Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is here to put the brand back on top

Masters of Scale

WaitWhat

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management, Reid Hoffman, Mindset, Diversity & Inclusion, Jeff Berman, Bob Safian, Startups

4.6 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Amid higher costs, longer wait times and waning sales, Starbucks is ready for a brand refresh. The company’s new CEO, Brian Niccol joins Rapid Response to reveal how Starbucks plans to go back to its roots and prioritize human connection in the hopes of restoring the brand’s position in US culture. Niccol also shares insights about evolving Starbucks’ business model, tackling the Chinese market, and how AI and tariffs are poised to shape the brand’s future.

Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Most customer relationship management systems were built for yesterday's businesses. Atio is built
0:05.8	for what's next. Atio is an AI-Native CRM built specifically for the next era of companies.
0:12.4	It adapts to your unique company's specific operational needs and scales with any business model
0:17.3	by syncing with your organization's emails and calendars. The best part, with Atio,
0:22.9	you can build AI-powered automations and use its research agent to tackle some of your most
0:27.5	complex processes, freeing you to focus on what matters, building your company. Head to atio.com
0:34.6	slash M-OS for 15% off your first year. That's A-T-T-I-O.com slash M-O-S.
0:45.9	The phase we're in is we've got to get things turned around. We've got to get what I would call the soul of the business back and this connection back. We are having to reintroduce the brand to people.
0:57.0	We've got to change the conversation of what the Starbucks coffee company stands for.
1:02.0	You know, if people just call us a corporation, I'm not doing my job.
1:05.5	And, you know, we're going to use marketing to do that, and we're going to use experiences in the store to do that.
1:29.6	That's Brian Nickel, the CEO of Starbucks. Before taking the helm in September, Brian was CEO of Chipotle,
1:36.0	doubling revenue and taking the fast casual brand to new heights. At Starbucks, Brian's taking on a business in a reputational decline, with sales waning and customers dissatisfied by long wait
1:42.5	times and high prices. Brian is pushing a so-called Back to Starbucks plan,
1:47.0	stripping the business to its core and prioritizing human connection.
1:52.0	Brian shares insights for leaders everywhere about the power of small details and simple strategy.
1:58.0	He also explains why mobile ordering is the business's biggest pain point,
2:02.8	his solutions for union unrest, how AI is impacting operations, the potential impact of Trump's
2:09.5	tariffs, and more. It's a full cup, so let's get to it. I'm Bob Safian, and this is Rapid Response.
2:27.3	I'm Bob Safian. I'm here with Brian Nichol, CEO of Starbucks. Brian, thanks for joining us.
2:33.0	Yeah, great to be here, Bob. So since coming to Starbucks a few months ago, you've instituted a slew of changes from the menu to the
2:35.4	bathroom policy. You just announced quarterly earnings this week. You've been, you've been very busy.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WaitWhat, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WaitWhat and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.