Starbucks youngest CI play World of Warcraft training Leadership

With the aura of the youngest CIO at Fortune 500, Gillett has been training his leadership. How to train? Play "World of Warcraft" for six or seven hours a week. Admirers regard Stephen Guillette (Stephen Gillet, the Starbucks CIO) as Moses for the future retailing industry, and critics dismiss him as ignorant of his obsession with online gaming. 2 years into the company, Gillette remains controversial.

The people of Gillett

Games don't mean decadence, if you know Gillett. In the eyes of the outsider, he was not demanding on his studies during his schooling, but he managed his virtual world with patience, and became the head of a world-class Guild of Warcraft. Unfortunately, this does not apply to job resumes.

Gillett's early fame came from his engineering career. At the end of 2000, college student Gillette became the Silicon Valley business master John. Hagel, an engineer under his command, then succeeded in persuading the company's sole proprietorship bill. Gates is concerned about buying rival products. Four years later, he was competing for a Yahoo engineer and a senior executive position. In 2008, he joined Starbucks without any retail background and was employed as CIO.

Starbucks Cio:stephen Gillet

This is the best decision the Starbucks family has ever made. Starbucks in the 2008, like other big companies, withstood the test of the international financial crisis, struggling to move in a precarious way. Affected by the economic downturn, many customers reduced coffee consumption, the huge customer base changes to the Starbucks coffee chain has a fatal impact, forced to shut down nearly 6,800 stores in the United States, the abolition of 12,000 employees around the world, in the fourth quarter of 2008, a year-on-year decline in profits of 97%, The market value of shares evaporated by nearly half. In this context, the creator of Starbucks, Howard. Schultz took the helm of reins and made a major adjustment to management. Howard, renowned for not being a common-sense card, chose Gillett, who was only 32 years old and never dabbled in retail, to act as CIO.

Starbucks wants to change the way it is. "Another retail enterprise CIO Paula. Rosenblum that the move is a sign of a major change in Starbucks. The traditional retail industry's rule is to reduce operating costs by refining the supply chain to achieve profitability, such as Wal-Mart.

But now, that's not what Howard wants, but the customer experience. As Kuchinad, vice president of the company, said: "Over the past 20 years, Starbucks has been too much focused on the back of the supply chain, but not on the customer experience." Although Gillette has no retail experience, the CIO has fascinated the leadership by knowing how consumers live, and he knows how to "rekindle our enthusiasm with our customers" through it technology. ”

After 2 years of work, Gillette embodies a strong personal appeal and teamwork ability. Both on the web and in the physical stores of Starbucks, Gillette has been creating and fulfilling interactions with consumers, affecting and touching them.

He owes his abilities to the online game "World of Warcraft", which has been analyzed several times wen.

Online games to teach him things

Hagel said he knew the main reason why his early employee was able to rise rapidly when Gillett was named Starbucks senior vice president and became the most-watched CIO in the United States.

He believes Gillett has learned how to become a leader when he is a guild leader in multiplayer online gaming (MMO) World of Warcraft. "The leaders of the World of Warcraft Guild need a high impact. "Hagel said.

Hagel that the team spirit and communication skills of software developers are similar to the qualities of World of Warcraft leaders. Hagel III himself is convinced that the relationship between Warcraft and business management, in his view, running a virtual world Guild and running a business in some ways is the same.

Games are often thought to erode the minds of young people, and the best thing is to relax. These critics often do not recognize the game's ability to manage.

For the Guild leaders of World of Warcraft, learning how to lead is their whole course, the leader must have charisma and determination, know how to quickly recruit new members to develop strategic plans to allocate human resources and information, and to resolve internal disputes. "There will be some sporadic bickering and mismanagement within the guild, and the guild chiefs will maintain internal unity to ensure that the best players do not lose, because some of the core members of the team are easily left and joined in the opponent's camp." "Gillett said.

After he was hired by a traditional enterprise, from his views on the choice and evaluation of team management leadership strategy, it is also possible to see the shadow of the game and the multiplayer Online game (MMO) has penetrated into his personal development and professional style, attracting the attention of many employers and business leaders. "I used to worry about not having a job for me," Gillett said, "But now I feel like work is more of a pursuit and spontaneous, and I usually find people and resources to do the job." ”

Don't mind that online gaming is just a virtual community where the environment can nurture real-world managers who can quickly apply these capabilities directly to their work.

"Of course, I have no intention of taking the title of the Guild leader as my life mark." "Gillett thinks his professional achievements are more than just playing out," he said.

Admittedly, the factors that lead to the success of things are often multifaceted, as he says, "a series of internal and external forces that drive me forward." Gillett received a good education from San Francisco State University with an MBA. "I have a good wife, a good partner, a rare opportunity, and I have been coached by my mentor and boss." ”

Will you be accepted?

As the CIO in charge of the company's technology core, the introduction of talent, enrich the company's technical strength is his current important work.

Like recruiting citizens in a virtual world, he believes in "group consciousness first", but his shortcomings are obvious. "Shuoyibuer, overconfidence. One of his friends gave such an evaluation.

At this point, he had stumbled, once he had hired a university professor for any key position, only because he had a strong professional ability. But later, the professor was suspected of leaking, causing the company's heavy losses. Unlike a virtual society, this economic loss is a real figure.

Thereafter, Gillett prefers to recruit non-IT professionals, such as marketing finance and food. He pays more attention to their team-consciousness leadership and cultural self-restraint.

An overage mature, powerful appeal and bold personality, his current colleagues have given him the compliment without stint on LinkedIn, a professional social networking site.

In response to the current economic situation, the company's recruitment staff to adhere to the two tenets:

One is to pay more attention to the stability of the team, not easily large exchange transfusion. In the past, he often changed the heads of two or three key positions, and now he will rank the jobs to minimize the impact of changes in the business.

Second, the candidate who has experienced career setbacks is more optimistic. He prefers to recruit people who have suffered from the recession, saying: "I don't want to interview people who have not experienced career difficulties because it can determine whether he has leadership potential." ”

The stabilizing of Gillette did not inhibit its quest for "game and Leadership Learning (gaming&learning)" genes. He still maintains a global 500-strong team and a virtual kingdom in the real world. Despite being far away from the media and claiming that he didn't want to be printed on the "Online Games talent" label, he has become a frequent visitor to the tech-media interview section, "Wired." As of September 2010, he has published more than 10 opinion articles. (Text/NetEase game)

Links: 6 tips to CIOs

1. In Warcraft and the real world, cultural friendship sharing and tolerance is far more important than leadership.

2. Opportunity will not automatically disappear, you can not grasp, own people to catch.

3. Scientists use data to illustrate scientific issues, but wise leaders are good at organizing discussions to achieve scientific results and achieving a balance between science and wisdom.

4. Enterprise is a tree, discipline is the root, how many managers are tied to this root, as a modern "corporate citizen", you have to break the stereotypes.

5. Enterprise development to conform to industry trends, this can not make mistakes, this is not a brainstorming problem.

6. Have new employees to join, do not always compare him with the senior staff, to know that each member is different.