Starbucks Coffee Company asked hfi to design and run a 2-day development needs assessment center for its up-and-coming high potential leaders. Starbucks was going through an exciting phase of development and growth and wanted to identify which ‘partners’ from its current management pool were going to be ready to take on more responsibility in the coming months, really living into the renown Starbucks leadership.
The assessment center consisted of a tailor made business simulation exercise based around a fictional country and required participants to think strategically and tackle a wide range of business issues outside of their normal scope. The assessment center was part of an ongoing program to ensure that Starbucks continues to strengthen its leadership performance and increase senior leaders’ strategic understanding and engagement.
Graham Wilson-Perkin, Head of Learning at Starbucks said, “Starbucks’ commitment to delivering legendary customer service is backed by its ongoing investment in people and great training and development play a key part. hfi designed a highly innovative assessment center which challenged the participants to really think outside of the box. We received overwhelmingly positive comments regarding the program and are looking forward to using the outcomes to formulate our succession plan and help our partners develop to their full potential.”
Each participant was assigned an hfi consultant ‘buddy’ to support them for the duration of the program. The program involved keeping a journal of their experiences and the participants undertook psychometric profiling and 360 feedback prior to the two-day residential simulation. By the end of the process, participants had developed clear, actionable personal development plans that are helping them to grow into more senior roles across the organization .
Starbucks recently unveiled its new brand logo dropping the word ‘coffee’ as the company prepares to diversify its highly successful business model into other areas. “Developing our talent from within the company is going to be key to enable the organization to make the most of these exciting challenges in the future” comments Wilson-Perkin.
To find out more about how hfi can help develop your HiPo leaders, contact us today!
