My first thought was -- "11 people? How the hell did he get that number. He must've made some gross generalizations and skipped a lot of nuance!"
That voice is the Data Scientist voice in my head.
I think the hard part about working in Business Data Science is making decisions like Schultz made here. I'm sure there was some individual or team that spent hours constructing a detailed report that showed how for each store size/geography this "11 people" metric varied quite widely and differently. Modern analytics discussions seem to push us towards understanding all the details and nuances we can, claiming that they are the secret key to success.
I feel like a modern CEO might make the mistake of trying to "customize" the X customer goal for each store. Or at least have groupings of stores, saying group A needs to have 15 customers, group B 7 customers.
But I think was Schultz did here was powerful for two reasons:
(1) Closing the stores for entire day must've been quite an emotional and mental shock to the day-to-day autopilot that many of us fall into. The store managers were surely in a different mindset than they normally would be, and their openness to new ways of doing things was probably the highest since they started their careers with Starbucks.
(2) The data point was SIMPLE. Dummy simple, one data point! Modern data teams could never live with themselves without a supporting ChatGPT powered LLM, Tableau dashboard, and 20 slide Powerpoint to accompany this insight.
Great write-up. Saving this Acquired Episode to my queue.
It reminds me of the rule of thumb that you should get 10 thousand steps per day. There's obviously more nuance and customization but the simplicity helps a lot and i expect has made a lot of people healthier
YES YES YES! Tangible goals are essential. Ideally the tangible goal connects to a purpose that the troops believe in. In this case, the troops were store managers with big personal stakes in the success of the company.
A thought: As an organization grows and adds complexity to its operations, the single tangible goal may become elusive. Is there such a beautiful tangible goal for the US Congress, Southwest Airlines, Apple?
Definitely makes it more challenging. It feels to me like zooming in on a single goal even for a complex organization can cause the culture to fix lots of things, even not directly related to the goal. This isn't exactly the same but my perception is that goldman sachs treats "client service" as the overarching goal; the client always comes first and that being the uniting force helps the firm stay focused even as there are many other complexities to deal with
Good point--Client service is a great focus when you get paid by clients! Supposedly McKinsey did a study showing that only two companies make money in an industry:
Number 1 and number 2. In those two, one can usually find one will be a company that is the low cost competitor, and another that provides some kind of differentiation/superior experience or service.
My first thought was -- "11 people? How the hell did he get that number. He must've made some gross generalizations and skipped a lot of nuance!"
That voice is the Data Scientist voice in my head.
I think the hard part about working in Business Data Science is making decisions like Schultz made here. I'm sure there was some individual or team that spent hours constructing a detailed report that showed how for each store size/geography this "11 people" metric varied quite widely and differently. Modern analytics discussions seem to push us towards understanding all the details and nuances we can, claiming that they are the secret key to success.
I feel like a modern CEO might make the mistake of trying to "customize" the X customer goal for each store. Or at least have groupings of stores, saying group A needs to have 15 customers, group B 7 customers.
But I think was Schultz did here was powerful for two reasons:
(1) Closing the stores for entire day must've been quite an emotional and mental shock to the day-to-day autopilot that many of us fall into. The store managers were surely in a different mindset than they normally would be, and their openness to new ways of doing things was probably the highest since they started their careers with Starbucks.
(2) The data point was SIMPLE. Dummy simple, one data point! Modern data teams could never live with themselves without a supporting ChatGPT powered LLM, Tableau dashboard, and 20 slide Powerpoint to accompany this insight.
Great write-up. Saving this Acquired Episode to my queue.
Totally. The simple thing is so helpful.
It reminds me of the rule of thumb that you should get 10 thousand steps per day. There's obviously more nuance and customization but the simplicity helps a lot and i expect has made a lot of people healthier
YES YES YES! Tangible goals are essential. Ideally the tangible goal connects to a purpose that the troops believe in. In this case, the troops were store managers with big personal stakes in the success of the company.
A thought: As an organization grows and adds complexity to its operations, the single tangible goal may become elusive. Is there such a beautiful tangible goal for the US Congress, Southwest Airlines, Apple?
Definitely makes it more challenging. It feels to me like zooming in on a single goal even for a complex organization can cause the culture to fix lots of things, even not directly related to the goal. This isn't exactly the same but my perception is that goldman sachs treats "client service" as the overarching goal; the client always comes first and that being the uniting force helps the firm stay focused even as there are many other complexities to deal with
Good point--Client service is a great focus when you get paid by clients! Supposedly McKinsey did a study showing that only two companies make money in an industry:
Number 1 and number 2. In those two, one can usually find one will be a company that is the low cost competitor, and another that provides some kind of differentiation/superior experience or service.