00:04welcome to this year's first view from
00:07we're extremely excited to kick off this
00:09year's series with roz brewer the
00:11chief operating officer and group
00:13president for starbucks
00:15raz was born and raised in detroit she
00:17earned her bachelor's degree
00:18in chemistry from spelman college and
00:23as a scientist at the kimberley clark
00:24corporation she spent
00:26more than two decades at the company
00:28moving into business operations and
00:30eventually becoming the president of one
00:33global divisions in 2006 raz was hired
00:37as a regional vice president at walmart
00:39six years later she became the president
00:42and the ceo of sam's club
00:44she was the first woman and the first
00:45african-american to lead a division at
00:49she then joined starbucks as chief
00:51operating officer in 2017
00:53and has been much celebrated for her
00:57even before helping to lead the company
01:00the coveted pandemic fortune has named
01:03raj to its list of 50 most powerful
01:06women in business she's been featured in
01:08exhibition on game changers at the
01:12national museum of american history and
01:14working mother magazine has named her to
01:18top 10 most powerful moms which is
01:20pretty awesome actually
01:23two years ago raz delivered the
01:25commencement address
01:26at her alma mater spelman college and at
01:29that time mary campbell the president of
01:32said those glass ceilings are real
01:35but rise brewer has become an adept
01:39she has walked the same road as many of
01:42relentless determination so we're
01:45looking forward to hearing more about
01:47and her achievements in today's
01:49conversation with joy wong
01:51nba21 raj thank you so much for joining
01:53us it's really wonderful to have you
01:56thank you for having me
01:59ron we are so excited to finally have
02:04thank you there's a lot of ground to
02:06cover today we'll talk a lot
02:08about how you lead large organizations
02:10and dive deeper into your leadership
02:13but first i would love to start from the
02:15beginning and talk about some early
02:17influences that you had in your life
02:20sure let's do it so roz
02:24many of us don't really start developing
02:27still uh styles until quite late in life
02:30but from what i learned you seem to have
02:33had a really strong voice from very
02:36in fact you were suspended from school
02:40what happened you know it amazes me what
02:45people can find out about me but yes
02:49you know early on um you know some might
02:52uh call me as a troublemaker but you
02:54know being the youngest of five
02:56i knew how to you know really
02:59fight for that last uh piece of bread on
03:02the table so the youngest of five
03:04taught me how to be you know uh take
03:07but you know in third grade um i got
03:10trouble because you know i'm sitting in
03:14uh you know the teacher is teaching math
03:16and i had older siblings and
03:18you know she's teaching this long way to
03:21so i just thought i'd just get up and
03:23help her out you know and just say no
03:25there's a shortcut to this and so i keep
03:29the point where the next thing i knew
03:31long story short my parents were at
03:33school picking me up
03:34uh you know because i was adamant about
03:38and uh teaching the teacher and the
03:42you know a shortcut on a math problem or
03:45um it's one way to get in trouble and um
03:48my parents you know i thought i was
03:50really in trouble but you know i think
03:52after a while i watched how many times i
03:53would laugh at all the stuff i would do
03:57but uh i think that was my start
04:00that's an amazing story and that's
04:02actually funny because
04:04here at the gsb there's this tradition
04:06for doing shenanigans in class
04:08and one of them is that you would get up
04:10halfway and you would go to the white
04:12board and teach um so it is
04:14very funny to me how we're obviously
04:17copying what you did in third grade
04:19at the age of 26 exactly it's
04:22it was crazy never grow old
04:26um i'm curious so you said that your
04:29find that funny um how did they react to
04:33and and broadly how did your parents
04:37sure well i think it was eventually they
04:40thought it was funny because initially
04:43were so adamant about education and you
04:46know i grew up in a family in a
04:47household where kids were
04:49to be seen and not heard you know and so
04:54always you know shut it off to do the
04:56things that we were right and it was
04:58very strict household
05:00a lot of that came from my parents did
05:03not have the opportunity to go to
05:05and quite honestly neither finished high
05:08and so for them to have five children
05:12and i'm the youngest of five
05:13acting out in school was totally
05:17because they knew you know it's a fine
05:19thread between you know getting kicked
05:22and what can happen to you i think what
05:24made it a little funny was because i
05:27acting out i was just trying to get my
05:30and so i think they began to see that
05:34i want to use my voice and you know
05:36maybe i had raised my hand and she
05:38didn't pay attention to me
05:39you know and so they started really
05:41understanding that the dynamics
05:43in some of the classrooms you know and
05:45so it it turned into a different story
05:47but quite honestly that would have been
05:50action by my parents because they were
05:54education they didn't want us to miss a
05:57so um it was the beginning of us you
06:01um conversations about what does it take
06:05and what's the expectation of you and
06:07they would constantly raise the bar for
06:09everything in our lives and so
06:11for all five of us to go to college on
06:13the backs of two parents who
06:15you know never really were able to do
06:17that and worked in the automotive
06:19automotive industry was really um heroic
06:24yeah and it sounds like they really
06:26instilled this this confidence in you
06:28and a drive and to uh to to speak up and
06:32and have a strong voice
06:34and with that confidence you then decide
06:37leave home and then attended spelman
06:41and you have often talked about spelman
06:44as a very defining experience for you
06:46so i'm curious what were some lessons
06:48that you learned there
06:50that stayed with you until today sure so
06:53you know spelman's a very small school
06:57um black all-women's college in the
07:00i grew up in detroit and um first of all
07:04experienced you know the the southern
07:07and it was vastly different for me i was
07:11being the youngest of five i'm the only
