How to Improve Employee Motivation and Increase Overall Company Productivity - Essay Example

Information] The Connection Between "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time" and "Who Moved My Cheese" Two books popular amongst aspiring entrepreneurs, Pour Your Heart Into It (Schultz & Yang, 1997) and Who Moved My Cheese (Spencer, 1998) both offer insightful analysis of marketing strategies, although they differ from one another considerably in every other respect. Despite its autobiographical style, Pour Your Heart Into It (1998) is as much a mainstay for entrepreneurs and business people as Who Moved My Cheese (1997). Spencer and Schultz both explore the importance of change and adaptability as they explore the significance of strategies to achieve business objectives. The allegorical plot of Who Moved My Cheese (1997) establishes the significance of adaptability very powerfully on account of its simplicity. In Pour Your Heart Into It (1998), the significance of adaptability is emphasized by the reality of the personal experiences, and indirectly of course, by the subsequent success, of Howard Schultz. The four characters of Who Moved My Cheese (1997) achieve their first objective, just as Schultz achieved what was apparently his first objective. Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw are originally embark upon a search for cheese and they find a large stock of cheese at "Cheese Station C", somewhere in the maze in which they live. Howard Schultz was associated with the founder of the Starbucks coffee shop in Seattle, WA, Gerald Baldwin. Schultz (1998) describes how, after an extended courtship of Baldwin and his company, he eventually joined the company and was given resources to handle its marketing. The vision Schultz (1998) had in mind, which he had convinced Baldwin to share, at least in part, consisted of expanding Starbucks across the length and breadth of the United States. Like Spencer's (1997) miniature human characters, Baldwin is presented as someone who's ability to change was significantly stinted. Beyond educating customers about the different qualities of coffee beans, Baldwin had no interest in expanding his company. In the third chapter, "To Italians, Espresso Is Like an Aria", Schultz (1998) explains the importance of his trip to Italy in the 1980s, where he first observed the potential for coffee shops to become venues for socializing, community bases in a sense. The title of the fifth chapter, "Naysayers Never Built a Great Enterprise", is particularly telling of the struggle that Schultz (1998) experienced with Baldwin until he was able, in 1987, to purchase the Starbucks chain an begin building his empire. The title of chapter five of Pour Your Heart Into It (Schultz, 1998), "Naysayers Never Built a Great Entreprise", echoes the slogan that the miniature human, Haw, chisels on the wall of "Cheese Station C" before he finally leaves his partner, Hem, to go in search of more cheese. The slogan, "If You Do Not Change, You Can Become Extinct" (Spencer, 1997) parallels Schultz's chapter title, "Naysayers Never Built a Great Enterprise", and therefore establishes the parallel between Spencer's character, Hem, and Schultz's representation of Gerald Baldwin. Both Spencer (1997) and Schultz (1998) advocate not only developing the ability to accept chance, but developing the ability to thrive upon it. Lawrence paraphrases the advice from Spencer's character particularly well in "My Elusive Pursuit of Cheese" (2002): Change happens: Fair or not, the cheese will move Anticipate Change. Noticing small changes early helps one adapt to the bigger changes ahead. Monitor change. Smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old. Adapt to change quickly. The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you can enjoy new cheese. Change. Or you may be left hungry! The general message of Spencer's (1997) work is then very clear: "monitor change" and "adapt to change quickly" (Lawrence, 200). As the "cheese" represents whatever it is that the individual strives for, it represents their notion of success in a way, then Spencer's message specifically that if we wish to remain successful, we must accept that there will always be change, and that we must always adapt quickly to retain whatever it is we strived to achieve in the first place. Whilst Spencer's (1997) objective is to develop the metaphor about success and building upon it in order to sustain it, "the quicker you let go of old cheese the sooner you can enjoy new cheese" (Lawrence, 2002), it is clear that Schultz (1998) has the intention of relating more particularly how he developed his ideas and marketed them to create the sensation that is Starbucks today. Spencer (1997) focuses upon the psychological implications of change in his allegorical tale of the maze and the search for cheese, whilst Schultz (1998) expands on practical guidance based on his personal experience as CEO and chairman of Starbucks. Rather than exploring the psychology of motivation, Schultz offers advice and guidance by explaining his own ideas and philosophies about running a company. For example, Schultz (1998) relates an experience from his childhood that compelled him to offer health insurance for Starbucks employees, even those who worked part-time. In an article in The Register-Guard ("Good Benefits Mean Good Business", 2005) Schultz (1998) is quoted directly, expressing his understanding of employee loyalty and how it is likely to be sustained: "With pride in their work, Starbucks employees are less likely to leave". When Schultz (1998) was a child, he recalls, his father suffered an injury and was left without health insurance or worker's compensation for more than a month. In Pour Your Heart Into It, Schultz (1998) explains how this incident compelled him to offer good benefits to his employees, even those who work part-time. He points out that there are "quite a few single mothers working for [Starbucks], and students who are also parents" (quoted in The Register-Guard, 2002), and also explains the irony that the restaurant business depends heavily upon its workers, whilst typically offering the lowest pay and the worst benefits of any industry (Pour Your Heart Into It, 1997; The Register-Guard, 2002). The significance of Schultz's (1998) discussion of issues such as health insurance policies for companies, in conjunction with what motivated him to approach these issues as he does, it becomes clear that Pour Your Heart Into It (1998) and Who Moved My Cheese (1997) are two books that should be read together by aspiring entrepreneurs and business people. Two articles discussing the issue of employee motivation and offer the same information as the two books but less dynamically. For example, Conttringer and Kirby (Security Management, 2005) write that "achievable objectives, using their employees' skills wisely, understanding the factors behind poor performance, being consistent, providing rewards, breaking bad behavior patterns, leading by example, communicating effectively, building a team, and saying 