Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

The unending calls by those with their pet causes has been permeating the business world for years. Many businesses without thinking through, and in many cases, not even understanding what they're getting into, have embraced all sorts of causes that can be really cause problems for their brand.

The example of Starbucks (SBUX) to be some type of social monitor and mediator may backfire on them with a significant portion of the American population.

Starbucks decided that they were going to ask for numerous viewpoints for the supposed purpose of generating discussion. What happened instead was outrage to many as they read statements by a Starbucks customer written on a cup attacking the reality of God.

I know that Starbucks has been doing some stupid things lately, but can they really be this stupid? They might as well have put their hand in a bees hive as gotten into this type of conflict. They can't win it.

The offending comment written on the Starbucks cup said this:

"Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure."

In response to a regular Starbucks customer who said she wouldn't return to Starbucks again, Starbucks spokeswoman Sanja Gould said that the reason they did it was a "way to promote open, respectful conversation among a wide variety of individuals."

One customer that was highly offended by Starbucks' allowing of the comments on their cups said, "I don't think there needs to be religious dialogue on it. I just want coffee."

That's exactly the point I'm making concerning our businesses. Starbucks, in my opinion, and any other business for that matter, shouldn't be in the business of this type of agenda. We are in the business of offering great products and services to our customers. Anything else just gets in the way.

I think business is facing a potential mindfield as they listen to people trying to use companies as platforms for their ideas to be spread around. That's a disaster in the making. I think we need to resist it.

In this case, who's Starbucks? Who appointed them to use their business to allow propagandists to spew their rhetoric? What is it about making drinks for people and an enjoyable atmosphere away from their homes that has trained them and made them experts in these areas? Of course the answer is that nothing has. They've been drawn into it unwittingly. The results show their ignorance. They will lose lifetime customers over this stupid mistake.

To me the underlying lesson from this is that we need to be very slow to embrace any of this type of action. The best service we can offer to people is what we're very good at doing as a business. Like one customer said above, "I just want coffee." That 's the bottom line.

I think we're going to start seeing more uprisings like this if companies continue to do this type of thing. People don't need more interference in their lives. They just want you to serve them and offer them the great products that we are good at offering and doing. We need to leave the social engineering by the wayside.

We need to be very cautious and slow to act upon those that have nothing better to do than be some type of activist who things they're going to change the world. Businesses do more great things to change the world by sticking to what they do best.

Like Warren Buffett said concerning giving his money to the Gates Foundation, "They know how to give it away better than I do." 

Starbucks, just stick to making coffee, that's what you know how to do.