Mar. 13, 2006. Art of War, by Sun Tzu
I was going through my stuff, and found my Art of War book and decided to read it again. It is a quick read, only about 130 half-length pages. In response to Peter Begley's comments on Starbucks (http://credoadvisors.com/blog/business-ethics/starbucks-new-rwanda-blu-bourbon-coffee/), I found an interesting quote from Sun Tzu's military guidelines: "One who recognizes how to employ large and small numbers will be victorious."
I think Peter's effort towards advocating awareness is commendable, but earlier I thought they were wasted because awareness by itself does not create change. However, the more I think about it with Sun Tzu's strategies, I think Peter is right. If after reading an internet blog, one would-be Starbucks customer decides not to buy anything from Starbucks, then I think it is worth it and change is being made. That one customer will tell ten more people, and if one of those ten people decides not to buy anything from Starbucks, and in turn tells ten more people, and the cycle continues, then suddenly what began from one person's internet blog becomes public awareness. So to Peter, keep doing what you're doing, and hopefully more people will catch on. For now, I will try to avoid Starbucks, and try to begin the cycle by raising awareness of those around me.
edit: By the way, I am not advocating the boycott of Starbucks just to boycott Starbucks. The real issues at hand are questionable Fair Trade practices, and the elimination of small, family owned coffee shops. I am not advocating small business for the sake of small business. If a small, family owned coffee shop engaged in the same practices as Starbucks, then I would not support them either. I feel that Starbucks has the power to change its image, but fails to do so because it will cut into profits. I am almost certain Starbucks can ensure farmers of its coffee beans are guaranteed Fair Trade level prices, but fails to do so because it would be an extra step and an extra dollar spent. Instead, Starbucks deals with middlemen and claim it offers them Fair Trade prices, but the farmers don't get the full price for their crop. That is what I have trouble with; marketing its coffee as Fair Trade, while the reality is that the farmers don't get what Starbucks say they do.
posted by James Sun at 5:36 PM
2 Comments:
James: Thank you for the vote of confidence — I appreciate it very much! I also really like your overview (1:10, then a subsequent 1:10, etc.) of the power of one person or action to create change.
One thing I've noticed over time, though, is that you can dramatically increase the ratio of forward traction depending on the person or mechanism utilized for delivery. For instance, I know people that can sell a pile of dirt to 1000 impressionable customers just by saying, "That's some awesome dirt! I'd pay $100 for that!" More often than not, these individuals are leaders, business owners, celebrities, or other types of people to whom a significant population looks to for guidance. With such power (and these individuals have a lot of it, whether or not they know it) comes a very deep responsibility, perhaps deeper than the rest of us have, to lead people down the right path. I tend to notice the "leaders" who are selling dirt, unfortunately, but acknowledge that there are plenty who are doing the right thing.
On the upside, people like me, who couldn't pay someone to grab a handful of dirt, can be pretty confident that we can achieve somewhere in the range of a 1:10 success rate. Those aren't bad odds, and they are certainly better than not trying in the first place.
8:16 PM
James, I agree with you, Starbucks is a company that exploits whatever and whoever it can to become bigger and bigger no matter who it hurts. Look at what they have done in SF alone, all those local coffee shops going out of business because Starbucks wants to make a few extra millions of dollars. Personally, I won't go there anymore, heck, I don't even drink coffee. My co-workers go all the time and I tell them they are wasting their money paying $7 for mediocre coffee but they still go. Also, I wonder if they realize that one of those sugar and caramel ladened drinks have much calories as a Big Mac meal at the golden arches. In this case, it's just a bunch of empty calories that don't fill you up but just make you heftier. Don't worry, I always tell people not to go there but they don't care, they just want to be cool and carry around that stupid cup everywhere they go.
5:56 PM
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