Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been nominated to join the Starbucks board of directors. Starbucks announced Nadella's nomination alongside those of LEGO Executive Chairman Jørgen Vig Knudstorp and Sam's Club CEO and President Rosalind Brewer.
Speaking on his nomination, Nadella said:
I'm honored to have been nominated to join the Board of this world-renowned company. As a regular customer myself, I've always admired Starbucks focus and deep passion for its customers and the communities it does business in and hope my years of experience in the technology industry will be of value to the company.
Starbucks says Nadella's presence on the board will bring valuable technical experience to help the company leverage technology "to elevate the brand and grow its business." Starbucks shareholders will vote to elect Nadella, alongside Knudstorp and Brewer, at an annual meeting on March 22.
Starbucks and Microsoft are based in Seattle, and both companies have worked together in the past. In early 2016, Starbucks showed off an Office add-in that allowed users to easily schedule meetings at local Starbucks locations or even send custom electronic gift cards, all from within the Office suite. Starbucks also launched a Windows 10 Mobile app in late 2016.
Reader comments
Satya Nadella nominated to Starbucks' board of directors
Wish to say things to and about Mr. Nadella that are not allowed on this pages. So I'll yell with my mimics on mute.
If Nadella acquired Starbucks.... how it will happen then?
He should be deported. Go back to India, Satya. Microsoft is an American company. Hopefully ICE come knocking on your door soon.
REALLY?????? such class
Pretty sure he has citizenship... Go crawl back under your rock, caveman. I'm a redneck, and even I don't say crap like that.
His role will be "Massive Layoffs Advisor"
They have a windows app, really? Not in Australia they don't, at least not from my search.
Bad move for Starbucks.
He should just work there and leave MS the A** He hase been the worst.
That's weird because the majority of developers and consumers I know who used to hate MS now think they are an innovative and forward thinking company. They actually like Satya and disliked Balmer. The only people that dislike Satya are a small group of Windows phone users who don't understand windows was dead a long time ago and just want something new to blame for it being dead every year. It was dead. The share was comprised of 520 units. Seriously just move on.
Motorola bounced back on moto Es and moto Gs, whats your point abt 520s?
Motorola didn't need to support an ecosystem. They just do hardware.
Sure a majority of people love free stuff that MS now throws into the competition stores. Nadella's great...for them. Eventually he's going to have to monetize these things and those people will keep giving revenue to their 1st party vendor.
You say move on, but you stay around commenting because you just want to chastise people to "move on"? Seems like a hypocritical waste of time and energy.
Nadella has failed on "cloud first, mobile first". He should be sacked before he procrastinates any longer.
In a few months my latte and the Starbucks app will be dropped. retrenchment reasons.
So....does this mean we can spill our cup o' Starbucks all over our Surfaces and be okay now? ;-)
While I'm kinda indifferent to this news, I suppose any inroads making Nadela can do that doesn't come at the expense of his focus and dedication to MS is only a plus for us, so why not? I'll raise my venti americano (black) to him! Cheers! :-)
Maybe Starbucks will get Surface based Point of Sale systems? Qi wireless charging in store? More features for the W10M app and UWP updates to use on your tablet, laptop and even Xbox One? Bluetooth beacons in every store?
Thought I'd add some positivity to this thread! 🙂
Will he shut down all their drive-thrus and kill their "mobile" experience as well?
Nadella should spend his time concentrating on Microsoft or get out of the way of Microsoft's progress and innovation.
.
I wonder what he has to offer Starbucks? Short term thinking? Corporate Raider layoffs for fast short term profits?
I guess Starbucks wanted to fire people and needed a man with experience in ditching, so they've got Nadella.
Welcome to the corporate world, nothing to get upset over, had to be done.
You think Apple won't do the same at some point?
Free coffee ☕
Nadella is a strategist and that's evident in his ability to motivate a team to build products that are in new categories that even the major companys are emulating and building stuff like power bi,and Bing predicts,and Cortana..I think with quantum computing the programing languages are going to be easier,so the app gap won't be a huge problem,plus they are investigating in a lot of time building bots ,they have That as a contingency plan..
That development was all in process before Nadella. It didn't magically appear, suddenly with Nadella.
what is it with bots, what do they will do, they are not replacing apps, now now, not ever.
But is he a *good* strategist?
