Starbucks CEO: "It's Not What We Do" Starbucks stores were supposed to offer only company-approved drinks. Diana, a Starbucks store manager in Southern But Diana told him the new drink was California, received several requests a day selling well. for an iced beverage offered by a local Behar flew Diana's team to Starbucks competitor. After receiving more than headquarters in Seattle to serve the 30 requests one day, she tried the iced-coffee drink to the executive beverage herself. Thinking it might committee. They liked its taste, but be a good idea for Starbucks to of- still said no. Then Behar pulled out the fer a similar iced beverage, she re sales numbers that Diana had carefully quested that headquarters consider kept. The drink was selling like crazy: adding it to the product lineup. Diana 40 drinks a day the first week, 50 drinks had an internal champion in Howard a day the next week, and then 70 drinks Behar, then a top Starbucks executive. a day In the third week after introduction. Behar presented this strategic initia- They had never seen such growth num- live to the Starbucks executive commit- bers. These results persuaded the execu- tee. The committee voted down the Idea in a 7:1 vote, Starbucks CEO How- tive team to give reluctant approval to Introduce the drink in all Starbucks stores. ard Schultz commented, "We do coffee: You've probably guessed by now that we don't do iced drinks." Diana, however, was undeterred. She we're talking about Starbucks Frappuccino. Frappuccino is now a multibillion dollar busi- experimented until she created the iced drink, and then she began to of- M. Unal OrneryShutterstock ness for Starbucks. At one point, this iced drink fer It in her store. When Behar visited Diana's store, he brought in more than 20 percent of Starbucks's total was shocked to see this new drink on the menu-all revenues, which were over $26 billion In 2019."" executive championed her initiative and helped persuade other top executives. Internal champions, therefore, are often needed for autonomous actions to be successful. Although emergent strategies can arise in the most unusual circumstances, it is impor- tant to emphasize the role that top management teams play in this type of strategy process. In the strategy-as planned-emergence approach, executives need to decide which of the bottom-up initiatives to pursue and which to shut down. This critical decision is made on the basis of whether the strategic initiative fits with the company's vision and mission, and whether it provides an opportunity worth exploiting. Executives, therefore, continue to play a critical role in the potential success or failure of emergent strategies because they determine how limited resources are allocated. After initial resistance, as detailed in Strat- egy Highlight 2.2, the Starbucks executive team around CEO Howard Schultz fully sup- serendipity Any ran- ported the Frappuccino strategic initiative, providing the resources and personnel to help dom events, pleasant it succeed. surprises, and acciden tel happenstances thet can have a profound SERENDIPITY. Serendipity describes random events, pleasant surprises, and accidental impact on a firm's stra- happenstances that can have a profound impact on a firm's strategic initiatives. topic initiatives. There are dozens of examples where serendipity had a crucial influence on the course of business and entire industries. The discovery of 3M's Post-it Notes or Pfizer's Viagra, first