07:13one that went to went away to school
07:14everyone else is wonderful schools in
07:16the state of michigan i wanted to move
07:19but spelman when i got there i realized
07:23my new home because in that environment
07:26first of all i love that it was a
07:29institution because i got a chance to
07:31really dive into critical thinking
07:33and they were getting all into your head
07:35about things that i'd never really
07:37but then also too is such a nurturing
07:39environment to have a
07:41you know first name basis with your
07:44and um and the all the entire faculty
07:48it was very special to me and to be in
07:51people who women who look like me but
07:54came from all different walks of life
07:56i thought i was in a knew that i was in
07:58a very unique situation
07:59and so going to an hbcu is a very
08:04you're deciding to go into an
08:05environment that's that's pretty unique
08:07especially all women
08:09but i remember a couple of experiences
08:11that made me realize how special spelman
08:15by my senior year my dad had been
08:18diagnosed with cancer
08:20and spring break of my senior year i'm
08:22studying for the gmat
08:24trying to finish my major in chemistry
08:27uh math all at the same time when i get
08:30the call that i need to get home because
08:33you know my father was um moving was
08:37and so this was six weeks before
08:41and um you know all of a sudden i get my
08:44organic teacher changing all of my
08:46um test dates for me so that i can test
08:50uh the school chaplain was in my dorm
08:52room like within 10 minutes after
08:55and you know everyone was just rallying
08:57around me just trying to give me the
08:59strength to get home
09:00get my dad buried get back to school
09:04and graduate in six weeks and um
09:08you know i don't know that that would
09:09have happened for me at any other
09:12and so it is something to have that kind
09:14of feeling and closeness that i will
09:16absolutely never forget my experience at
09:18spelman because i felt like people saw
09:22and um not as you know another number in
09:26so it's it's a special place a very
09:30it sounded like a really hard experience
09:32to go through and i'm so glad that the
09:34school was fully supportive review
09:36um you did talk a lot about it being
09:38being a strong community
09:40um so during my research i actually came
09:43across something on social media
09:46if you could see on the screen you
09:47probably remember this yes
09:50yeah oh wow yeah that was
09:54october 2nd 2018 the day it was
09:57announced that i was
09:58the new chief operating officer for
10:02yeah so this this was an amazing time um
10:05all over the country actually all over
10:08um i had um my sorority sisters actually
10:11i'm an alpha kappa alpha
10:13uh uh just like uh kamala
10:16uh harris and so uh you know they
10:20rallied around me and every
10:21drive-through or store they went into
10:23they ordered their drink and put my name
10:26it was overwhelming when i saw i didn't
10:28see this because i was
10:29involved in the press releases that
10:31morning and i got back to my hotel room
10:34and i turned on social you know i was
10:36starting to look at my social media feed
10:39and i saw all these cups and i just
10:42absolutely lost it i mean i remember i
10:44slipped off the bed onto the floor and i
10:46was just like oh my god
10:48did they really do this and it was just
10:50a reminder that there's no other
10:52place um in the world that you can
10:55feel like you know someone accepts you
10:58and it was you know my sorority my
11:02um and uh it was a truly heartfelt
11:05but it was amazing it was really great
11:08yeah it's so incredible to see that the
11:10relationship that you had
11:12we're still so strong it was 20 odd
11:16um and also just inspiring to to see
11:18that you have such an impact on your
11:20well it was it was it was something else
11:24it was amazing now rod
11:27um your influence obviously at impact
11:30way beyond spelman into the many
11:32organizations that you've been part of
11:34and as a leader what you like to say is
11:36that you like to lead both with your
11:38head and with your heart
11:40yeah so i thought we should start with
11:43the first piece leading with the head
11:46now you've been in the retail industry
11:48for more than 10 years now
11:50and um you were quite the visionary
11:53during a lot of time
11:55for example when you were at sam's club
11:56you invested a lot of effort into
11:59curbside pickup and e-commerce efforts
12:01um which was quite ahead of many of the
12:03the offline retailer peers
12:05um and still a really critical piece of
12:07the the strategy for walmart today
12:10um so i'm curious now you're leading
12:12starbucks you're on the board of amazon
12:15what are some big bets that you're
12:16making on the future of retail
12:18sure so you know it's interesting
12:21because some of that work i'm bringing
12:24to starbucks but i will say that joining
12:27starbucks starbucks had a fantastic
12:29digital flywheel once i joined there
12:31and their loyalty program was very
12:34as you know any business leader will
12:36tell you is that every day
12:38it's about trade-offs can we continue to
12:41in all of the technology that we need to
12:44and still do everything else we need to
12:46do to innovate at the company
12:48and so myself along with many others
12:51because there's some
12:52extremely bright brilliant talent at
12:54starbucks i am so fortunate to have the
12:56kind of partners that i have there
12:58but we created uh together in innovation
13:02and in that innovation lab we began to
13:04think about how do we change
13:06the engine of making coffee at starbucks
13:09and so we have baristas that
13:11love the beautiful craft of making a
13:14and so they want to be seen doing that
13:17um but actually you know
13:19we're pretty popular right now and so in
13:20the morning you know we have stores that
13:24you know uh you know some astronomical
13:27of coffee cups per minute right and so
13:31began to look at a new engine at
13:34starbucks and so we introduced
13:36a new model where it's a pickup only
13:38store where everything is digital
13:40we flip the kitchen to the back and
13:43we've opened up several of those we have
13:45three or four of those in our unit but
13:47we just recently announced we're gonna
13:49add more of these pickup units to our
13:52our fleet uh so the technology uh goes
13:56with with starbucks so it starts also
13:58with the stores and then also too
14:00relieving our baristas of having to do
