Some of Seattle’s tech leaders have been doing their best to get the word out about the region’s artificial intelligence prowess. Laxman Narasimhan, the new Starbucks CEO, has clearly gotten the message, and then some.
“This is the crucible, this is the home, of artificial intelligence for the whole world,” he said during an on-stage conversation at the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce annual meeting Friday, as part of a long list of qualities that have impressed him about the region and its business community since he moved here.
Yes, the region boasts Microsoft, Amazon, AI2, the University of Washington, and more than its share of AI innovators and big thinkers. But even some of Seattle’s biggest supporters would be happy for the region to merely be recognized as one of the top centers of artificial intelligence, let alone the very home of AI, the place where it all comes together in a vessel of molten creativity and innovation.
OpenAI and its Bay Area brethren might have something to say about that.
But this was the Chamber of Commerce, after all, and it’s always better for the new guy in town to err on the side of flattery. Perhaps Narasimhan had one too many doppio espresso macchiatos with extra milk and two Splendas, which he described as his Starbucks drink of choice.
Starbucks has been investing in its own AI technology, dubbed Deep Brew, for several years, dating back to the tenure of a prior CEO, Kevin Johnson, the longtime Microsoft executive and former Juniper Networks CEO.
Narasimhan was named the new Starbucks CEO a year ago and officially took over the role from Schultz in March. He most recently led the turnaround of Reckitt Benckiser, the British company known for products including Durex condoms and Lysol disinfectant. Schultz retired from the Starbucks board this week.
In his role as Starbucks CEO, Narasimhan faces a broad set of challenges, including a simmering union movement inside the company, and ongoing efforts to adjust to the new realities of the post-pandemic retail landscape.
However, there was no direct discussion of labor unrest or anything else remotely controversial during his on-stage conversation Friday with Pallavi Mehta Wahi of K&L Gates, the outgoing chamber board chair, who is also a lawyer for Starbucks and at one point advised Narasimhan in a joking-not-joking way that he shouldn’t reveal too much in response to her question about the company’s strategy.
Still, the conversation offered a glimpse Narasimhan’s style as a business leader, his skills as a communicator, and his approach so far as CEO of the Seattle-based coffee giant. A few highlights from his remarks, lightly edited for clarity:
The goals of the six-month immersion program that preceded his officially taking over as CEO: It was designed with a couple of ideas in mind: it was supposed to communicate to me the heart of a partner, the eyes of a merchant, the craft of the barista, the hands of a farmer, the dreams of an entrepreneur, the grit of an operator, and the obsession and urgency of an owner. … It was a great experience. I spend time working in stores, working with our partners, engaging and running the supply chain, working with many of the functions and truly immersing myself in the culture of this great and iconic brand.
Lessons from working in Starbucks stores: We’ve got to really continuously evolve in the way we meet the needs of our customers. You know, we have a theater in the front. You see the barista, crafting your specific beverage and handing it over to you. It’s theater, at the end of it, what they do, how they craft, and how they hand it, the interaction that happens. But at the same time … we have a factory in the back, and [we need think about] how we ensure that we’re doing things, and the way we make things, the way we supply things, the way we simplify the life of our partners, in order to make sure the factory in the back actually works really well.
The need to reinvent Starbucks: Sometimes a reinvention is necessary. We have an iconic brand. … We’ve got to evolve, as well. And the team have done a wonderful job in thinking about a reinvention plan, and I inherited a lot of it. And then of course we’ve expanded on it in terms of what we’re going to do going forward.
Feelings about Seattle: I lived in Cleveland and Tokyo and Toronto and San Francisco and New Delhi and London, and I ended up here in Seattle. This is our 26th place of residence in 30 years of marriage to the same person, which is quite remarkable, as you can imagine. … It’s a story of so many things that have somehow come together, miraculously, to lead me here. So it’s a privilege to lead this amazing company. It’s a privilege to find a place that my wife has begun saying, “You know, this could be home.” And I’m like, wow, how wonderful. So it’s great to be home.
