Starbucks will eliminate about 900 non-retail partner roles and many open positions. Affected employees will be notified on Sept. 26 and offered severance and support packages, including extended benefits.
Robert Kelley, professor of management at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, said successful turnarounds must make strategic and financial sense to customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders. “The CEO and CFO need to convince all these groups that their plan will work,” he added, stressing transparency.
Su noted that Smith has said she’d use zero-based budgeting to evaluate costs and boost margins. “I expect Smith to focus on labor productivity in stores, and efficiencies in corporate spending.”
Reviving Starbucks’ coffee culture may depend on it.