The general consensus in the world 🗺 today is that that's no hope ,and its unfortunate that Microsoft's mobile decision is down at the moment but I know they didn't build features and tools like continuum, the app bridges,one core,uwp ect for nothing..if Microsoft is through with mobile,why are they talking about building pc with Mobile capabilities,why are they continuing the push to build Windows one core,an os that spans various form factors,why are the looking to emulate pc apps on mobile..if you think Microsoft has azure and all those other machine learning stuff just for there Customers, think again,why would they have the tools that can help them make better decisions and just make another Windows phone,do you think they just collect all that data from our devices for fun? Do you think a company who wants to be on top just going to watch one of the most important market in the world be dominated by others like that...thats like leaving your Girlfriend just because another guy called to her..
Very hard to read. Run on sentence? What are you trying to say?
just hopefully this can push starbuck to make theri app on W10M better, now, I have to login everytime I try to use it, why can't it remeber my login, and where is the mobile ordering?
Damn. Does this mean Starbucks Mobile app for Windows is dead?
Quite the opposite I think
:)) most likely because, ya' know, retrenchment and cost cutting..the usual bullsht Nadella is promoting
Like how apple influenced Nike, it's good to have MS presence in Starbucks. I go to a Starbucks almost everyday. Many of the stores have PMA wireless charging, and it's nice to charge my Elite x3. The WM Starbucks App is pretty good, the only thing missing is the online order, which I never tried even on my work iPhone.
Yeah, more bucks for the star Nutella!
Free coffee for Windows Phone owners?
Yeah, both of us get free coffee. weeeeeee
Works for me!
He's more likely to give free coffee where the users are on iDroid. I mean, he's giving them free apps and getting no revenue because #itsjustbusiness. Ha
So he has that much idle time? He should be meeting with Terry Myerson asking what's taking so long to refine W10M, design new phones, and get developers onboard. With the issues Samsung had with the Note 7, it would have been a prime time. That why LG is bringing it's new phone with thing bezels and 90% of the screen being display to market. Microsoft is too busy support Android and Apple to care aobut its own platform or should I say too busy becoming a member of Starbuck board to care!
He would say "W10M, didnt we kill it", makes notes :P
I would just like him to ask them to fix the windows mobile app for the uk
WP is irrelevant, it's DEAD, put a fork in it, Microsoft has.
PLEASE TAKE HIM. I wouldn't be shocked if Microsoft's board members paid Starbucks heftily to keep this clown busy for the next 48-72 months while they put this mess back together.
Uh..oh. They're going to start retrenching on the Mocha Lattés. Buy them while you can.
No coffee for you! Its all being retrenched back to Vanilla Beans! You go, Nutella.
CEOs sit on other boards as a perk of their elevated status in society... Business as usual. I own a Lumia 640 running Insider Release Previews and the OS is stable with the odd minor bug.. Facebook crashes on first opening attempt but always opens second go. HDR rich capture photo saving sometimes hangs forever. Minor bugs. Phone reception quality perfect wherever I am in Australia. Very happy user.
So many problems in Microsoft orbit and he's really thinking about joining (the awful coffee of) Starbucks?
They are bringing him onboard so he can supervise removal of the Starbucks app on Windows 10 Mobile.
Hold on everyone! We need to check the alternative facts!
No, not after that crappy app they put out. Back to your room Nadella! I love starbucks coffee...but that app is a disgrace
They share the same experience: How to avoid paying taxes.
You can downvote me but if Microsoft would pay taxes in the US they would have to pay 30 billion $.
If I search Starbucks on the store, I cannot find an app.
Must try harder
It's there
So does this mean we will get an update to the app? Lol
The Starbucks app apps never let me log in Starbucks support can't help me.
I guess he has some time to spare.......
Lol. Time to invest in Coffee Bean.
Relax, I'm kidding.
Anyway, I do hope that this arrangement does not hurt Microsoft. If he is to advise Starbucks on technological strategy, he might not be able to sell Microsoft as a solution to them as a board member. It might actually harm Microsoft if he is to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
Coffee Bean is better actually.
I don't disagree. That Mocha...
I guess Starbucks saw that they were too profitable, they needed someone to come in and nose dive their business. Success. I never drink their crap anyways. I always make good coffee at home. When on the road, I make sure I find a good locally owned mom and pop coffee shop. They care about their product and it shows in the quality of the coffee.
People around here will tell you Starbucks has to be better...because Market Share. It's just business. Ugh
Nope....just that starbucks is available more easily has more to offer...just like android and IOS compared to WIndows 10. I never, said that windows 10 mobile is not a great OS....I used it, it is....BUT the glaring thing is that it does not have the goods in content...simple. Plus, two different markets, products etc. you cannot compare phones and coffee......That's like saying I sell more lawnmowers than xy company sell deodorant. NO CORRELATION at all.
A - I wasn't arguing with you not was I saying you said anything. I was taking a jab at the cooy/paste comments that a lot of people around here make.
