Tribal Knowledge: Buy It
John Moore's first book "Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture" is an awesome read.
John worked in marketing Starbucks for 8 years, then left to work at Whole Foods for a couple of years. He then left to pursue his Brand Autopsy marketing practice and to write "Tribal Knowledge."
John accomplished his original intent of the book: To document the unwritten rules, guidelines, brand guardrails, and the other do's-and-don'ts of working at Starbucks.
He discusses the stuff that we learned only after years of working at Starbucks... sometimes through trial-and-error... Sometimes from a great supervisor... And often directly from the company founders... Howard Schultz (brains), Howard Behar (heart) and Dave Olsen (soul/coffee).
This isn't the material of company handbooks... It's what you get if you could read between the lines... John has done a terrific job capturing this behind-the-scene thinking. The topics John discusses truly are what started and grew Starbucks as a group of people, as a company, and as a brand.
While the Starbucks fan will find the book engaging, they're not the intended audience. The true target reader for this book is anyone at any business who...
- cares about quality,
- cares about the customer experience,
- cares about the the details,
- cares about keeping what you have special, and
- is passionate about what they do.
This book is not authorized by Starbucks. John wanted to be able to write autonomously without potential approval from the company. John explains the lessons, provides real-life examples, and even shares stories from when Starbucks didn't follow their own lessons.
His love and knowledge of the brand come through... and you benefit from his ability to distill the ideas into something that you can immediately use at your own organization.
Finally... John wants the book to be a conversation starter... a kind of book you can use, not simply read. His Tribal Knowledge (tribalknowledge.biz) website allows discussion for each of the chapters of the book... questions, discussion, a "I don't believe you," or whatever comments you have are welcome.
John Moore Fun Fact
John is better known as "johnmoore" - one word... all lowercase. In fact, in his voicemail message at Starbucks he would spell out his full name... Folks knew him as "jay oh aych en, em double-oh are ee."
If you've read the book, do you have any thoughts? Comments?
Reactions
hey there, sure you're not just being biased???? kidding. I've heard this was a good read, and I suspect as much. Here's the thing about S-bux, as much as society tries to vilify them for globalization of the coffee industry and a starbucks across from a starbucks, they really do have a lovely brand, intense creativity, and good practices. I hear from friends that work for the company that they pay and compensate employees fairly, and the internal creative process is very grassroots. Very collaborative. And look at what they've created – a social movement. Stabucks has almost become a generic term like Kleenex or Budweiser. They created a coffee break during the day. Although I prefer some Seattle coffees over Starbucks, I certainly appreciate what they've done for pop culture, society, creativity and internal creativity.
Posted by: seasarahwrite | November 9, 2006 8:38 PM
Ironic. I just posted a blog today about the differences I have experienced between Starbucks and the other coffee shops I go to here in Des Moines. The employees of Starbucks should be commended for the way they take ownership of their brand. The experience is probably more important to me than the coffee! Starbucks, above anyone else, gets that!!
Posted by: Cory Garrison | November 9, 2006 11:20 PM
I wouldn't recommend the book unless I strongly felt it was a good book. John is a great friend of mine - but if he wrote a lame book - I wouldn't push it on you.
Sara - you'd like working in the Starbucks creative team - they're a group of very smart, clever and passionate people...
The biggest problem with Starbucks is it getting bigger and bigger. Starbucks heart is in the right place... but it gets so unwieldy to try to get so many people to do "it" the way "it" should be done.
Every time you've heard a negative story about Starbucks, more than likely it's been a mistake vs. someone truly trying to do something bad.
And with millions and millions of transactions each week... mistakes happen...
Cory... you're totally right. The coffee is worth the commodity price... the experience makes it worth how much they charge...
Posted by: Paul (from Idea Sandbox) | November 10, 2006 12:33 PM
Oh, it's without a doubt a good read. And an easy one (which, btw, is quite a compliment for a business book).
It's about marketing - but it should be required reading for any entrepreneur wanting to open up any sort of small business. It might not stay so small if you apply many of the principles in johnmoore's Tribal Knowledge.
Posted by: Chuck Nyren | November 12, 2006 9:04 PM
P-Dub ... thanks for the link love. My voicemail also flipped the script a bit by saying, "I'm either on my desk or away from the phone." Can't tell ya how many folks got tripped up by that.
And then after the Seattle earthquake I think you gave me the brilliant idea to say this on my voicemail, "I'm either on the phone or under my desk..." Good times.
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | November 20, 2006 7:29 AM