14:03any kind of manual work
14:04like manual scheduling so all scheduling
14:08centralized planning and replenishment
14:12everything that we're doing from
14:14optimizing the drive-through window
14:16and what's so interesting is that going
14:18into this cobot experience in life where
14:20we're trying to create social distancing
14:23everything that we had in our innovation
14:25pipeline we've been able to bring it
14:27pretty quickly so that's been part of
14:30our recovery plan we had
14:31innovation plans three to five years out
14:35executing that on an a by 18 months
14:37we'll have all of that innovation
14:40out in the field and so it's pretty
14:42exciting it's around beverage innovation
14:44the store innovation and then what we
14:46continue to do with the digital flywheel
14:49um you know i've um i'm very grateful
14:52and the things that i learned at walmart
14:54because i'm actually bringing that
14:56at starbucks and it's exciting to have
14:59you know be with a coffee company that's
15:01digitally you know sound as we are so
15:04it's pretty exciting
15:06and one thing that you mentioned that
15:08will probably continue after the
15:10is this trend towards everything going
15:12more virtual and digital
15:13right and you talk about changing store
15:16formats into pickup only
15:18um it seems like a very particular
15:19problem to starbucks because
15:21the company has always prided itself on
15:24being a third place and a place where
15:26people will come together
15:27and and relax and have a great
15:30so how do you think about creating and
15:32maintaining that connection in that
15:35in a virtual world yes and you know that
15:37is one of the things that we put
15:39you know we look at our work as what are
15:42the most significant
15:43problems we can solve and that is one of
15:46you know that's what we admire about our
15:48mission and values is that third place
15:51but when you approach a starbucks and
15:55familiarity of your barista that you
15:58and that you can say hello how are you
16:01jessica and you remember your barista
16:03your barista remembers the customer
16:05it starts right there and that's rather
16:08you're handing something through the
16:09drive-through window or you're going out
16:12and we right now i'll tell you our
16:14customer connection scores
16:16are higher than they were pre-coveted
16:19and that's pretty exciting
16:21to see that you know first of all we
16:24people are starving for connection again
16:27and they're starving for something that
16:28they're familiar with so that
16:30you know their customized beverage is
16:32something that they look forward to and
16:34when starbucks opened back up they were
16:37okay there's something that's normal
16:38here and i can see my barista and
16:41we never underestimate that so the
16:43things that we're doing is
16:44we're just trying our best to free up
16:46our baristas time so that they can give
16:48eye contact and look the customer
16:50squarely in the face
16:52and you know i i get amazed and i tour a
16:55ton of stores i'm still touring stores
16:58i'm just doing my own driving um to
17:01stores by myself in the in the vehicle
17:04and just going to stores and walking in
17:06and spending time at a distance
17:08uh with the baristas because they want
17:10to see us and then i hear the
17:12conversations between the customers and
17:15and the excitement of them reconnecting
17:18it's amazing to me and it
17:19and it helps me understand that um some
17:21of this will be temporary
17:23but what they really want is that human
17:25connection and we can still provide that
17:28even if we're going to some of our
17:30models so we're pretty excited about
17:32that and our customers are giving us
17:33great feedback right now
17:36yeah as a person who's going through her
17:38second zoom quarter i
17:40i totally advertise with that yeah it's
17:42it's been it's been really wonderful to
17:45so and roz you are a bit different from
17:49guests uh for view from the top in that
17:51many of them are ceos but
17:53you are a true operator and you've led
17:56organizations like like sam's club and
18:00um and i think you have this amazing
18:02ability to to see the big picture
18:05but also to really get into the weeds um
18:08an example was that when you joined
18:10starbucks um the it was actually kind of
18:12a low point for the business and sales
18:15and you came in and quickly discovered
18:17some operational issues that really
18:20um one of them was an insight that store
18:23was too slow at around two o'clock in
18:27that's right yeah i and i bet there
18:29could have been maybe 50 hundreds of
18:31issues that you could have
18:32looked into um so how are you able to
18:35hone in so quickly at such a micro level
18:38sure so you know one of the things on
18:42is that you know you spent you we we got
18:44a chance to spend a lot of time in
18:46stores and after a while
18:47i can almost walk in a store and get a
18:50for the operations of the store one
18:52prime example is if i walk in a store
18:56i can tell if the employees are not
18:58proud of their unit they'll immediately
19:00look down at their feet so i know
19:02they're either not proud of the
19:04they recognize who i am and i'm about to
19:08so what i try to do when i walk in these
19:10units is to kind of diffuse that to say
19:12look i'm here to help
19:14i'm not here to reprimand so you know
19:17at walmart which means unloaded midnight
19:19you know i've done that
19:20and you know i wouldn't enjoy getting
19:22behind the bar i don't make the best
19:24latte but i try my best to do
19:26latte art as best i can looks a little
19:29but you know i try to meet them where
19:33i feel so responsible that there's
19:35probably something that we did
19:37at the home office that's creating a bad
19:39outcome at the store
19:41so that's that's part of it but i've
19:44you know having a background in
19:45chemistry i'm a little bit of an
19:47analytics so you can kind of watch
19:49operation and see what's flowing and not
19:52and then match it with numbers and data
19:54and analytics and pretty come out
19:56pretty much come out with your solution
19:57so um you know understanding that we
19:59were maxing out in the morning but then
20:02tons of opportunity in the afternoon it
20:04was a chance for us to say what is
20:06what's the menu in the afternoon
20:08what's a customer looking for in the
20:10afternoon who's in the store in the
20:12what's competition doing in the
20:13afternoon and then you know we were able
