What Mistake Does Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol Admit Making?

Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol has faced more than his fair share of scrutiny since taking on the top role at the coffee company in September 2024. 

Replacing a predecessor who lasted only 18 months, Niccol met slumping sales and investor pressure, operational and customer experience issues and labour challenges. 

Lucky, then, that he brought to the business a reputation as a turnaround artist, largely due to his successful leadership at Taco Bell and Chipotle. 

However, the first year at Starbucks hasn’t been plain sailing for Niccol. The company’s stock has seen decline after an initial spike on his joining. 

At the same time, his appointment drew criticism from labour advocates including the union representing Starbucks workers, and his ‘Back to Starbucks’ transformation plan has been met with a mixed response. 

Niccol candidly alluded to these challenges when speaking at Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference, where he shared leadership insights, emphasised the importance of humility and adaptability, and admitted to a key error after coming onboard. 

Reflecting on communication and strategy

On joining Starbucks, Niccol launched his Back to Starbucks initiative, a programme that forms the cornerstone of his turnaround strategy.

The initiative includes major overhauls across key areas like customer experience, employee support and operational efficiency. 

Niccol described the plan as a commitment towards “getting back to Starbucks” that would establish its “enduring identity” then drive innovation. 

He discussed the rollout of the plan at the Salesforce event, conceding to interviewer and Area Vice President of Global Field Marketing at Salesforce Heather Ruden that he had erred when communicating the scope and vision at the heart of the strategy.

“Initially, we had taken the tactic like ‘hey, we just got to get this business turned around and then we’ll start talking about what’s going on’, and the reality is we needed to get into conversation from day one so people understood, transparently, what we are trying to do we Starbucks,” he said.

“I would say, you know, early on, we needed to figure out how to tell our story again and do it in the right channels and in a culturally relevant way,” Niccol added. 

“And I think, you know, luckily, we’re not getting back to being on our front foot in talking about our business.”

Back to Starbucks: tech, people and service

Niccol’s plan to revitalise Starbucks aims to simplify an overly complex menu, invest in operational speed and efficiency, improve the use of technology to reduce in-store congestion and focus on refurbishing stores. 

In an open letter in September 2024, he set out his diagnoses: “There’s a shared sense we have drifted from our core. It can feel transactional, menus can feel overwhelming, product is inconsistent, the wait too long or the handoff too hectic. These moments are opportunities for us to do better.”

It’s a playbook that echoes Niccol's Chipotle success, where he drilled down on food quality and transparency to lead a transformation that turned the company around from years of struggling with food safety crises and operational issues. 

So far, the Starbucks plan has seen actions around store uplift and improvements, investment in baristas and corporate restructure, and a refresh of marketing activity. 

The company has also invested in technology, including the implementation of voice ordering, where Starbucks plans to use AI to enhance personalisation and speed. 

Niccol discussed innovation with Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast, where he said: “We need to be a learning organisation. We need to be an experimental organisation.”

Talking about what this looks like in practice, he highlighted how the drinks firm is using Green Dot Assist, a Gen AI-powered virtual assistant developed for Baristas to source drinks ingredients, troubleshoot challenges and answer questions. 

“If you run into an issue with a piece of equipment or how to build a certain drink, it’s a really fast way for us to then give them support with AI to get them to the right answer faster or to the right solution faster,” Niccol said. 

"I think there's a real opportunity in the app for voice ordering. I also think there's a real opportunity to be more, almost like, anticipating what we know you're going to order," he added. 

In September 2025, Starbucks announced plans to cut staff and close unprofitable stores as part of its restructuring. This includes approximately 900 non-retail partner roles – the company has emphasised that these cuts do not impact store-level employees.