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Starbucks continues to cut corporate jobs in turnaround bid: ‘Many are cost centers, not revenue producers,’ says expert

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Good morning. As Starbucks tries to evoke nostalgia for its brand, the company is undergoing a major restructuring, including corporate layoffs and costly changes as part of its turnaround plan. This move highlights the importance for companies to stay focused on what customers love, or risk losing ground to competitors.

The Starbucks board approved a $1 billion restructuring plan this week that will close underperforming coffeehouses and reshape its corporate support organization under the “Back to Starbucks” strategy, according to an SEC filing. About 90% of these expenses will come from its North American business, and most costs will hit in fiscal 2025.

The plan includes closing at least 100 North American cafes and remodeling over 1,000 locations. Starbucks expects its company-operated store count in North America to decline by about 1%, according to a letter from CEO Brian Niccol to employees on Sept. 25. The company had 18,734 stores as of June 29.

Starbucks will eliminate about 900 non-retail partner roles and many open positions. Affected employees will be notified on Sept. 26 and offered severance and support packages, including extended benefits.

The company’s goal is to put resources “closest to the customer so we can create great coffeehouses, offer world-class customer service, and grow the business,” Niccol wrote. Starbucks is pivoting from  mobile-only “pickup” stores, which it thought would appeal to customers, especially younger generations. There’s now an effort to recreate a “third place”—a location between home and work to spend time, which once fueled Starbucks’ popularity.

‘A leaner corporate structure’

The Fortune 500 company (No. 126) has experienced six consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales, which is a measure of performance at individual locations. Starbucks’ market share among Gen Z has slipped from 67% to 61% over the past two years, marking four consecutive quarters of declines, according to Consumer Edge, Fortune reported.

Morningstar equity analyst Dan Su told me that Starbucks is prioritizing investments in stores to revive growth and strengthen its long-term competitive position, funding these changes with cuts to corporate roles. “A leaner corporate structure may make decision-making more efficient during the turnaround,” he said.

Robert Kelley, professor of management at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business, said successful turnarounds must make strategic and financial sense to customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders. “The CEO and CFO need to convince all these groups that their plan will work,” he added, stressing transparency.

This is Starbucks’ second round of corporate layoffs in less than a year. Kelley explained that non-retail layoffs are common and the retail side is the “critical path,” referring to his 2021 book, “The Critical Path Manifesto.” The retail side is where you serve your customers, therefore leading to revenues and cash flow, he said. “Many corporate jobs are cost centers, not revenue producers.”

Brian Niccol became CEO in September 2024 after leading Chipotle. Cathy Smith joined as CFO in March, bringing turnaround experience from Walmart, Nordstrom, and Target. Smith helped Target and Nordstrom recapture what customers loved about their brands during critical periods.

 “All brands drift over time, and I have pattern recognition,” Smith told Fortune in April. “I’ve seen this with a number of brands, and the great ones recapture what made them great,” she said.

Su noted that Smith has said she’d use zero-based budgeting to evaluate costs and boost margins. “I expect Smith to focus on labor productivity in stores, and efficiencies in corporate spending.”

Reviving Starbucks’ coffee culture may depend on it.

Have a good weekend. See you on Monday.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Leaderboard

Some notable moves this week:

Simon Edwards was appointed CFO of Groq, an AI company that develops hardware and software, including the Language Processing Unit. Edwards most recently served as CFO at Conga, overseeing finance, corporate development, and legal. He was previously CFO of ServiceMax, where he helped lead the company to profitability and expansion, culminating in its 2023 acquisition by PTC. Earlier, he held senior finance roles at GE, including CFO of GE Digital.

 

James Shen was appointed interim CFO at GitLab, effective Sept. 20, according to an SEC filing.  Brian Robins stepped down from his roles as CFO and chief accounting officer at GitLab to become finance chief at Snowflake. Shen has served as VP of finance at GitLab. 

 

Christy Schwartz was appointed interim CFO of Opendoor Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: OPEN), effective as of Sept. 30, replacing Selim Freiha, the company’s CFO, according to an SEC filing. Schwartz served as the company’s interim CFO from December 2022 to November 2024, and its chief accounting officer from March 2021 to May 2025. Before that, she served as Opendoor’s VP, corporate controller from August 2016 to March 2021. 

Bonnie Boyer was appointed CFO of Guident Corp., an autonomous vehicle teleoperation, effective immediately. Boyer brings over 15 years of financial leadership experience. Most recently, she served as chief accounting officer at Sagent M&C, a SaaS provider in the mortgage technology sector. 