20:16um and offer something different in the
20:19afternoon day part and begin to
20:21grow the business that way so we dug
20:23ourselves out of a pretty deep hole
20:25um back at that time and you know it's
20:28pre-covet we were having some of the
20:30most fantastic results
20:32and as you saw in our prior earnings
20:34we're returning uh to recovery
20:37um in short order so um you know it pays
20:41um an operator i will tell you i say
20:43it's like the ultimate bob and weave
20:46high and create strategy and multi-year
20:49you know straight the
20:50create the vision create a road map
20:53give people something to aspire to
20:56create hope but then i've got to be able
20:58to kind of live in their shoes to know
21:00when i make these changes and i suggest
21:02big major growth initiatives
21:04i have to understand what is it going to
21:06take to get this team to follow me
21:08and i'm really glad that i had some of
21:11jobs that i have but i realize the
21:12reason why i've had some of these small
21:15is because uh quite honestly you know
21:18there were times in my career where i
21:20you know the unfortunate work to do and
21:24some of the toughest dirtiest jobs um
21:27and i had to do those so but it
21:29gave me a chance to learn and i try and
21:30put it to work every day
21:32and look at it as a blessing that i got
21:35some of the smaller jobs the unfortunate
21:39yeah it's amazing to hear that you took
21:42and didn't complain about it but but
21:44rather turn it into a lot of empathy
21:46than than now for your
21:48employees um and it it's
21:51interesting to see how you know it's a
21:54um the analytics and then also just
21:56feeling the story and seeing the people
21:58but again starbucks has thousands of
22:02employees so when it's at that scale
22:05how do you make sure you're successful
22:07in driving execution
22:09and then uh perhaps equally importantly
22:12at motivating those people so so they're
22:14aligned around the same goal
22:16sure so it is all about your talent
22:19having um the ability to identify great
22:23um and it's not just individual talent
22:26it's also looking at what's the dynamics
22:28of your team how do you get that team
22:30to move like an or like an orchestra and
22:33that's what i always say is that i feel
22:34like i'm the conductor
22:36of the orchestra and i want it to have
22:38its best performance so i can't
22:40just select one or two good talents i've
22:43how are these people going to work
22:45together um you know
22:47prime examples right now the
22:50executive vice president for u.s
22:52operations that reports to me
22:54she is a fantastic people leader she can
22:58like something i've never seen and when
23:00you've got that large number of stores
23:02you need someone like that and she's not
23:04one that i'm gonna press about
23:05strategy i'm not gonna press about her
23:07spending because i trust she'll do that
23:10very well but more than anything i know
23:14that barista that's on the front line
23:16and that's so important so it really
23:18begins with the talent that you select
23:20and how you put those pieces together
23:22and then how do you build the trusting
23:24relationships because they've gotta know
23:26that i have their back every day i
23:29instill that in them i stand up for them
23:33and so then i think when i do create
23:36that visionary message they trust that
23:38i'm going to get them
23:39over the finish line right and they know
23:42i'm not going to leave them on the
23:43sideline they know i'm not going to
23:44blame them they know i'm going to dig
23:46into the details with them
23:48and so we begin to work together because
23:51still rolling my sleeves up um it takes
23:55in in retail today if you're not willing
23:57to roll your sleeves up
23:58um get ready for some pretty mundane
24:01numbers because it takes you really
24:03getting into the trenches
24:04to get these companies to grow and
24:07that's what it takes right now
24:10and speaking of motivating people i
24:13think this is a great segue
24:14into the second piece of your leadership
24:16which is leading with the heart
24:18and as an asian woman i i could
24:22sometimes get a little
24:23tired of questions around diversity and
24:27but at the same time i do recognize the
24:30value of sharing my own experience in
24:31the hope that it sparks conversation
24:34so in that spirit i would love to
24:37revisit a moment that was
24:38particularly difficult for you early in
24:42and it was only a few months after you
24:45had took over the starbucks america's
24:49two black men rashaan nelson and dante
24:53were wonderfully arrested in the
24:55starbucks store in philadelphia
24:57now i think many of us knew the facts of
25:01later but could you take us back to that
25:05you just heard about the incident you
25:07got on a flight you're on your way to
25:09what was going through your mind sure
25:12so you know when i got the news um
25:16and and it was interesting the way i
25:18began to pick up the news
25:20and um the news was really hot on black
25:24and it hadn't quite hit anywhere else so
25:27and i'm letting you know other people in
25:29the company know and it's kind of
25:30catching up with us that we got a
25:32problem in philadelphia
25:34once we realized just how bad it was um
25:37i did take off to philadelphia and meet
25:40partners there the first thing that
25:43really startled me was that i was begin
25:46beginning to get the feed
25:47on the two gentlemen and i could see
25:49what they look like so i knew right away
25:52it was two people arrested it wasn't we
25:55didn't know that they were
25:56african-american males
25:57it quickly became african-american males
26:00and then when i saw them
26:02the first thing i thought about is um
26:05wow you know this this is not going to
26:08in addition to they look so familiar to
26:12um they're everything that i've seen in
26:14my communities right
26:16and by the way i have a son i haven't my
26:18son was that exact same
26:20age and so i looked at what happened and
26:24this could happen to my son any day
26:27of the week and i was actually terrified
26:31because those two gentlemen went to jail
26:34and they stayed there overnight just for
26:37having walked into a starbucks
26:40and there's something wrong with that
26:43there's something wrong and i knew right
26:44away there was something wrong
26:46and um we got into philadelphia um
26:50and began to work on this situation and
26:52the first thing was to make sure that
26:53these two gentlemen returned safely to
