Newly appointed Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol won\u2019t be required to relocate to the company\u2019s headquarters in Seattle when he joins the coffee giant next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, Starbucks says Niccol can live in his home in Newport Beach, California and commute to Starbucks\u2019 head office 1,000 miles away on a corporate jet, according to the new CEO\u2019s\u00a0offer letter, which was made public in an SEC filing last week.<\/p>\n
In his new role, Niccol, 50, will be\u00a0paid a base salary\u00a0of $1.6 million annually and has the opportunity to earn an annual cash bonus that could range from $3.6 million to $7.2 million depending on his performance. He will also be eligible for annual equity awards worth up to $23 million.<\/p>\n
Niccol successfully negotiated a similar deal when he became the CEO of Chipotle in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the time, the fast-casual chain was headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and Niccol \u2014 who served as CEO of Taco Bell before his stint at Chipotle \u2014 lived in Newport Beach, a 15-minute drive from Taco Bell\u2019s main office in Irvine, California. Chipotle moved its headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach\u00a0three months\u00a0after announcing Niccol\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n
In the offer letter, Starbucks also notes that it will set up a remote office for Niccol in Newport Beach along with an assistant of his choosing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he is not traveling for work, however, Niccol will still be expected to work from the Seattle office at least three days a week in alignment with Starbucks\u2019\u00a0hybrid work policies,\u00a0a company spokesperson tells CNBC Make It.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian\u2019s primary office and a majority of his time will be spent in our Seattle Support Center or out visiting partners and customers in our stores, roasteries, roasting facilities and offices around the world,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cHis schedule will exceed the hybrid work guidelines and workplace expectations we have for all partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starbucks employees have been required to work from the office at least three days a week since early 2023.<\/p>\n
Niccol\u2019s arrangement underscores the gulf in bargaining power between high-ranking executives and the average employee in terms of flexibility.<\/p>\n
While rank-and-file employees might not be able to demand the flexibility to work remotely from a different state, companies make exceptions for senior-level employees to attract and retain top talent, says Raj Choudhury, a professor at Harvard Business School who studies remote work.<\/p>\n
Choudhury says there is a growing number of CEOs who are \u201cworking from anywhere,\u201d though there is no comprehensive research on the topic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s becoming increasingly common because we\u2019re still in a competitive labor market,\u201d he explains. \u201cExecutives aren\u2019t accepting job offers if flexibility isn\u2019t on the table.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Victoria\u2019s Secret made a similar concession last week when it hired Hillary Super from Fenty x Savage, Rihanna\u2019s lingerie brand, as its new CEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When Super starts in September, she will work from the retailer\u2019s New York City offices instead of its headquarters near Columbus, Ohio, traveling to Columbus as needed, according to her\u00a0employee agreement.<\/p>\n
Despite these recent instances, it\u2019s still hard to draw any definitive conclusions about CEOs\u2019 remote work preferences.<\/p>\n
Although some CEOS \u2014 including Amazon\u2019s Andy Jassy and JPMorgan Chase\u2019s Jamie Dimon \u2014 are drawing a hard line on return-to-office policies,\u00a0other research\u00a0has indicated that bosses aren\u2019t thrilled with the loss of remote work.<\/p>\n
Choudhury sees Niccol\u2019s arrangement at Starbucks as an example of a company taking a \u201csmart risk\u201d to snag a star executive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The coffee giant\u2019s performance has struggled this year, hurt by weak sales in the U.S. and China, its two largest markets,\u00a0CNBC\u00a0reports. Starbucks shares have fallen 21% during its current CEO Laxman Narasimhan\u2019s tenure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Niccol has a strong track record of turning around troubled companies: As CEO of Chipotle, he helped the chain rebound from its foodborne illness scandal and led its restaurants through the pandemic. During his time at the restaurant chain, its stock soared 773%,\u00a0CNBC\u00a0reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarbucks based its process of selection on this person\u2019s prior record of boosting restaurant-based companies, not their location,\u201d says Choudhury. \u201cI expect more companies will take notice and follow suit: If you want to attract and retain the best talent, you have to be open to flexible work arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such an emerging trend could have benefits for desk workers craving flexibility, Choudhury adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf more C-suite leaders start working remotely, middle managers might be inspired to start trying it, as culture changes start at the top,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is a great opportunity for Starbucks to experiment with offering employees, wherever possible, the same degree of flexibility it\u2019s giving its executives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Newly appointed Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol won\u2019t be required to relocate to the company\u2019s headquarters in Seattle when he joins the coffee giant next month.\u00a0 Instead, Starbucks says Niccol can live in his home in Newport Beach, California and commute to Starbucks\u2019 head office 1,000 miles away on a corporate jet, according to the new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}