Steve Kinsey, CFO of Flowers Foods, Inc. (NYSE: FLO), plans to retire at the end of 2025 after 36 years of service, including the last 18 as chief financial officer. The company has initiated a search for Kinsey’s successor. Following his retirement, Mr. Kinsey is expected to continue to serve in an advisory role for a period of time. Flowers operates bakeries across the country. Among the company’s top brands are Nature’s Own, Dave’s Killer Bread, Wonder, Canyon Bakehouse, and Tastykake. 

Cornelis (Carlo) Broos was promoted to CFO of Cibus, Inc. (Nasdaq: CBUS), a biotechnology company, according to an SEC filing. Broos has served as interim CFO of Cibus since October 2024 and previously held the position of SVP of finance. He joined Cibus in 2011. Before joining the company, Broos held finance leadership positions at Syngenta Europe Africa Middle East, Syngenta Netherlands and Belgium, Advanta, and Deloitte Netherlands.

David Croxville was appointed CFO of C1, a technology solutions and services company. Croxville brings more than 30 years of experience. Most recently, he served as EVP and CFO of NTT DATA Services in the Americas, where he led finance, procurement, real estate, and IT across 44 countries, and completed more than 10 acquisitions, including Dell Services.

Brett Summerer was appointed CFO of Accel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: ACEL), a gaming operator, effective Sept. 22. Summerer succeeds Mark Phelan, who has served as acting CFO in addition to his ongoing role as president, U.S. Gaming. His prior leadership roles at Kraft Heinz, Corning, and General Motors included managing global P&Ls and leading strategic initiatives. Most recently, Summerer served as CFO of Verano Holdings. 

Josh Greear was appointed CFO of Authority Brands, a multi-brand franchisor in the home services sector. Greear has more than 25 years of experience in franchising, financial leadership, and business strategy. He most recently served as CFO at Primrose Schools, a national early education and care franchise. Before that, Greear held senior leadership roles, including VP of strategy and business development at Cracker Barrel.

Big Deal

Indeed’s “AI at Work Report 2025” finds that generative AI (GenAI) is transforming job skills rather than replacing jobs entirely. The report suggests GenAI will primarily augment human work, allowing focus on higher-level tasks, with technology skills being most susceptible to transformation while physical and human-centric roles remain less affected. 

Going deeper

Here are four Fortune weekend reads:

Overheard

“I would make something with AI that that team is probably not using or doing. I would send it to everybody on that team and I’d say, ‘look, I built this for you, and I doubt you have this, and if you hire me, I will build more of it.’”

 

—MasterClass CEO David Rogier told Fortune in an interview. Rogier explained that there are ways for young people to stand out in an AI-driven job market. His advice includes picking an industry that sparks interest, immersing yourself in its challenges, and using AI to build something the team doesn’t already have.
This is the web version of CFO Daily, a newsletter on the trends and individuals shaping corporate finance. Sign up for free.



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Nvidia’s CEO says AI adoption will be gradual, but we still may all end up making robot clothing

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang doesn’t foresee a sudden spike of AI-related layoffs, but that doesn’t mean the technology won’t drastically change the job market—or even create new roles like robot tailors.

The jobs that will be the most resistant to AI’s creeping effect will be those that consist of more than just routine tasks, Huang said during an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan this week. 

“If your job is just to chop vegetables, Cuisinart’s gonna replace you,” Huang said.

On the other hand, some jobs, such as radiologists, may be safe because their role isn’t just about taking scans, but rather interpreting those images to diagnose people.

“The image studying is simply a task in service of diagnosing the disease,” he said.

Huang allowed that some jobs will indeed go away, although he stopped short of using the drastic language from others like Geoffrey Hinton a.k.a. “the Godfather of AI” and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, both of whom have previously predicted massive unemployment thanks to the improvement of AI tools.

Yet, the potential, AI-dominated job market Huang imagines may also add some new jobs, he theorized. This includes the possibility that there will be a newfound demand for technicians to help build and maintain future AI assistants, Huang said, but also other industries that are harder to imagine.

“You’re gonna have robot apparel, so a whole industry of—isn’t that right? Because I want my robot to look different than your robot,” Huang said. “So you’re gonna have a whole apparel industry for robots.”

