Book details

  • Genre:business & economics
  • Sub-genre:Management
  • Language:English
  • Pages:200
  • eBook ISBN:9781934109038

Steady Work

By Karen Gaudet and Emily Adams

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Overview

Transforming frontline operations in a retail chain the size of Starbucks is a story in itself. This book goes further, investigating how lean thinking addressed huge demand fluctuation in a retail environment across thousands of stores, and then how baristas and managers in Newtown, Connecticut used that system to get them through the worst week imaginable. It is a deeply personal story with global relevance.

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Description

In Steady Work, author and former Starbucks’ Regional Manager Karen Gaudet offers practical and astute business guidance plus a heartfelt personal story about how “Playbook,” a continuous improvement business system, revitalized the retailer during the global financial crisis and helped employees in Newtown, CT, get through the worst week of their lives. 

Leaders who read Steady Work will learn:

  • How the system enabled a team to successfully scale up service when a Newtown, CT, Starbucks became a center for global media and the local community after a tragic shooting at an elementary school.
  • How Starbucks leaders implemented the flexible operating system by becoming immersed in the daily work of frontline partners -- baristas, cashiers, and support persons -- as they made espresso drinks, brewed coffee, steamed milk, heated sandwiches, restocked food, cleaned, replenished items, and interacted with customers. 
  • How managers observed, timed, and mapped the steps required to do frontline work and broke every task into timed components.
  • How point-of-sales data was combined with work components to create standardized routines or “plays” for every job so managers and partners could respond quickly and efficiently to surges in customer demand.
  • How task standardization and steady work cadences improved employee productivity and turnover, and customer satisfaction.
  • How the operating system supported Starbucks ’ initiative during the financial crisis to get back to its founding principles of people, community, and good coffee.
  • How the shift to robust standard work routines allowed managers at busy stores to take scheduled days off -- in a row without getting frantic calls from the store!
    How to implement, sustain, and spread a proven framework for developing a continuous improvement system -- at a single location and throughout the organization.

Steady System Handles Restaurant Demand Fluctuations
Clear, concise, and actionable, Steady Work is a must-read for managers and executives in retail, restaurant, and service industries as well as continuous improvement professionals in any business. It explains in detail how a lean operating system solved a critical problem that every business faces, especially quick-service restaurants: How to steadily meet huge fluctuations in customer demand with the right levels of staff and product mix.

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About The Author

As Team Leader at the nonprofit Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), Karen oversees operations and personnel. She is a regular contributor to LEI's Lean Post blog, offering practical advice to managers and executives about how to start and sustain continuous improvement initiatives. LEI recently published her first book, Steady Work, about how Starbucks Coffee Company survived the global economic crisis by turning the traditional management model on its head, requiring managers to become deeply familiar with value-adding frontline work by deploying a lean operating and management system. Karen is in demand as a conference presenter, public workshop instructor, and on-site coach helping companies implement lean management principles and tools. Her hands-on experience includes coaching executives, managers, and frontline associates in relevant lean management concepts and tools. Her 30 years' of management experience also includes leading, training, and coaching high-performance teams of staff and executives in rapid-growth environments. For instance, as regional director of operations at Starbucks, she built a consistent track record of growing the number of retail stores along with the continuous improvement capabilities of people. Besides leading the growth of Starbucks' New England market, she also mentored regional executive directors, managers, and coaches in how to implement the company's lean operating and management system. Karen made significant recommendations during development of a model line for teaching and spreading the lean system. She led the line's first application in a retail store, providing feedback on how to implement the system in Starbucks stores across the U.S. During her career, Karen has held management and executive posts in operations, marketing, and training at large restaurant chains, a retail consulting company, and a technology startup preparing for an initial public offering.
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