TOUGH LOVE | Outside Influences

All Things Considered recently interviewed Howard Schultz, ceo of Starbucks. Howard talked about the tough decisions Starbucks had to make during the past two years of operating a growth business during the recession. One quote from Howard sticks out as interesting...

It’s interesting because in my TOUGH LOVE screenplay, the fictional ceo of Galaxy Coffee, David Pearl, was influenced by the outside world.

Tim Slayer is the antagonist in TOUGH LOVE. Tim portrays a brash, fast-talking investment fun manager turned bombastic host of BEAT STREET, the most watched financial show on the Business News Channel. Tim has a personal vendetta against Galaxy Coffee and he uses that bitter aggression to talk smack on-air about Galaxy.

There’s a scene early in the screenplay where David Pearl, after returning as Galaxy ceo, appears on Tim Slayer’s BEAT STREET show. Tim grills David. Tim plays the hardest of hardball by reading aloud to his audience a leaked internal memo where David lists to his executive team all the wrong decisions Galaxy has made to damage the company.

We pick up the action with Tim questioning how David can believe “... the fundamentals of the Galaxy Coffee are as sound as they have ever been.”

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Throughout the TOUGH LOVE story we learn of more outside influences that impact the decision-making Galaxy Coffee takes to climb out from the depths of brand despair.

Comments

[Paul (from Idea Sandbox)]

I wonder how the "My Starbucks Idea" suggestion website (designed to allow the outside world to help define the company's future) fits into this?

[Ken Honeywell]

Interesting. Totally agree: you can't allow the outside world to define your company. But you'd better be listening to what the outside world wants. You can't work in an echo chamber and expect to survive.

Love the screenplay.

[Pinnacle]

Howard Schultz is one of the most innovative CEO's of our time.