Starbucks’ ace up their sleeves: Michelle Gass

There is always a wizard in every multi-billion dollar company who doubles the money with the magic of his ideology but for Starbucks it is a woman named Michelle Gass, who has the capability of reshaping a falling product in a billion dollar brand.

She did it with Frappuccino in 1996 by turning the failing product in a $2 Billion entity. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’s right hand in branding and marketing strategies has been behind more successful ventures than the company can even remember.

She was designated the chief strategist in 2008 when Starbucks’ profits were in free fall. During that year, she managed the operation so well that the company overcame its ’08 losses next year. Managing around 137,000 employees is no small task but she
made it look so easy.

She, in alliance with Schultz, laid off around 900 loss-making stores worldwide and cut the company’s cost by $600 Million intelligently. Every store was closed for three hours to retrain the baristas (countermen and coffee makers) to improve and sustain
the quality of their signature coffee products.

Due to fierce competition from McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts, Schultz was compelled to hire Gass as his chief strategist in 2008 and she took the company to dazzling highs.

The instant coffee was an idea that had been buggering Schultz for over a decade but he was always hesitant to take up the gauntlet. He then turned to Gass to wave her magic wand over the belated idea. However, she refused to launch such a susceptible idea
without proper research and brainstorming.

After a wait of one year, thorough research and prolonged meetings, Schultz dream was realized incorporating another name, VIA Ready Brew, as Gass suggested that the name ‘instant coffee’ will cannibalize either itself or the Starbucks’ premium products
like frappuccinos or espressos.

In 2009, when the company had overcome its losses, the CEO called Gass again to her office and handed over Starbucks’ ignored child ‘Seattle’s Best’. The company acquired the brand in 2003 and since that time, it had been beleaguering in the overpopulated
portfolio.

Schultz gave Gass a free hand to do whatever to turn ‘Best’ into a billion dollar enterprise. She sketched the product on entirely different lines. The product with thick erotic aroma was targeted as a ready-to-make coffee for the mediocre class and from
only 3000 distribution channels; it grew to engulf over 50,000 outlets around the US.

Although the entity had not reached its $1 Billion mark, Schultz presented Gass with yet another challenge. The company sales and marketing division has been divided into three regions; the US; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific.

The most populated region, EMEA has been handed over to Gass, who has now relocated to London, UK. She foresees a great market that can definitely exceed the current quarter portion of Starbucks annual revenues over the next few years.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Nov 4 2011. Filed under Business, Europe, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry