Small Bets

Yesterday, we talked about
how small daily improvements
could significantly improve
our odds of personal success.

This thinking also applies
to businesses.

Jason Jennings,
author of
The Reinventors
shares

“When Howard Schultz retook the reins
at Starbucks
he took 10,000 workers to New Orleans
to build homes for victims of Katrina
and told the assembled group
that Starbuck’s wasn’t as much about coffee
as it was about them and their futures.
He added that the only way
to have a bright future is to grow.

In the following 18 months
the company made a dizzying 150 small bets,
including new store design,
the testing of wine and beer sales,
a new logo,
mobile payments,
a dessert line called Starbuck’s Petites,
Via Instant Coffee in supermarkets
and even oatmeal.

Schultz’s small bets paid off.

The incremental revenue generated
brought Starbuck’s profits back to where
they’d been before the slide
(allowing for organic growth to kick in),
the shares more than doubled in value
and Schultz was named
Fortune’s CEO of the year.”

Can you make a ‘small bet’
on your business?