B. Apparently Starbucks thinks that there IS a correlation.
C. Local coffee joints often have more to offer than Starbucks.
D. This whole comment section has been a spoof of comparing coffee to technology. Not sure why you got all serious and literal, all of a sudden.
E. All of the Comment Section MBA wanna be types who say "it's just business" would disagree with the whole nuance of different businesses requires different analysis, strategy, management, etc. Which was the point I tried to make in my comment to you. Apparently, you just want to debate, even when no one was disagreeing with you.
Mis understood your message....take 'er easy!
This just in Nadella has invented a new cloud first, mobile first coffee cup, it has a big hole in the bottom where the coffee leaks out...
Will he make sure Starbucks will finally serve actual coffee instead of that overpriced dishwashing water they pretend it's coffee? :P
No. They are retrenching from the coffee market.
Now bring the Starbucks app to Germany. I'm a regular customer and I really miss the app. At least the app is on W10M.
They don't take app payments in Denmark either, regardless of the OS.
Maybe we can get a full featured Starbucks app... I wanna place an order remotely!
ios app will come with free office 365 subscription.
ROFL! I genuinely cracked up at that, have no idea why someone would downvote such a hilarious comment :'D
He's doing alright on my opinion. If you have a product that is not kicking off (Windows Phone), but on the other side not caring the best and biggest OS market
share in the world, I would do the same. Slow down with Windows Phone and accelerate PC OS development. Universal Windows App will make Windows Phone to come back in the time they have to. This is business my friends.
Three years in and he has no vision. He's just continuing the ones he inherited (cloud, one os). All he's done during his tenure is layoff employees.
I love your comment...lol
You should be a comedian with lines like that.....
Saying "this is business", doesn't make it so. There are multitudes of ways to run a business. Part of it has to do with vision which isn't done in a spreadsheet. Part of it is FIXING problems, not deciding to ignore them because I can look better for a quarter or two if I just cut, cut, cut. Cutting without vision is hackery.
Nutella Starbucks
Watch out for layoffs at Starbucks.
And a few cutbacks on menu items to "streamline their focus" on what business customers want.
Cappuccino retrenchment incoming.
Don't really care, he should just bring back our mobile vision. He makes me miss Balmer a lot.
Yea, Starbucks should avoid his advice on items including mobile, consumers, loyalty programs, and commitment.
Yeah but I bet they like the advice about business focus, cloud computing, and productivity because Microsoft is doing great at that stuff :).
I left that off for a reason. I'm not saying he's a complete failure, just at mobile and consumer.
You forgot layoffs 😂
Yeah, he rocks at those...like a boss. awww, too soon? #NoMoreRoper
Business focus? They are doing great at focusing, but the results??
Next Windows Edition :
Microsoft Starbugs for Gnutella !
It's when he retrenches tea to focus it at business customers only that they'll start to understand his visionary tactics.
You guys really need to stop complaining about the state of Microsoft Mobile. Microsoft has already said they missed the boat, and instead of releasing half baked products that will fail again, they are going back to the drawing board and figuring out how to get back into the market without failing.
You already know they are working on W10M as well as some kind of mobile device to be released under the Surface brand, which has grown to a respectable brand among Apple and Android fans. Look at what kind of response the tech world had when they released the Surface Pro, the Surface Book, and the Surface Studio. Whether you bought it or not, they are highly praised and recommended devices. This is the same response they are looking to get when they release this mobile device.
Stop complaining and be patient.
I've been patient for years since WP7 has come out... Still see no large mobile activity or movement on Microsoft's behalf
No activity? Really now?
I'm an avid Android fan who has been eyeing W10M and the "Surface phone" from a distance, and I could see a lot of activity.
With W10M alone, that should be enough to get you a little excited, let alone an actual "Surface phone."
You all act like Microsoft has no idea what they are doing or what's going on. If you can't grasp the concept that Microsoft is working on a device that isn't just another phone on the market, that's a personal problem on you.
If you don't want to wait, go buy an iPhone or an Android device. No one is stopping you.
Dude don't be talking based on social media rumors, do you have any proof or an official wording from Microsoft about a damn surface phone? Until then be realistic and stop dreaming bro.
A good question would be. Why has it taken so long?
It's not as if you guys signed a life contract with Microsoft, you can always buy iPhone or android device and stop complaining. Mobile might fail under Nadella but Microsoft is doing great in other areas under Nadella and lots of haters are actually seeing Microsoft as been cool again even if they're looking at it from the distance
Excuse me? Did you just read me complaining that i want to switch to another device? And I said major activity. Oh yes, touching up on an endlessly unfinished operating system doesn't really count for me anymore. Believe me, I love my Lumia, but it's a shame seeing support from developers diminish. Microsoft coming out with the surface phone better be a full invested hit, cause coming out with as what MS called "a device for a windows phone fan" doesn't run well.