'thank you'" are the key motivational tools that employers should use to motivate their employees. In fact, Schultz (1998) and Spencer (1997) provide the same advice in their different approaches: Johnson through allegorical writing that communicates the message in a very straightforward way, and Schultz (1998) through his somewhat autobiographical analysis of how he built the Starbucks empire. The policy that Schultz (1998) advocates for health insurance, for example, demonstrates a desire to reward employees, use employee skill's wisely, and, most importantly, "say 'thank you'" for the loyalty that his company enjoys. In a different way, Spencer (1997) demonstrates the same awareness of the need to motivate. The two mice characters, Sniff and Scurry, are never subject to false understanding of the situation at hand, for example. They are both aware, as the human characters are not, that the cheese supply at "Cheese Station C" will eventually run out; that is how they are not only prepared but motivated, when the time comes, to go in search of a new supply of cheese. They are rewarded by Spencer (1997), in a sense, because he allows them to find the "Cheese Station N" shortly after they depart from "Cheese Station C". A second article on the subject of motivation, "Leading by Example", Lutz (2005) explores the importance of leaders' attitudes and approaches to problem tasks; again in much the same way that Schultz (1998) and Spencer (1997). The five key concepts are defined as: "motivation, attitude, communication, integrity, and decisiveness" (Lutz, 2005). The perspective offered is detailed and demonstrates again the significance of both Schultz (1998) and Spencer's (1997) analysis of managerial approaches, team work, and psychology to facilitate success. Both Pour Your Heart Into It (1998) and Who Moved My Cheese (1997) are recommended reading for business people and entrepreneurs because of the insightful and ultimately original analysis they offer about dealing with aspects of business; both the psychological and the practical. More than this, the two books compliment one another to the extent that Spencer's (1997) allegory emphasizes the psychological aspects of motivation, whilst Schultz's (1998) account lays a foundation for the issues, psychological and practical, related to his personal experience. Appendix A Synopsis: Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup At A Time by Schultz and Yang (1997) Howard Schultz is best known as the chief global strategist and chairman of Starbucks. In twenty-four chapters, he recounts the development and promotion of Starbucks, from the humble beginnings in 1985 of Il Giornale, growing to more than sixteen hundred coffee stores worldwide. Schultz explores his own humble beginnings in the narrative, before describing how he, in 1987, gained control of the Seattle-based coffee store, Starbucks. Schultz established the fundamental principle of his business, which was to offer high-quality coffee to his customers. He describes his journey to Italy and explains that there he learned that drinking coffee was a social activity; much could be done to enhance the environment of a coffee shop to make it a welcoming and hospitable location. Throughout the book, Schultz emphasizes that he continued to mastermind innovative marketing strategies for his business as it expanded and developed. The marketing strategy for the first eleven stores was developed and revised. He also expanded his objectives. Although it has not lost sight of the first principles, Schultz explains that the objectives of the Starbucks company have always developed and moved with the times: a recent objective, Schultz explains, is to open new store somewhere every day. Appendix B Synopsis: Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson (1998) Published in 1998, Johnson's book has been a New York Times business best seller since it was released. Who Moved My Cheese is the allegorical story of story of Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw; two mice and two miniature humans who live in a maze. The allegory is a simple one and is applicable to everyone. The maze represents the individual's environment; the search for cheese upon which the characters embark, represents the individual's search for happiness and success. At the beginning of the book, Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw have no cheese at all. The characters decide to form teams; the two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and the two humans, Hem and Haw, pair up and embark upon their search for cheese, wandering through the corridors of the maze on their quest. Eventually, both groups discover "Cheese Station C", a stock-pile of cheese, which both groups happily decide to share. The humans, Hem and Haw, devise a routine for their daily intake of cheese. Although they share the cheese with Sniff and Scurry, the two mice, the humans soon become overly confident in their system of intake. They become convinced that the cheese supply at "Station C" will last, if not for ever, at least of a long time. One day, Sniff and Scurry return to "Cheese Station C" and find that the supply is gone. Unlike the humans, the mice had calculated that cheese supply would in fact run out, and they were prepared to embark, once again, in search of a new supply. The humans, however, arrive at "Cheese Station C" and are horrified. They had calculated that the supply would run out and were prepared to adapt. The humans, however, are embittered and surprised to discover the supply of cheese is gone. After much deliberation, only one of the humans, Haw, finds "Cheese Station N", as the two mice did shortly after the supply at "Cheese Station C" ran out. The moral of the story is clearly expressed by the warning that Haw writes on the wall before he leaves Hem: "If You Do Not Change, You Can Become Extinct". One journal article that refers to Who Moved My Cheese paraphrases the message of Spencer's allegory: "If we get it, we often become attached to it. And if we lose it or it's taken away, it can be traumatic. Everyone knows that not all change is good or even necessary. But in a world that is constantly changing, it is to our advantage to learn how to adapt" (Lawrence, 2002: 44). Works Cited. Cottringer, William, and Kirby, Jeff. "Light Their Fires: Find out How to Improve Employee Motivation and Increase Overall Company Productivity." Security Management 49 (2005) 90. "Good Benefits Mean Good Business." The Register-Guard. May 29, 2005. Lawrence, John R. "My Elusive Pursuit of Cheese". School Administrator 60 (2003) 44. Lutz, Charles W. "Leading by Example: To Motivate Their Teams, Managers Must Have a Positive Attitude, a Clear Vision, Good Communication Skills, and Integrity." Security Management 49 (2005) 44. Spencer, Johnson. Who Moved My Cheese An Amazing Way To Deal With Your Life. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1998. Schultz, Howard, and Yang, Doris J. Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time. New York: Hyperion Books, 1997. Read More