Starbucks to Lay Off Workers at Seattle HQ

If a company has made a pledge to grow revenues to $30 billion by 2019, and is adding hundreds of new storefronts worldwide in 2015, why would they announce layoffs at corporate headquarters — the supposed nerve center of the entire company? Also, why is that company’s chief operations officer taking an extended, unpaid sabbatical right as the company is about to enter this huge growth period?

These are some of the questions being asked of Starbucks, who on Jan. 15 confirmed that they were laying off workers at their Seattle headquarters that were “no longer aligned” with the corporate growth strategy sought after by the company. Supposedly not linked to this is the sabbatical announced by Troy Alstead, one of Starbucks’ longest serving executives as well as the “heir apparent” to CEO Howard Schultz, even though there were concerns regarding his health. The timing of the two events led a lot of people to believe that a shake-up at company management was wide reaching in nature, though a spokesman with the company made it clear that the layoffs are “relatively small” and won’t extend down to the stores where “thousands” of net new hires are expected to fully realize the company’s growth strategy.

Part of the redundancy plan may have something to do with a new mobile operating feature that Starbucks is rolling out in a few stores that can process orders in a faster, more sophisticated way. While innovative, this would necessitate some tech jobs being made redundant with the move to automation. This and other steps to automate basic aspects of the business process would allow for the company to expand without increasingly unnecessary overhead expenses and positions at corporate. As for the COO, rumors of his ousting appear premature, especially when he was part of Starbucks’ first big expansion decades ago and appears to be in it for the long haul.