"you act like Microsoft has no idea what they are doing or whats going on"
They've restarted on mobile like 3 times (and they're basically about to do it again)
Their original vision for Xbox One got killed by their PR disaster of an announcement.
Their wearable didn't catch on enough to continue manufacturing
Their OS adoption rate has stalled and at this point even if Androids continuum equivalent comes out after Windows on ARM It's still more likely to catch on than Window's considering their mobile marketshare(the one that's really going to matter here) is a big fat 0.
And let's not forget that W10M has to be restarted to fix something every day of the week
They clearly don't.
You haven't been using the stuff then and just commenting. I only dove in at wp8 but since then with them every step of the way... Along with my surface pro 3. I don't see how you can possibly say you don't see any movement.
So much stuff has happened, whether it's resulted in market success or not is not the point. They did a lot of work trying to merge the OS vision
I was on the windows mobile board since the HTC Trophy.... And success is totally the point in a business, a merchandise failure could result in a sour taste in the consumer market
I get you perfectly but my point and what I wish Satya and his team learn is Success doesn't come on your first try....you try for years even upon numerous failures. You can't basically release a phone and hope the whole world jumps to it especially with ios and android around. Success is built upon not by luck. I work in a lab and can tell you the number of times you fail at your experiments before you succeed can make and made lots of researchers quit their job.
With each OS release/culmulative update, they are trying, They are far past the first try with wp7, so quite a number of years already and still trying :) Don't see how you can say they stopped trying. Product releases? That costs money and wastes money if they can't sell it.
Yea but you were saying you see no large movement or activity since wp7. The ride has definitely been frustrating at times but you can't say they haven't been showing you any activity or movement if you been with them each step of the way. They've been trying, people haven't been buying yet they are still trying.
Haven't seen an open minded comment like this on WC for a long time. Good to see there are still other reasonable people here :D Kudos
Meaning we are all stupid here right? We make stupid comments that's what you telling us right?
I wouldn't call you stupid, but I'll call you original comment stupid.
You're quick to praise Steve Balmer. Why? You wanna know why Microsoft's Mobile department isn't doing too hot right now? Answer: Steve Balmer.
Steve Balmer slammed the iPhone when it came out and did nothing to release a device that was worthy of competing with the iPhone.
Android became a successful OS as well because OEM's (Samsung at the front) engineered devices around the success of the iPhone. Call it what you want, but that's why Android is in the game today.
What did Steve Balmer do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And when he realized he missed a huge opportunity, he purchased Nokia as a last resort.
I'll shoot it straight why that idea failed: Nokia phones were nowhere close to appealing Android and Apple fans. We had no reason to switch to a Nokia phone.
So don't be so quick to praise Steve Balmer and slam Satya Nadella. Nadella knows if he wants the "Surface Phone" to succeed, he needs it to not only appeal to Microsoft fans, but die-hard Android and iPhone users, which is why they are taking their sweet time with it.
You need to educate yourself before you start complaining.
There's a difference between missing and praising, I wasn't praising Balmer but I miss him. At least he tried, he gave us some momentum. Let me ask you, does it always have to be about the market? We can be a small group of people with a prime focus....we had that before, where is it now. Your Satya buried it, basically no hope now. Balmer had his his mistakes but he made us proud, you've heard the word "adaptability" before. No matter how small the WP market was, it kept on growing lil by lil for years. We would have had a bigger significant number by now. People would have adapted to the platform, people were fed with ios and android and switched to wp...we would have had a bigger number and increase market with that focus by now cuz of adaptability. Now where's that focus? Apps are disappearing, even if your so-called Surface phone is true, where will those apps be...even on full Win10. I see no hope or future...but just praying something good happens soon and you stay there and dream...smfh.
Did you seriously just put "does it always have to be about the market?"
You really don't understand business and investors. OF COURSE IT HAS TO BE ABOUT THE MARKET! Really man? I said I wouldn't call you stupid, but man that right there is pushing it...
You need some serious education man...
...and that's where you guys fail. Success is built upon not by luck. Most of you have inherited these wrong opinions about product success and you give up easily. Well whatever man, tired of this bullshit. Say whatever you wanna say, I'm signing off.....hate wasting my time with kids.
Dude, you're calling me a kid? I have only been debating valid points with you, and you have been doing nothing but complaining. Every comment you have made is a complaint.
