The DisruptED Efforts of Starbucks to Pioneer Education as a Benefit for Frontline Partners: Episode 2 of 2

Hello, listeners and viewers. This is Ron Stefanski, and we're back for episode two with Brandon Carson, the vice president of learning leadership and cultural experiences at Starbucks. And when we last left off the conversation, Brandon, you were just starting to talk about something, very, very innovative, and it's this idea of the company as an academy for its employees. So I didn't wanna cut you off. I wanted to hear this as a separate conversation because this is another big bold idea that you have that we've talked about both on camera and off. And so I'd like you to elaborate a little bit about what you're thinking and vision is for, the academy organization going forward. No. Thank you, Ron. It's really great to talk more about this. So the the the bigger driver behind this, like I said, when I was talking about learning a culture of learning, is we have to be a company, you know, that not only has a culture of learning or we we strive to be a company not only with a culture of learning, which we have that, but how do we be become a beacon of opportunity so that people will see us as a place, you know, even building on our third place, model that we have here. How do how do we become that beacon of learning where you come here to not, you know, not just do a job? Right? And so what we're finding is people are really interested in a couple of things. When they decide to invest their time and labor and effort in a company, they're interested in making sure that that company aligns to their personal values, that there is a direct correlation between what they value personally and what the company stands for and will, you know, help them strive to achieve, that correlation. And, also, what opportunities do I you know, that can be manifested for me. And so we wanna be represented as a company where you come not only just to work, but you come to continually learn and shape your your life. And we're finding that more and more people are interested in that because candidly, the script we have for work has been flipped a little, especially since the pandemic. And people are expecting more out of what they want from what's defined as work nowadays. And when you think about what went on during COVID, we became place we became a place of, you know, lots of lots of companies in the United States definitely, especially here, became a place of, escape in a lot of ways because people wanted to we all strive to get back to what was normal. Right? And as we were navigating this crisis and trying to figure it out, lots of companies were at first trying to figure out how do we keep business continuity. How do we just remain, you know, a business and keep going? But at the same time, we were able to listen to people, and we were able to connect to people in a way that helped shape kind of our response, if you will, during that time of crisis. And a lot of what comes out of that in is new customer expectations. For example, when I was in my at my prior company, we had this We we brought to life this thing called curbside pickup. Right? So someone could just drive up, park, and then we'd bring them out their things. Right? And our first thinking was, well, that'll be temporary just during this crisis, and then we'll get back to normal. Right? That didn't happen because customers started to like that, and they wanted that to stay. And, and one of the things that persisted for Starbucks through that whole thing was this idea of how we connect to each other as humans during that. And it actually amplified a little bit more post COVID now, because people are wanting to gather together. They're wanting to come together. They're wanting to speak to people. Right. We've we've got a lot of AI and automation coming into places across the world now. But people are you just saw today, business travel is surging. You know, pleasure travel is surging. People are wanting to get out and connect and be together. And so our culture manifests that just by how we were designed originally, but that is something that is expected. And so when people come to work here, they're coming to work at a place that respects that connection and that helps to amplify and that make sure everyone has a place that they feel like they belong in. The other thing I'd like to just sort of add to that is we have a new CEO enrolled, been been enrolled just over a year, and he's helped shepherd, through a revision to our mission and our promises and our values. And, when we underwent the refreshing of our values, we actually went to our partners and started engaging our partners in conversations about what those values should be. And so it was built from all of us. It wasn't just told to us like a poster on the wall that leadership said this is what our value Right. Or a stone tablet, right, coming down from the mountain. Right. We manifest those through our partners, and one of those five values is joy. And we want to bring joy to work. We feel that that is a core value for us. And so everything we do is I love that. Revolving around that as well as belonging, encourage, and results, and craft. You know, all of