A NEW PARADIGM AT THE COFFEE BEAN & TEA LEAF
A Vanguard Case Study
Executive Summary
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf was started in 1963 in Southern California, specifically, the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. It was ahead of its time: The Coffee Bean pioneered the sourcing of high quality coffee and tea, introduced an in-store retail experience that fostered relationship building with the community. Today, the brand essentially stands for “Creating Meaningful Moments and Goodness with our Communities”.
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Relationships matter to the company. In the Philippines, The Coffee Bean is recognized as the “Cup That Cares”. It is a company that strives to be honoring and encouraging, to treat others as important, and make an impact in their communities’ lives. Vanguard continues to be retained by the company to drive engagement and alignment with its corporate values, incorporating engagement drivers seamlessly into the organization’s existing processes including recruitment, on-boarding, and personal & professional development.
Engagement, Alignment and Organizational Culture Change
Whole system change involves every part of the system. It is not enough to work with leaders or to tweak the processes and machinery of an organization – every soul in the organization needs to be touched. Critical to cultural transformation is the development of a shared vision of both the current reality and the desired future. A shared vision is not a static document but a living process. If a shared vision is to be translated into meaningful and sustainable transformation for the whole organization, two ingredients are necessary – engagement and alignment. The engagement of everyone in the system produces both the momentum (energy) and ownership (accountability) required for change. Alignment ensures that momentum is channeled in an appropriate direction.
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The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf leaders stopped asking the question, “How engaged are you at work?” Instead, Vanguard facilitated for a discovery process that answers the question, “What engages you?”, followed by “How can you apply what engages you to your work?” In a single stroke, this process has shifted engagement from a problem “out there” to an opportunity within that can be pursued. Even if 100% engagement is unrealistic, a shift from 50% to 75% is not unreasonable and represents a significant improvement both in the quality of life for the individual as well as value to the organization.
Impact
“We have done our best to be a learning organization. At the start, like most young companies, we didn’t know a lot. Not only did we not know a lot, we also did not know what we did not know. But through hard work, perseverance, learning from our experiences, building teams, and a lot of prayer, by GOD's GRACE we have overcome our initial difficulties to become the company we are today.
While we acknowledge the work we have accomplished, we know that our work is never done, and we recognize the need to push forward, especially in a time like this. Vanguard is instrumental in helping us do our best to stay true to our core and do the things that keep us differentiated from others: being trustworthy, being delightful, and being humble. We remain intensely focused on our values, our people (both Team Members and Customers alike), and we live out the timeless principles of working very, very, hard and persevering under adversity. We will always aim to be an enduring model for excellence by setting our hearts right, honoring God in all we do.”
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Brendan Sta Maria, Director of Operations
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Philippines