Mail

The Power of Positive

I have been reading Inc. for about four years, ever since I graduated from high school and started my own company. Bo Burlingham's article on Joe Cirulli ["The Believer," August] was amazing. Some of the quotes are the best I have read in Inc. My favorite, which I'm having hung in my office, is, "There is no limit to what you can learn or how much better you can become, as long as you keep reading, listening, and searching for wisdom." Thanks for publishing such compelling articles. I actually had to ask people to leave my house tonight so that I could finish reading one of Burlingham's other pieces.

Matt Pollitt
president
PTE Golf
Orlando

Saving Starbucks

I would take issue with one point in Joel Spolsky's article about Starbucks' (NASDAQ:SBUX) newfangled operational systems [How Hard Could It Be? August]. I would say that "Starbucks believes it is great at operations research."

At every Starbucks in St. Louis, my favorite vanilla bean scones sell out by 11 a.m. daily. This is just basic Operations 101. In order to maximize profits, Starbucks should order enough of these high-margin, replenishable items to be throwing away extras at closing time. In operations research, you are taught to prevent the possibility of losing customers because of a shortage of products. But Starbucks' store managers create their own orders and have likely never had trainingin operations theory.

Ryan Richt
CEO
Cofactor Genomics
St. Louis

Spolsky's article about Starbucks and its use of expediters really hit the nail on the head. To me, serving coffee correctly and with a pleasant attitude is not too much to ask. Isn't it supposed to be an "experience"? From a service perspective, Starbucks focuses on the unnecessary things, like the expediters, before the necessary things (clean bathrooms, faster service). And, of course, this is obvious to customers.  

Michelle Kim
Co-founder
Sushi Pups
New York City

I used to laugh when I heard employees say, "We could get a lot of work done around here if it weren't for all these customers." Based on Spolsky's article regarding Starbucks' changes to its coffee service, this seems to be how this company is thinking.

Real customer service results are noticed and appreciated by customers. Ineffective process fluff encourages them to take their business elsewhere. My guess is that it will take real leadership to turn around Starbucks' multiyear decline.

Grant Ferguson
Productivity strategist
ProductionBoost.com
Dallas

Newton's Principles

"Keep Running" [August], by Robert Andrew Powell, provides a nice peek at Newton Running. But in an attempt to demonstrate the hype associated with this brand, Powell took a swipe at my reputation as a runner and as a newspaper columnist who reviews gear.

Powell writes: "I noticed that the [Gear Junkie] columnist who ranked the Newtons No. 1 in his gear-of-the-year column said the shoes kept him 'feeling faster' in the Twin Cities Marathon. And then I saw that his finishing time of four hours and 36 minutes was 46 minutes slower than his time in the same race two years earlier."

Powell is right that I ran a slow marathon in the Newtons last fall. But he did not phone to ask why. Indeed, the weekend of the marathon I was attempting an endurance feat of sorts, as I raced in (and won) a 12-hour adventure race on Saturday, got a couple of hours of sleep, then arose early to run the marathon on Sunday.

My message to Powell and Inc.: Next time, get the story straight. I'll sign off now to go take a training run -- in my Newtons.

Stephen Regenold
Editor
GearJunkie.com
Minneapolis

Four Start-up Stories

Of the four start-ups you profiled in your start-up issue ["The Ultimate Start-up Reality Check," July], I would cast my vote for LiaMolly. All the business concepts had their strengths, but LiaMolly had something the others didn't: originality. LiaMolly is actually making new and distinctive sweaters from scratch.

George Saroyan
West Coast sales manager
District Administration magazine
Corona, California

I was intrigued by ScanDigital's business plan. I agree with former E-Trade (NASDAQ:ETFC) chairman Christos Cotsakos's assessment that ScanDigital should focus on building brand awareness because of the relatively low barriers to entry in the digital scanning field. ScanDigital is right to differentiate itself on something other than price. A race to the bottom would probably hurt the entire market.