these things matter to us. And for all of those things to come together and, you know, help our partners build a bridge to a better future, we do know that education and training is also a core component of that. And so what we're working on is how do we think about what's next for our, partners when it comes to their opportunity and their growth and their development here as well. And we're working, with ASU on a lot of new ideas around this, as we move into the modern, the more sort of modern world after and right before AI implement, you know, really disrupts a lot of Right. Education and stuff. But, after, you know, COVID and the tech tsunami, like, what are we going to manifest, to help our partners meet their aspirations and stuff? So those are the kinds of things we're working on now. I think you couldn't have picked a better academic partner to work with than Michael Crow and his team at ASU. I mean, it's been voted the most innovative university in the world for ten years now, and they're doing some incredible things there. And so I think that, marriage of these two brands, Starbucks and ASU, is a powerful signal to a lot of people that there's innovation at the heart of this, and there's also, you know, there's also a human heart at the center of this as well that the people equation has been put front and center, and I love that about this. In terms of, you know, what your partners are asking for in terms of specific, educational experiences. I wanna take just a few minutes to hear more about that. Are you seeing that people want college degrees? Are they asking for more in the in the area of credentialing and and badges? And how how do you feel about that fitting into the educational mix as you go forward? Yeah. That's, you know, that's happening not even here not just here, but across. Right? They're asking for just more expanded opportunity. Like, what is my you know, what's my pathway? How do you help me get from where I am now to where I wanna be? And then candidly, a lot of it is I may not be sure where I wanna go. How can you help me even figure that out? Right? And so, you know, it's not necessarily just point a to point b anymore. Let me go get my academic degree, and then I'm I'm done. A lot of partners are asking for what we call multiple pathways. You know? And so we're you're you're right about ASU because, you know, they're not just a four year degree university. They're a research university as well. And they do have a mission statement that heavily correlates to what ours is around, you know, access to like, anyone should have access to education. And so we've been working closely with them on, like, what's the future of work you know, adult workforce and, and, brought that to life. And now it's become a thing where almost all scaled companies or large companies are offering this type of benefit program. But now how do we take that and meet that, you know, need for our partners to, have access to multiple pathways. And so we're working now with ASU on what are some of these opportunities and what should they be. And one thing I've loved about working with doctor Crowe and then meeting the broader ASU team that works with us is their willingness just to cocreate with us. And it's almost like a little Wonderful. That's really great. A little bit of a startup. We're bringing a product mindset to it, and our partners have told us they they would like opportunity in multiple pathways. And so we're taking that and the sentiment they've shared with us, and we're cocreating with ASU what that may be, coming up. So we'll see. That's fantastic. Well, you've been listening to Brandon Carson talking about the vision for education as an academy corporation at none other than Starbucks. And, Brandon, it's just been a pleasure to listen to you talk about this and to you know, in this disrupted world that I described at the outset of episode one, you know, sometimes we can get freaked out by that because change is coming at us, you know, in a blinding light. But at the same time, they're you know, what conversations, human conversations with ordinary people that are making an extraordinary impact like you, Brandon, your team at Starbucks, is that you're opening up the possibilities and enlightening my audience certainly to the to the promise and the possibilities that exist out there. That's there really are good things that are gonna happen. AI isn't just gonna destroy jobs. It's going to unleash the power of human talent in many respects. So Yeah. I think So any last thoughts for our for our listening and viewing audience, Brandon, before we close this out? No. I love that, Ron. I do think that we are in one of the great I mean, I've been in this business for twenty five years. I think this is one of the best times to be in the people practice at any company, but definitely here at Starbucks because the next five years are gonna be more transformational than the last fifty for what we do for partners and what we do for people in general. So it's a really great time to be in this practice. It's complex and complicated, but we're having a great time. And I'll just add one last thing. You didn't tell me what your favorite Starbucks drink is, Ron. Oh, mine