26:56and uh and we were engaged in in
27:00um in in that work um and then began to
27:04and to admit that uh starbucks did
27:07something wrong here
27:08and you know our policies failed us our
27:10leadership failed us
27:12um this happened under i felt like it
27:15happened under my watch
27:16um i was running i'm running u.s
27:18operations part of our responsibility
27:20and these two gentlemen the police were
27:22called after 10 minutes of being in our
27:26now um that's not what we do at
27:29and so i knew and then i looked at the
27:31young woman who was running that store
27:34mentioned before leadership um is you
27:38all about the talent that you selected
27:41but for her to work at a store at 18th
27:44in philadelphia and she's a young new
27:48we set her up for um failure and then
27:52the whole system falls down falls apart
27:54and the interpretation of policies was
27:58um we had work to do and the other thing
28:01we had not had the realization that
28:03what's happening outside a starbucks
28:06has begun to come inside the store so
28:09homelessness and all those things that
28:11are happening in our communities
28:12but our policies say you know allow
28:16have a beverage sit down stay for a
28:18while if they're not ordering after
28:22you know maybe encourage them to have a
28:23beverage but you know now
28:25people come into our stores for respite
28:27right and for warmth
28:29and but our policies were based on
28:31something years ago when that's not what
28:33a starbucks store was
28:34you know equipped to do and our leaders
28:36weren't trained to how do you handle
28:39anyone coming in and outside the store
28:41so it could be misinterpreted
28:43and it was so we admitted our faults but
28:46we got around this issue we knew we
28:48needed to train on anti-bias training
28:51there are some biases that were
28:52likely involved in this and we got after
28:55it and we continue to get after it
28:57daily with training and development and
29:00leadership at the right time right
29:02person in the right role
29:04all of those things really matter in
29:06terms of how you want to manage but it
29:09because i knew at any moment that could
29:10have been my son and
29:12quite frankly i got a call from my son
29:14and uh he's living in new york and he
29:16said mom you know this thing is
29:18this is bad and you have got to fix it
29:21and you've got to do this this is all
29:23this is everything you need to do right
29:25now and when you hear your son
29:26talking to you i picked up fear in his
29:30because i think he was saying mom fight
29:32for me because that's me
29:34i felt that and i fought like
29:37hell for him and for dante and rashawn
29:40that this will never happen again
29:43and like you're saying in that moment
29:45yes you're the ceo but
29:47you're also a mother and then you are
29:49part of the community
29:50how did you think about balancing having
29:52your own voice versus
29:55quote-unquote being the voice of the
29:56company right right so
29:58you know i think um you know timing is
30:01everything i think the company was open
30:03to my influence on this situation
30:06i think they clearly recognize that i'm
30:08going to take care of the brand and do
30:10the right thing for the company
30:11um but we all have to recognize when the
30:15um has not done its best work and
30:18um that was a very honest moment for all
30:21of us and so i think there was
30:22immediate um you know growing trust for
30:25me they were getting to know me
30:27but they knew that i was going to take
30:29care of the company as well as take care
30:31of this situation because i felt like if
30:33i could influence starbucks
30:34and you know the visibility of this
30:36brand could we absolutely
30:38influence other companies so all the
30:41training that we developed we did it
30:43so if any company calls us and said how
30:45did you do that you know you closed your
30:48who did your training we developed our
30:50training here take it
30:51and it was expensive and we gave it to
30:53any company or anyone who called us and
30:55said look we'll teach you how to do this
30:57um no charge because this is a problem
31:00not only for starbucks it's a problem in
31:02our society right now of making judgment
31:05um you know prematurely and it has to
31:10and you know eight police officers
31:13two gentlemen sitting in a store is
31:16and we're fortunate that that's all that
31:18happened to those two gentlemen that
31:20they had to stay overnight
31:21very fortunate because we've since then
31:23right learned some other things
31:25that could be terrible yeah
31:28yeah and it's good to know that in that
31:30moment it seems like those two things
31:33and yet it was still very a very
31:36emotional moment for you right
31:37you talking about fear and worry and and
31:41really overwhelming so how how do you
31:44take care of yourself
31:45in moments like that yeah well i'll be
31:49for that period of time where we were in
31:50philadelphia the media was
31:52pretty hot um i took on a lot of the
31:56the other good thing is that throughout
31:59my career i've gotten to know
32:01pretty much most of the mayors across
32:03the united states i make it my business
32:05to know them because i feel like i'm
32:06going to need to have a conversation
32:08either i'm buying real estate in their
32:10city or investing or something so
32:13um i used my rolodex like i never
32:17like i've never have and i called in you
32:19know a lot of help for people to teach
32:21me how to have these
32:23conversations so i tried to keep my fear
32:26down and turn it into energy it was
32:30sleepless i mean we didn't go to bed
32:31several days i remember one day we had
32:33to go over to the courthouse
32:34and i'd run out of clothes and so i had
32:38a pajama shirt with my suit jacket over
32:43i kept pulling my jacket to cover up the
32:45little teddy bear on my shirt because i
32:47still had on my pjs up under there
32:49because i couldn't get out of the hotel
32:52wanted to touch and feel it so i put it
32:55and so you it's amazing what you'll do
32:57when you know you've got a little bit of
33:00but you know you've got you've got work
33:03buckle down and do what you have to do
33:05and wearing a pajama shirt up under your
33:07you know your suit is not the worst
33:08thing that'll ever happen to you
33:10so you just have to keep your head on
33:11straight it was hard to focus
33:14but i knew that we were doing the right
33:16thing and i knew that we were
33:17living in a historical moment and we had