The idea of AI-powered robots dominating jobs once held by humans may sound like science fiction, and yet some of the world’s most important tech companies are already trying to make it a reality. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made the company’s Optimus robot a central tenet of its future business strategy. Just last month, Musk predicted money will no longer exist in the future and work will be optional within the next 10 to 20 years thanks to a fully fledged robotic workforce. 

AI is also advancing so rapidly that it already has the potential to replace millions of jobs. AI can adequately complete work equating to about 12% of U.S. jobs, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report from last month. This represents about 151 million workers representing more than $1 trillion in pay, which is on the hook thanks to potential AI disruption, according to the study.

Even Huang’s potentially new job of AI robot clothesmaker may not last. When asked by Rogan whether robots could eventually make apparel for other robots, Huang replied: “Eventually. And then there’ll be something else.”



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The ‘Mister Rogers’ of Corporate America shows Gen Z how to handle toxic bosses

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After two decades of climbing the corporate ladder at companies ranging from ABC, ESPN, and Charter Communications (commonly known as Spectrum), Timm Chiusano quit it all to become a content creator. 

He wasn’t just walking away from high titles, but a high salary, too. In his peak years, Chiusano made $600,000 to $800,000 annually. But in June of 2024, after giving a 12-week notice, he “responsibility fired himself” from his corporate job as VP of production and creative services at Charter.

He did it all to help others navigate the challenges of a workplace, and appreciate the most mundane parts of life on TikTok.

@timmchiusano

most people are posting their 2024 recaps; these are a few of my favorite moments from the year that was, but i need to start reintroducing myself too i dont have a college degree, no one in my life knew that until i was 35 when i eventually got my foot in the door in my early 20’s after a few years of substitute teaching and part time jobs, i thought for sure i had found the career path of my dreams in live sports production i didn’t think i had a chance of surviving that first college football season but i busted my ass, stuck around and got promoted 5 times in 5 years then i met a girl in Las Vegas, got married in 7 months, and freaked out about my career that had me travelling 36 weeks a year i had to find a more stable “desk job”, i was scared shitless that i was pigeonholed and the travel would eventually destroy my marriage i crafted a narative for espn arguing they needed me on their marketing team because of my unique perspective coming from the production side i got rejected, but kept trying and a year i got that job the 7 years with espn were incredible, but also exhausting and raised all kinds of questions about corporate america, toxic situations, and capitalism in general why was i borderline heart attack stressed so often when i could see that my ideas were literally generating 2,000 times the money that i was getting paid? in 2012 i had a kid and in 2013 i got the biggest job of my career to reinvent how to produce 20,000 commercials a year for small business it took 12 rounds of interviews, a drug test i somehow passed, and a background check that finally made me tell my wife of 8 years that i didnt have a college degree they brought me in the thursday before my first day and told me what i told grace in that clip the next decade was an insane blur; i saw everything one would ever see in their career from the perspective of an executive at a fortune 100 i started making tiktoks, kinda blacked out at some point in 2019 and responsibly fired myself in 2024 to see what i might be capable of on my own with all the skills i picked up along my career journey now the mission is pay what i know forward, and see if i can become the mr rogers of corporate america cc: @grace beverley @Ryan Holiday @Subway Oracle

♬ original sound – timm chiusano

What started as short-video vlogs on just about anything in 2020 (reviews on protein bars, sushi, and sneakers) later transitioned to videos on growing up, and dealing with life’s challenges, like coming to terms when you have a toxic boss. Today, his platform on TikTok has over 1 million followers

With the help of going viral from his “loop” format where videos end and seamlessly circle back to the beginning, he began making more videos as a side-hustle on top of his day-to-day tasks in the office.

“How can I get people to be smarter and more comfortable about their careers in ways that are gonna help on a day-to-day basis?” Chiusano told Fortune.

Today, he could go by many titles: former vice president at a Fortune 100 company, motivational speaker, dad, content creator, or as he labels himself, the Mister Rogers of Corporate America. 

Just as the late public television icon helped kids navigate the complexities of childhood, Chiusano wants to help young adults think about how to approach their careers and their potential to make an impact. 

“Mister Rogers is the greatest of all time in his space. I will never get to that level of impact. But it’s an easy way to describe what I’m trying to do, and it consistently gives me a goal to strive for,” he said. “There are some parallels here with the quirkiness.”

Firing himself after 25 years in the corporate world

Even with years in corporate, Chiusano doesn’t resemble the look of a typical buttoned-up executive. Today, he has more of a relaxed Brooklyn dad attire, with a sleeve of tattoos and a confidence to blend in with any trendy middle aged man in Soho. During our interview, he showed off one of the first tattoos he got: two businessmen shaking hands, a reference to Radiohead’s OK Computer album.