You're the one who needs to stop acting like a kid and defend your complaints with some facts, not personal opinions.
I'm trying to show you there is hope for Microsoft's mobile department based on the company's recent decisions but you don't want to believe it. That's a personal problem.
The reliance of quarterly market SALES share is short-sighted in making decisions. In a literal interpretation of that analysis, nothing would ever get started because they'd have 0% market share. So, no...it's not always about the status quo market. Vision and dedication are about things you feel will BE successful, not what the sales were last quarter. "Business" is more complicated than where you are coming from with the insults of those who have a different perspective than you.
Dont make your personal opinion count as "we", Nokia sold quite a bit of phones and all those users were not imported from Mars of jupiter, they included earthly android and ios users as well.
An suddenly you are an expert on surface phone? then you should know that surface phone is going to be a mobile pc and not a phone, its not a phone replacement, Mary Jo has already clarified that and she's an respected MS expert.
I didn't say Nokia didn't sell any phones, I said that they pale in comparison to Android/iOS. And I stand my the claim that the vast majority of iOS and Android users were not convinced to buy Nokia phones. The market share proves it, which is why Nadella buried Nokia, and rightly so.
Furthermore, I never claimed that I was a professional on the "Surface Phone." And Mary Jo Foley is exactly right when she says it won't be a phone replacement, because if it was, it would fail.
Again, think of the existing Surface Products. They aren't all 1 category devices. They are all in multiple technological categories, which is exactly what this "Surface Phone" will be, hence not just a phone replacement.
Actually in many regions of the world Nokia was outselling iPhone and let's not forget that even up until it's mobile division sale was still one of the top phone manufacturers in the world.
again not true, Nokia and WP were more popular than iphones and were catching up with android in quite a few important markets outside US, but the efforts were regularly marred by phone being out of stock while MS was focussed on trying to raise market share in US which didnt happen and they eventually lost market elsewhere owing to retrenchment.
I'm glad Nadella wasn't around to "rightly so" bury XBox in the early days.
A mobile PC that can replace your phone. If you just want a phone, get Hp Elite x3, iPhone, android etc. Plenty of choices.
Re: aka jeddo45:
Please go back and review the facts. Steve Balmer slammed the original apple phone because of it's extremely high price and "value". Then, apple reduced the price.
Please try to remember the story, in context.
Umm.. No it means that there are both sides to this conversation...
@kenzibit Wow you just took my comment and threw it way out of proportion. I was saying a lot of comments here are biased either for, or against Microsoft. It's very rare you ever see comments on WC where they're reasonable on the goods and bads of MS; acknowledging their failures, and the future potential (What people forget, is every company, even Apple ( :o ), has had failures and possibilities, and will continue to do so throughout the future)
But hey, since you got extremely defensive about a comment you was not actually mentioned in, maybe that says more about you than me. You could have always read the comment and went on your way, but instead you accuse me of saying everyone is stupid. Kinda confused on that logic.
There's a major difference between the meaning of the words "Reasonable" and "Stupid" with not even a remote connection to each other.
But hey. As you said on a previous comment, don't "waste [your] time on kids" who call out on your flawed logic
We've been patient for a very looooong time and still nothing. When will our waiting be over??
I wasn't the one that loudly proclaimed "Mobile First" 3 years ago. And before you say he meant apps not OS, check the top mobile apps list and you'll see Microsoft is losing there too. Looks like 3 years of failure to me.
Mobile 1st, customers....last
Right, a product that has been mismanaged for years from the start that is now being buried as deep as it can be by the new CEO with no thought for the effect on users who purchased the devices. Just be patient for another 6 years? Or should we go for 10 this time? Lets just say 20 just to be on the safe side.....
you have no idea abt what you are talking, being ahead of curve means at least 50 years :P
Speaking only for myself, I've been rather patient for quite a good while now (six years).
@jeddo45,'instead of releasing half baked products they going back to the drawing board'... oh you mean like how complete WM10 was at release?
And yet you conveniently forget that Wndows10m has yet to be released to a phone intended for the whole market
"and instead of releasing half baked products"
Stopped reading there. Windows 10 and just about every current ms handset is half assed. Plastic Flagship phones?(950) lmao
Keep telling yourself the decade long lie, it'll all be good. Yawn.
They'll start selling coffee only to businesses .
Balmer is the main reason the mobile division failed. You people never make sense. This company is doing better than it has in years and yet you constantly complain. Go buy an apple.
we are users of products here and not shareholders to be happy that company is doing better.
Layoffs and cutting divisions are great for the quarterly balance sheet, so speculative investors bought. Stock price is not a foolproof indicator of how well a business is doing.