Starbucks’ Standards of Business Conduct manual (pdf) is an interesting read for those of us with too much time on our hands. For those in franchises without much guidance on how to interact with employees and customers, this will provide you with a proven set of guidelines.
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Ryan is an attorney and valuation specialist residing in Chicago. He chronicles his thoughts and research on FranchisePundit.com. You may reach him by email ryanknoll@gmail.com or mobile telephone 312-212-3423.
One of the things I have always wanted to see was a credible study that demonstrates there is a tangible benefit to a company that embraces diversity. I have challenged several diversity consultants to produce one; to date no one has produced one. The few attempts I have seen bring suspicion to this supposition. The general tenor of them is that a great deal of money is spent on non-productive exercises. In fact the largest diversity employer is the Government and their agencies, and I think popular perception of those institutions bears witness to the effects of embracing diversity for the sake of diversity. Frankly speaking, the soft arts of anthropology and the hard sciences speak against diversity as a strategy. Seemingly homogenous populations with enough variance to allow them to adapt and slowly change (the opposite of embracing diversity) are the norm and successful, large shifts and multi cultural societies tend to lead to evolutionary dead-ends and balkanization respectivley. Every time I see this stuff I think it is simply silly PR or an article of faith that borders on religion and has no more basis than believing in the Great Pumpkin.
fuwafuwausagi wrote on August 14, 2008 @ 8:02 am:
I sure listing “diversity” as one of the 6 guiding principles of Starbucks is prompted by a PR effort to portray profit as secondary, similar to their Fair Trade and Organic coffees. You would think the first guiding principle “Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity” is plenty sufficient to address this concern. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to hear the debate surrounding those guiding principles
So far off topic…but sort of amusing in its irony…
Picture a large project, I am consulting and the client really feels the need to add a project manger, only their selection criteria is not getting the best person available for the job, but getting a manager who represents diversity to send a clear message to the team.
So on comes the diversity candidate, chosen in large part by the number of syllables in his last name (believe it or not that was one of the factors that determined the selection).
So the project manager comes on board and asks me to assist him with the project plan, my part is to simply provide duration estimates for the various tasks. That information in hand, he then completes the project plan by assigning the resources, not based on skill, but by ethnicity, sex, alleged sexual preference, and country of origin.
One of my favorite moments occurred in the cafeteria when he approached a 20 something woman and told her that yogurt was “not the one for you, you should eat salad”. And then told her “you are not unattractive, if you would only lose weight you could find a man”.
Ah, ain’t diversity wonderful.
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