting featured in Media- As per present scenario anyone who once get featured in
media can enable himself to become a brand. There are various occasion where Kevin Johnson
featured himself in media (Brems and et.al., 2017). Whether apologising for racial-bias from
employee or press release about educating employees and other people about racial-bias. Both
these incidents and other occasions where he was featured in media contributed for his personal

branding. Media features increase visibility of leaders and people can get to know about them.
This contributes in building leaders as brand and same is the instance with Kevin Johnson.
Wide Network and social work- Kevin Johnson who has worked with many big and
multinational companies undoubtedly have a very wide network. Which is very important for
strengthening personal brand (Raziq and Maulabakhsh, 2015). Moreover Kevin Johnson have
also associated himself with various social activities and organisations working for various social
issues. Social work is a very obvious and strong factor that help people to build good image and
when it is done at large scale it help people to build themselves as brand and this same factor
helped Kevin Johnson to build strong personal brand and become global leader.
Recommendation to build on current success and maintain Starbucks' sustainability and
competitive Advantage-
In entire report one factor which seems to be weak in leadership of Kevin Johnson is his
and Starbucks' outlook towards their employees.
Increase employees' job satisfaction- employees are the pillar on which an organisation
can build itself and then grow. In Starbucks' statements of some employees shoe that they are not
happy being a part of this company and have no job satisfaction. Some statements says that their
pay is less whereas some statements describe how much workload they have at Starbucks'. Few
statements even said that what Starbucks' claim to consider their employees very important is not
right. All these allegation by employees can ruin company image and reduce productivity. Hence
it is advisable that company and its leader should work on improving working conditions of
employees so that they can also improve their performance which will ultimately be beneficial
for the company. In terms of increased productivity and profitability in long term. These are the
employees who are considered important factor for success and various examples are there to
justify this fact in terms of successful, big organisations which give credit to their employees for
their success. Kevin Johnson, a respected and successful leader should definitely focus on this
aspect of leadership and management practice that will help him build on his success.
Innovation- Though Starbucks' innovative spirit is very high. It is advisable that
Starbucks keep this spirit alive for sustainable growth and competitive advantage. In present day
scenario the only thing that can keep companies ahead in competition is innovation they are
doing with products and services. This is only measure to stay ahead in competition, Starbucks
also have to keep innovating new practices that can be in their products and in their functioning.

Most of the companies or it would not be wrong saying almost every company is engaged in
innovation to be successful and it has become parameter for success of a company. That
company more innovative is more successful and is ahead in competition. Starbucks provide
customers whatever they like to have from a combination of about eighty thousand combination
and this is result of innovation only. So innovating spirit will keep Starbucks sustainable and
competitive.
CONCLUSION-
It can be concluded from the report that leadership style which is adopted by Kevin
Johnson is very apt for an organisation like Starbucks though there are challenges leaders have to
face but through effective leadership they can overcome these challenges. Further report also
include evaluation of leadership style of Kevin Johnson concerned with various aspect of his
career in Starbucks and how he managed to build strong personal brand and became a global
leader. This leadership style should be adopted by other leaders too, to motivate their employees
and improve their performance. This also help leader in building good image in organisation and
outside as well.

REFERENCES
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Online
Leadership of Kevin Johnson. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
https://stories.starbucks.com/leadership/kevin-johnson/