is a iced coffee, no sweetener, double cream. Oh, nice. Nice. I'm drinking just the regular black black Sumatra dark, dark roast today. Oh, nice. I always go with the house blend because I'm, you know, I'm like my mother. She used to drink a little coffee with her cream. You know? So I I like it mild, and I like it iced. I used to always drink her leftover coffee after bread. And so I never drank hot coffee as a kid. I started drinking her coffee warmer room temperature, so I got accustomed to iced coffee. Yeah. My mom was similar, though. She had a pot all day long, all through the day. Just coffee was constantly there. And I have to say the lemon pound cake is also a is also a core part of my binge Starbucks. You can't you can't beat that. Yeah. I'll tell you. I truly should be. So well, listen, Brandon. This has been such an important and and and engaging conversation about what you're doing for partners at Starbucks, and I can't thank you enough for the work you're doing. It's so fun to connect all of you guys, the work that Rob and Natalie Schumacher's carrying on at McDonald's, the work that, miss Morris at Walmart is doing. All the all of you folks are reenvisioning a life where, the frontline employee has access as never before, and I think that's one of the most disruptively wonderful opportunities that we're gonna see. So But thank you for having me on. The last thing I'm gonna do is invite you back, Brandon, because I wanna hear more as you start working more closely with ASU. So can we, count on you to come back in a few months and give us, an update? Yes. You sure can. Definitely. And we should invite someone from ASU to come on as well. Excellent. So for those of you who've been listening and viewing, get disrupted with us. Share your feedback, your comments, your likes, your dislikes, and get disrupted with us. Until the next time, this is Ron Stefanski at Disrupted. Thank you. Alright. Now what educational publisher did you work at? So International Thompson, but I work Oh, yeah. In the Wadsworth imprint. Well, I don't know. Did you know Don Deline when you were there? Don Deline. Why does that sound familiar? Was he the was he an editor? Yeah. He was the math editor. Yes. Yes. Oh my god. You you bring up memories. That's been So he worked in the math years ago, Ron. Yeah. Been a long No. But he he worked at Wadsworth as a math editor, and then he started his own lean publishing. And, I was at Macmillan when we acquired them, and we started selling their books. And he did such a number on design. So he would go out and he would buy these, you know, and publishers are spending two or three thousand dollars for something to slap on the cover. He was buying these twenty or thirty thousand dollar art pieces and then having them photograph. And the be and the designs of the book's interior and then this incredible art, you you know, it it worked in the in the absence of a Salesforce because these books would land and people would definitely pick them up, you know, you know, to have a math book with a, you know, with an extraordinary piece of art. That's actually interesting because it's validation of where design really matters. Like, I was fortunate to work on our flagship biology book. God, I forgot her name, the author. It was the best seller we had, and I got Right. I remember that one. Yeah. I sold against it. I can't remember her name. Working with her was a little bit of a nightmare because she was just you know? But she had a product that she had shaped, and the art budget was outrageous. It was great. But it was a Yeah. Two hundred and something dollar textbook. Right? It was all full like, is it full color, you know, full color, heavy book. And, the interesting thing is the state of Texas decided to adopt it for high school at one point. And, oh, boy, did that like, I didn't know what state, you know, public education Adaptions really? Oh, yeah. Had to go take out abortion, you know, all these other topics they had to take out or change. And it became like, you know, we were all leftists. Right? And it became this heated topic of why were we doing this. Right? But the adoption was so much revenue coming from that. Right? And it was just one of those moments where it's like, but that was then. I can only imagine what that's like now. Oh, yeah. I can't even imagine Florida and Texas. It'd be crazy. Okay. So, two things. One, I'm gonna send you, I wanted to reconnect. I'm gonna send you an invite to give us some times to meet with Kelly Crabb at honor education. We talked about getting you in front of them because as you're starting to think about some of the designs around this, the the stuff they're doing with AI and building a next gen platform that's a lot. Cool. Okay. More engaging is certainly something we wanna do. So stay tuned for an email on that. And then after we connect on that, then I'll queue up another one. So I'm not slamming you. I know you've got, you know, a big remit right now. So I'm trying to be a sensitive, partner in crime here. But we'll start with that and get that off the ground. Sounds good. Well, thank you. It's been really fun talking Alright. Thank you. Alright. Bye bye. Alright. We'll talk soon. Alright. Bye now.