33:20a chance to either do this very right or
33:23but everything i had learned in my life
33:27in that situation my son's face these
33:30two young men who were trying to start a
33:32new business they were there to have a
33:33conversation about starting a new
33:36my new company that i was falling in
33:38love with i didn't want them to fall on
33:40you know the lovely young woman who we
33:43had hired to work in this store what's
33:45going to happen to her so everything was
33:48and so this whole concept of head and
33:50heart you know that is the leadership
33:52model that makes you most successful in
33:54these heated moments because you can't
33:56have if i went through this thing just
33:59i would have made a whole lot of
34:01different decisions you know it probably
34:03would have been much more abrasive
34:05um and but i was able to keep my head on
34:10thank you so much for sharing that
34:12really personal and emotional side with
34:15and it's inspiring to see that that
34:17actually helps you become more
34:18effective as a leader and not um to your
34:22um as a senior leader you're never
34:26what is right um but for some of us
34:29and for me at least um as we're a bit
34:32earlier in our career it could sometimes
34:35very risky uh or and daunting to speak
34:39if we don't feel like we have sufficient
34:43seniority so i'm curious how has your
34:46voice evolved as you became
34:48more senior sure so what you just
34:50described that was me
34:52early on in my career um you know i i
34:54actually felt like my voice didn't
34:56really matter because i was overlooked
34:58so much i was like well
34:59they don't care to hear what i have to
35:01say so i can go to a meeting unprepared
35:04you know because they're not ever going
35:05to call on me it doesn't matter you know
35:08and um you know that's pretty
35:09frustrating after a while i mean you
35:11know i was doing a job on my own self
35:15but then um and and then my next
35:18you know the next part of me after that
35:21trying to find my place and use my voice
35:25and i then began to be too much like the
35:29company person i began to dress like all
35:31at work and all of that crazy stuff and
35:35apparel i hated it but i did it anyway
35:37and i was sick when i was driving home
35:40and then i just you know and i'd get
35:42home and my family would be like
35:44okay why are you talking like that and
35:46so then after a while it was so
35:49that i just said i just have to figure
35:50out how to bring my whole self to work
35:53um you know i have two children i have a
35:55son and a daughter my daughter is 17.
35:58well early on you know my daughter
35:59wanted to swim she's african-american
36:01so like every other black family you
36:03have to get your daughter's hair braided
36:05that's just the whole deal if they're
36:07going to swim you got to get the air
36:08braided so one day i'm leaving work
36:10they're like why are you leaving early i
36:11was like i gotta go get my daughter's
36:12hair braided swim class is starting
36:14like why are you braiding her hair i was
36:16like because if i don't
36:18i i'm gonna have to deal with this hair
36:22i had to explain cornrows to people i
36:25and after a while i just decided it was
36:28so stressful trying to hide i could have
36:29said oh i'm leaving the office for a
36:32a doctor's appointment i was like no i
36:34gotta go get cornrows done so i was you
36:37let me tell you what that's like i to
36:39sit here for eight hours you know in
36:41in the salon so um but once i started
36:44doing that i felt so much better the
36:47high of me trying to be two different
36:50bear it anymore i was not myself and so
36:54reconciled that i've got to bring my
36:57and the more that i was like who i am in
36:59my day in my personal life
37:01at work actually work took off because i
37:04think people got to know me better
37:06and they knew how they could see me for
37:10and there was no shell they had to peel
37:13uncomfortable for my peers my boss
37:16but once i started once i decided what
37:19you know um so it was so much better but
37:22the other thing i i look back on and
37:24this is what i tell when i
37:26have a new hire that's uh straight from
37:30we know why we intentionally hired you
37:32you know this isn't a numbers game
37:34but if i hire an asian woman that's
37:38an asian woman's voice at the table so
37:40if you come and don't use your voice
37:42i feel like i got a bad investment here
37:45so i always tell folks
37:46understand why you're here don't be
37:48bashful about it let's be clear
37:50i need an asian woman's voice at the
37:51table so that's why here this isn't
37:54you know um i need you know they hit a
37:57number a diversity number
37:59and so sometimes when i see people
38:01sitting back in their seat and not
38:02engaging in the conversation i will call
38:06and say what do you think and they hate
38:09but after a while and then i don't you
38:11know i just say okay good idea
38:13move on you know but i keep picking on
38:15them until they feel because first of
38:17all you gotta hear yourself talk
38:19and once you hear yourself talk you're
38:21like okay i can talk i mean you know
38:23it's just that simple
38:25and then when people nod people will nod
38:28then you're gonna find somebody that's
38:30gonna use your idea once you say it
38:32they're just going to say a little
38:34and then after a while it just it
38:35becomes a pr a process
38:37but don't sit silent in the room and i
38:39try my best whenever i see that i always
38:42call that person out
38:43and try to give them a platform and i'll
38:46endorse what they say
38:48i'll help them with their viewpoint i
38:50see that they're struggling
38:51because it absolutely it still takes
38:53that but don't be silent in the room
38:55even if you think you're going to make a
38:57mistake that's better than sitting there
38:58quiet because you begin to suffocate to
39:01be honest with you you suffocate your
39:05it'll change your self-esteem so just
39:08and feel like you have value and i think
39:12that is amazing advice and ros
39:16you've been advocating for equality for
39:19many years but it a lot of times it just
39:22seems like things haven't changed as
39:24would have loved them to and i know this
39:27year has been particularly difficult for
39:30as we continue to witness racism and
39:33injustice and at times it could feel
39:36very overwhelming and disheartening
39:39um i'm curious if you see any hope in
39:42and and what do you think we can all
