There are a few outstanding individuals within Starbucks in leadership roles that truly help drive and guide the business. The vast majority are people who have been with Starbucks for 10 - 15 years or more and are content doing their work the way that they are used to and don't like being challenged by others that may be smarter or have better ideas that could require more work. It is a very "consensus" driven organization and decisions can't be made unilaterally (which could be bad or good depending on the group and the project at hand). As much as the organization touts "diversity" if you look at the leadership roles, there are few, if any, people of color in leadership positions. There is subtle discrimination that people at Starbucks don't want to admit (very passive aggressive culture), but there are clearly management level employees with biased behavior. Most of the talented individuals have long left Starbucks for other organizations (e.g., Amazon). Starbucks used to be a "powerhouse" when it came to corporate ideals and a workplace, but that is no longer true and is more of a secondary choice for recent MBA grads or people with higher career aspirations.