“This is a dope ass Monday in your 40s,” began one of his videos.

It consisted of Chiusano doing everyday things such as eating leftovers, going to the gym, training for the NYC marathon, taking out the trash, dropping his daughter off at school, a rehearsal for a Ted Talk, eating lunch with his wife, and brand deal meetings. Though the content sounds pretty normal, that’s the point. 

“The reason why I fired myself in the first place was to be here,” he says in the video while picking his daughter up from school.

Today, Chiusano spends his days making content on navigating workplace culture, public speaking, brand deals, brand partnerships, executive coaching, writing a book, and the most important job: being a dad to his 13-year-old daughter Evelyn.

“I’m basically flat [in salary] to where I was, and this is everything I could ever want in the world,” he said. “The ability to send my kid to the school she’s been going to, eat sushi takeout almost as much as I’d like, and do nice things for my wife.”

In fact, when sitting inside one of his favorite New York City spots, Lure Fishbar, he keeps getting stopped by regulars who know him by name. He points out that one of his favorite interviews he filmed here was with legendary filmmaker Ken Burns.

Advice to Gen Z

In a time where Gen Z has been steering to more unconventional paths, like content creation or skill trades rather than just a 9-to-5 office job, Chiusano opens up a lens to what life looks like when deciding to be present rather than always looking for what’s next—a mistake he said he made in his 20s. 

Instead, he wants to teach the younger generation to build skills for as long as you can, but “if you are unhappy, that’s a very different conversation.”

“I think some people will make themselves more unhappy because they feel like that’s what’s expected of a situation,” he said.

“I would love to be able to empower your generation more, to be like somebody’s gonna have to be the head of HR at that super random company to put cool standards and practices in place for better work-life balance for the employees.” 





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Mark Zuckerberg says the ‘most important thing’ he built at Harvard was a prank website

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For Mark Zuckerberg, the most significant creation from his two years at Harvard University wasn’t the precursor to a global social network, but a prank website that nearly got him expelled.

The Meta CEO said in a 2017 commencement address at his alma mater that the controversial site, Facemash, was “the most important thing I built in my time here” for one simple reason: it led him to his wife, Priscilla Chan.

“Without Facemash I wouldn’t have met Priscilla, and she’s the most important person in my life,” Zuckerberg said during the speech.

In 2003, Zuckerberg, then a sophomore, created Facemash by hacking into Harvard’s online student directories and using the photos to create a site where users could rank students’ attractiveness. The site went viral, but it was quickly shut down by the university. Zuckerberg was called before Harvard’s Administrative Board, facing accusations of breaching security, violating copyrights, and infringing on individual privacy.

“Everyone thought I was going to get kicked out,” Zuckerberg recalled in his speech. “My parents came to help me pack. My friends threw me a going-away party.”

It was at this party, thrown by friends who believed his expulsion was imminent, where he met Chan, another Harvard undergraduate. “We met in line for the bathroom in the Pfoho Belltower, and in what must be one of the all time romantic lines, I said: ‘I’m going to get kicked out in three days, so we need to go on a date quickly,’” Zuckerberg said.

Chan, who described her now-husband to The New Yorker as “this nerdy guy who was just a little bit out there,” went on the date with him. Zuckerberg did not get expelled from Harvard after all, but he did famously drop out the following year to focus on building Facebook.

While the 2010 film The Social Network portrayed Facemash as a critical stepping stone to the creation of Facebook, Zuckerberg himself has downplayed its technical or conceptual importance.

“And, you know, that movie made it seem like Facemash was so important to creating Facebook. It wasn’t,” he said during his commencement speech. But he did confirm that the series of events it set in motion—the administrative hearing, the “going-away” party, the line for the bathroom—ultimately connected him with the mother of his three children.

Chan, for her part, went on to graduate from Harvard in 2007, taught science, and then attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, becoming a pediatrician.

She and Zuckerberg got married in 2012, and in 2015, they co-founded the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization focused on leveraging technology to address major world challenges in health, education, and science. Chan serves as co-CEO of the initiative, which has pledged to give away 99% of the couple’s shares in Meta Platforms to fund its work.

You can watch the entirety of Zuckerberg’s Harvard commencement speech below:

For this story, Fortune journalists used generative AI as a research tool. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing. 



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