39:46to use this moment to move forward
39:49yeah you know um i'll be uh really frank
39:53you know there's been some days where
39:54i've had to really pull myself
39:56up um to say and do the right thing you
39:59know because i'm human too
40:00you know i'm a mom you know the ahmad
40:04really struck me hard that one stuck
40:08george floyd murder stuck with me um
40:11you know i have it's so interesting i
40:14have all nephews and only one niece and
40:16so all these black males young black
40:19and so i remain nervous and scared for
40:24and you know wondering what more that i
40:27i pull myself up knowing that if i stay
40:30to set the example engage as many people
40:34in conversations and use myself as an
40:37example to teach and educate
40:39maybe i do have a way to begin to change
40:41these narratives and the views of people
40:44the other thing i think that that i've
40:46been really focusing on is getting
40:49and vote in the vote in every election i
40:52don't care if it looks like a school
40:53superintendent and you're you know
40:55just go vote you know um and so i'm i've
41:00pretty big advocate for that um it's the
41:02best way we can change and have our
41:06is to vote i think also too i'm an
41:09and i think that there is something
41:14happening during the time of social
41:17during the time of some of the most
41:19environmental ish biggest environmental
41:21ever between in one week we had fires
41:25flooding and storms all in one week
41:28across two different parts of the
41:32and then the outcome of this is to see
41:35of who gets help and who doesn't get
41:38and so you know when you see about you
41:41know you see things like
41:43what's happening with covet and you
41:44can't say well why is that happening
41:46well why are african-americans and
41:50why are they more exposed well it's
41:52because of housing and living conditions
41:53years ago asthma is something
41:57that is environmental right and so what
41:59was their housing situation like
42:01where are there opportunities for
42:05and by the way where's the education
42:07system so what this is doing right now
42:09this very moment that we're in it
42:11is unveiling the weaknesses in our
42:16like never before so while we all regret
42:19i personally regret it it is now pulling
42:24so many embedded issues that we have to
42:27face because these things will happen
42:30but hopefully we'll never go into a
42:33while our communities are in such social
42:36unrest so um you know
42:40put in positions where health care is
42:41not available to them
42:43hopefully we'll begin to do things
42:44different because right now
42:46we have a laser beam on the real ills of
42:49our country right now and we should be
42:50paying attention to those
42:53yeah that's very true and i hope more
42:55people would not just pay attention but
42:59and share the burden exactly yeah and i
43:03i hope soon enough we'll be so obsessed
43:05about talking about equality
43:08the same way that we're obsessed with uh
43:10quarterly earnings today
43:11exactly exactly that's so true you're
43:16ross i time just flew um i'm at the
43:20we're at the end of the interview it's
43:21truly been a pleasure um
43:23we did select some students for a q a
43:27so we'll turn to those student questions
43:36i think we see the first student on the
43:37screen do you mind introducing yourself
43:42hi roz hi joy um i'm marcia austin i'm
43:44an nba one here at the gsb
43:47great and so my question for you is this
43:50what was the most pivotal point in your
43:54think was the point that led you to the
44:04probably the most pivotal moment that
44:06led me to the c-suite was
44:09when i left kimberly clark after uh 22
44:12years of being in the cpg
44:14industry i was group president of
44:17global manufacturing and operations and
44:20to take a role at walmart as a vice
44:24a regional leader out in the field
44:28and i knew either i was crazy or i was
44:31determined to do something great
44:34at the time walmart didn't have the best
44:36reputation at that time
44:38and um i knew i was walking into either
44:42or you know something else but it was an
44:45opportunity for me to really step up i
44:48impact the most people that i possibly
44:50could and walmart has 2.2 million
44:53employees and i said you know what roz
44:55forget about you know i really wasn't
44:56thinking about this c-suite i was
44:59impact but now i realize um you know
45:03impact comes with scale and growth and i
45:06um as soon as i got in there i was
45:08promoted for four months after i
45:10came in as a vp i was made senior vice
45:12president and then within
45:14a year executive vice president so um
45:18again i wasn't in pursuit of the ceo job
45:21you know when i got the call for the
45:22sam's role after being with the company
45:25five to six years um you know
45:28i knew then i was like oh wow this must
45:32be a big opportunity you know so it
45:34wasn't like i was looking for that but i
45:36think that moment where i said i'm
45:37willing to throw away
45:39a title a comfortable job to go to
45:42an environment um i knew i had something
45:44in me that i was trying to satisfy and
45:47and so i think that that gets you to
45:49some of the higher levels when you
45:51pull yourself out of trying to get a
45:53title and put yourself
45:55into a big problem to solve
46:00yeah that really resonated and i think
46:03in the silicon valley we probably
46:05sometimes bias towards like founding our
46:07own thing and creating impact that way
46:09yeah two million employees um that's
46:12that's like that's impact for you that's
46:14that's right uh we're going to take a
46:18yeah so hi hi good morning from germany
46:23yeah so my name is violeta i'm in
46:26stanford lead program it's my first
46:29very very happy and excited that i have
46:31the opportunity to ask you a question
46:33on one side you have mentioned about
46:36covid speeding up your pipeline your
46:40projects but i'm interested about
46:43now about the current situation so so my
46:46how do you manage to operate
46:48successfully under discovery 19
46:51to maintain a durable and growing
46:55yes um i love this question because you
46:58know we're trying to
47:00understand what is gonna you know remain
47:03permanent what you know um i don't
47:05really enjoy the term new normal
47:07but there's gonna be some permanence out
47:09of this and then there are some things
47:10that's very temporary and trying to
47:12separate the two of those um is where
47:16uh comes into play but i will tell you
