On this week’s solo episode, Jana unpacks one of the most consequential turnaround decisions in modern business history, and why the real lesson has almost nothing to do with coffee.
When Howard Schultz returned to Starbucks in 2008, he inherited a company in freefall. The stock had collapsed, the financial crisis was accelerating, competitors were gaining ground, and years of relentless expansion had quietly transformed the company he built into something he no longer recognized.
Most leaders would have responded with cost cuts, discounts, or a new marketing campaign.
Schultz did something no spreadsheet could justify.
He voluntarily closed every Starbucks store in America for one evening, sacrificing millions in revenue to retrain baristas and send a message that reached far beyond espresso.
Because he wasn't fixing the coffee.
He was restoring the culture that made the company worth building in the first place.
But this episode isn't really about Starbucks.
It's about the invisible decisions every leader makes that slowly trade long-term value for short-term efficiency, and why the greatest threats to a business rarely arrive all at once. They accumulate through reasonable decisions made over time.
This episode breaks down:
Jana also shares a practical framework for diagnosing organizational drift, making courageous leadership decisions before crisis forces them, and recognizing the subtle moments when efficiency begins replacing excellence.
Because at the end of the day, great organizations rarely lose themselves through one catastrophic mistake.
They lose themselves through hundreds of sensible decisions that slowly move them away from what made them extraordinary.
Where to find Jana:
