Starbucks CIO Stephen Gillett is brewing change

Sharp-eyed and highly caffeinated regulars might have noticed the brand new employee at the drive-through Starbucks in Mercer Island, Washington state, last November.

The newbie, wearing the standard--issue green apron, was receiving a crash course in just about every function at the 1800-square-foot store. He took a turn as a barista, manned the drive-through desk, handed out samples to customers, took out the rubbish, and assisted a patron who was trying to connect to the Wi-Fi network. He tinkered with the store's point-of-sale -system. He even did some scheduling.

What customers likely didn't realise was that the nearly six-foot, three-inch man offering them free cookie and coffee samples was not just any barista. He was Starbucks' new CIO, Stephen Gillett. To Gillett, who frothed lattes as part of the coffeemaker's week-long executive immersion process, nearly every business and customer-facing process in the store was new.

"They do a lot in the store," says Gillett,- the former CIO of stock photography firm Corbis whose background includes senior IT posts at Yahoo and CNet, although Gillett can claim some retail experience: in his younger days he worked at a restaurant and at an Albertsons grocery store.

"They do a lot of manual things, and they do a lot of automated things using systems and process. For me, it really amplified the expediency by which I want to deliver some of our key transformational technology platforms."

Since being named SVP and CIO of Starbucks in May 2008, Gillett has learned all about the expediency required at his new gig - whether it's delivering coffee to a hurried drive-through customer or refreshing Starbucks' core technology portfolio. And the pressure is on. Starbucks is in the midst of a gruelling company-wide transformation to recapture the brand's mystique with aficionados who once didn't mind paying three to four dollars for a cup of upscale coffee. But with the economy unravelling, newly frugal consumers are now more concerned with paying their bills each month, and not with choosing between two shots of espresso or three.

This abrupt about-face by its customer base has jolted Starbucks. In 2008, the company closed 600 of its nearly 6800 US stores and laid off more than 12,000 employees out of a global workforce of 176,000. Fourth-quarter 2008 profit fell 97 per cent compared with the previous year, and the stock tanked, losing half its value last year. In 2009, the company has said it expects to reduce its cost structure by more than $400m (£283m).

Against this backdrop, Gillett's mission is to create and implement the technology vision of "anything that touches the consumer, whether it's in back-end [IT operations] or in how a customer interacts in a physical Starbucks store," says Chet Kuchinad, executive vice president of Starbucks partner resources, who led the team that hired Gillett.

"Stephen's not just about legacy systems and not just about efficiency. He's about how we take technology and connect with Starbucks' consumers in a different way. Frankly, we've just begun, and there's a lot of work to be done yet."

Gillett's keenly aware of the stakes, and his role. "I feel like the pressure is equally distributed among the executive team," he says. "I'm part of the team."

Gillett knows a thing or two about pressure and being a team player. He was a member of the University of Oregon Ducks football team, which plays in the Pacific colleges' first division football conference and often competes in championship ‘bowl' games, like Gillett's team did in 1996's Cotton Bowl. Gillett played the offensive guard position, where the success of the entire offense depends on five large men working in concert to provide protection for the quarterback and open lanes for running backs to tear through the gaps and gain vital yards towards goal.

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