47:19um you know one of the things we're
47:21learning about covet
47:23is you know how important it is to keep
47:26sharp you know we've got a pretty clean
47:28balance sheet so we went into this
47:31um in a strong financial position but
47:34not knowing whatever
47:35you know what could happen to your
47:36business you know it just reminds us all
47:39to run this thing pretty sharp
47:41because you know there are some
47:43companies that are not going to make it
47:44and that are relying on a lot of help
47:47from the government so it's it's just a
47:51you know going through this covet
47:52experience in terms of how important it
47:56um i also will say that who would have
47:59ever thought that we would have a life
48:01living in technology like we're doing
48:05and how can we you know remain humanized
48:08like the question that i got earlier um
48:12you know what are those things how you
48:14know do we keep the starbucks brand
48:16but i'll tell you is that if you've not
48:18learned empathy through this
48:20instance you shouldn't be a leader right
48:23because people this is very difficult we
48:26young mothers who are on zoom calls all
48:29while they're trying to teach a four or
48:32how to get themselves through a zoom
48:35call and get their lessons done
48:37um i i i'm telling you i feel so
48:40blessed that my kids are older because
48:42i'd have to throw in the towel
48:44and we cannot afford to have women not
48:47that is just not acceptable it can't
48:49happen we've got to think of other
48:52one of the things i've done in my
48:54organization is that we have no meetings
48:58because you need to get the kids settled
48:59and get them at least in front of the
49:01laptop and pack a lunch and prop them up
49:03in front of that screen that's the
49:05and then we have something on fridays
49:08connect fridays and the only thing
49:10you're allowed to do on a friday is call
49:12someone and say hello
49:14you can't have any business any serious
49:17um and it's for you to reflect on the
49:20recognize people give people recognition
49:23and call and check on somebody and so we
49:25call it quick connect fridays
49:27and no meetings monday through friday
49:30and that's one of the things that covet
49:32has taught us is to meet
49:33your employee base where they are and
49:37important now and it's going to be
49:38important for a while
49:44i think he's just waiting for the third
49:47student to come on the screen
49:49hi roz uh my name's steve soma i'm also
49:52a member of the stanford lead program
49:54and my question i think you kind of
49:55touched on this a little bit but maybe
49:56you could expand on it was
49:58how does the shift to remote work uh
49:59influence your leadership style if at
50:02yeah so um what i just mentioned is is
50:06part of it but i think the other part
50:08is i'm finding as a leader that i have
50:10to be very intentional
50:12um because you know when you've got
50:14someone engaged in a camera
50:16you know it's not like you're going to
50:17lean over and have a casual discussion
50:19and you know create the sidebars and
50:23conversations can be very rich right
50:25because you kind of vibe off of each
50:27so one of the things that i worry about
50:29a bit is that what about our future
50:31innovation because innovation happens
50:34you know brains collide and
50:35conversations happen
50:37so we've been you know using some unique
50:41to help us as software called nero that
50:43you probably are familiar with
50:44or um you know just um you know i was
50:49go over to the home office this week in
50:51seattle and spend some time in our
50:53innovation lab just to connect with
50:55people to say i see the work you're
50:57i you know love what you're doing and to
50:59keep on so i'm spending a lot of my time
51:03um just making sure that i have these
51:05connection points with
51:06individuals and making sure that
51:08innovation keeps going that's one of the
51:09things i worry about is that
51:11um you know refilling that pipeline
51:15of of innovation right now
51:18rose i love that even though you were
51:20talking about innovation but
51:22you are still fundamentally talking
51:23about people and meeting them where they
51:25and and um making sure that they could
51:29um i have one last question for you
51:32before we wrap it up
51:33um we'll be asking this question to all
51:36the speakers that join us this year
51:38what principles do you rely on when
51:40you're facing the toughest moments as a
51:47so in my toughest moments um first of
51:50i rely on high integrity
51:54and so first and foremost i want to make
51:57that i am doing the right thing um by
52:02integrity nor the integrity of the
52:03company is going to be impaired
52:05so i would have to say high integrity is
52:09the second thing that i rely on is
52:13trust i want to make sure that each and
52:15every day i'm building
52:17trust people want to know that they work
52:19for somebody that cares about them
52:21and wants to um and that they can be
52:25so i i rely on on trust and trusting
52:29and then lastly i think what i depend on
52:32and this is the operator in me
52:34is just doing what i say i'm going to do
52:37and that's not always easy you know i
52:39have competing objectives sometimes
52:42i have a very tough calendar
52:45um i'm a director of one of the largest
52:47companies in the world that
52:49you know is a fantastic company amazon
52:52so i have to make sure
52:55that i can deliver on what i say i can
52:57do because it's part of who i want to be
53:00known for i want people to
53:04um feel like they can trust me and that
53:06they can count on me
53:08so that that really matters to me quite
53:12thank you for sharing that roz i we
53:16so much from this conversation about
53:18managing massive organizations about
53:21making tough decisions but but i think
53:25about how we should and can show up as
53:29with our values and speak up when when
53:32something's not right yes so
53:36yeah i thank you again for joining us
53:38and uh thank you for making
53:40our world a more equitable and well
53:44yeah that's awesome well thank you so
53:46much i've so enjoyed this and
53:48you know to the students and the faculty
53:51keep doing great things i mean the most
53:53important thing we can do is just get
53:56you know young people make them feel
53:58valued show them the ropes and the road
54:01and the future and the vision of what
54:05we'll all get through this um we'll all
54:08so but thank you for having me thank you
54:11ross it's been an honor