Question: Even with a workforce of 600, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, based in Waterbury, Vermont, stays as entrepreneurial as when Bob Stiller founded the company in 1981 with one coffee shop and a handful of employees. The original plan was to open a series of coffee shops throughout New England. By the time Green Mountain Coffee had grown to twelve shops, profitability was struggling, so Stiller switched to importing, roasting, and wholesaling high-quality coffee beans to stores, food-service professionals, and restaurants around the country. Today, his company brews up profits from $137 million in annual sales to Aramark Food Service, McDonald's New England outlets, Wild Oats Market groceries, Publix supermarkets, and 7,000 other businesses. Jobs at Green Mountain Coffee are departmentalized into six functions: sales and marketing, operations, human resources, finance, information systems, and social responsibility.
The organization chart shows how specialized jobs are linked by a distinct chain of command leading to CEO Bob Stiller at the top. What the chart doesn't show, however, is how collaboration and communication among all levels-rather than strict hierarchy-gives the company a decision-making edge. This is a flat organization, with only four levels between a corporate salesperson and the CEO. In line with the company's collaborative culture, decisions are made by inviting employees from different functions and different levels to offer their input. Decisions may take a little more time under this system, but they're more informed and usually yield a better solution to the problem than if handled by a single manager or a tiny group. For a particularly challenging decision, Green Mountain Coffee relies on a "constellation" of communication to collect ideas from around the organization. Managers frequently post decision data on the corporate computer system and ask coworkers for comments.
They also exchange a blizzard of e-mail messages and call crossfunctional meetings, when necessary, to share information and opinions. Ultimately, the manager closest to the situation is responsible for evaluating all the data and making the decision, guided by the company's values. Green Mountain Coffee's values are revealed in its mission statement: "We create the ultimate coffee experience in every life we touch from tree to cup-transforming the way the world understands business." Because the company buys from hundreds of coffee growers and sells to thousands of businesses as well as thousands of consumers who order by mail or online, it touches a lot of lives. Social responsibility ranks high on Green Mountain Coffee's corporate agenda. It is known for donating considerable cash, coffee, and volunteer time to the communities it serves in the United States and in coffee-producing nations. Every year the company flies dozens of employees to Central America to see how coffee beans are grown, meet the growers, and learn about the farming communities. "The effect is profound," says Stephen Sabol, vice president of development.
"The knowledge of the care that goes into the coffee is important, but when [employees] see the social part of it, and how dependent these growers are on us being a quality partner, it hits right home-the obligation we have to do well." After one of these "Coffee Source Trips," employees come back to work with renewed energy and dedication. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters not only has been cited as one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States, but it also has been named among the most socially responsible. The CEO recognizes that his company must do well in order to do good. "To help the world, we have to be successful," Stiller says. "If we help the world and go out of business, we're not going to help anybody."10
For more information about this company, visit its Web site at www.greenmountaincoffee.com.
1. How is Green Mountain Coffee's "constellation" of communication likely to affect the informal organization?
2. Does Green Mountain Coffee appear to have a networked, communal, mercenary, or fragmented culture? Support your answer.
3. Is Green Mountain Coffee a centralized or decentralized organization? How do you know?