Bound for Batdorf
My first official day as Business Development Director for Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters is December 1, 2009. I’ll be in Olympia December 7-14 and then January 4th I leave for Atlanta, where I will be based. Jennifer, Quinn and Piper, will follow soon after. Many of you know that Batdorf has a roasting facility in Atlanta as well as Olympia, Washington. Jennifer and I are very excited about living in Atlanta.
That pretty much covers the facts at this time. Additional related verbosity follows.
I started my coffee career in 1998 when I was hired by Ted Lingle at The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA). Just a few months after I was hired I headed to Seattle for Coffee Fest. Lindsey Bolger, now at Green Mountain, was then green buyer for Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters. I had gotten to know her because she was a member of the SCAA Board of Directors, and she invited me to Olympia and Batdorf for a visit.
We spent hours in the Batdorf coffeehouse, tasting every coffee available. Then we toured the roastery and I met the owners and the employees. For those of you who are in coffee, this was the day the bug bit me. From that point forward I harbored a desire to one day work for a coffee roasting company. Those who know me well know I hoped it would be Batdorf & Bronson.
I don’t remember who I said it to, but it was someone at Batdorf & Bronson, Holly House I think, and it was about 10 years ago. I noted that even though SCAA was the trade association for the specialty coffee industry, we often didn’t have decent coffee in the office and had to run to the grocery store and buy a pound of whatever we could find there, or even roast some of our green coffee stash in the sample roaster. Our roaster members often sent us coffee, but not consistently. I only mentioned it because it surprised me that more members did not send us coffee regularly.
A week later, two pounds of Batdorf & Bronson coffee arrived at SCAA. That was great, but it wasn’t really remarkable. The remarkable thing is that the next week, another two pounds arrived, and again the week after that, and again the week after that. Even now, every week, two pounds of Batdorf & Bronson Coffee arrives at SCAA, come hell or high-water.
You might be thinking, “So what? Anyone can do that?” I have told this story many times to many coffee roasters and many of them have had that reaction and many of them have endeavored to prove it and started sending coffee to SCAA. During my time with the association, none of them kept it up, at least not on a regular and sustained bases.
I need to stop here and tell a story that Tom Peter’s use to tell about Disneyland. He was explaining to a group of business students that the lifespan of a piece of trash on the ground at Disneyland was measured in seconds, thanks to the ubiquitous sweepers walking the grounds. At other theme and amusement parks, the lifespan of a piece of trash on the ground was measured in minutes. Peters felt that this fact represented a key element of the company’s success compared to their competition, but the business students were skeptical. They didn’t believe that how quickly trash was picked up off the ground was relevant, “because anyone could do that.”
Tom Peter’s response? “If anyone can do it, how come they don’t?”
If anyone can make coffee show up at the SCAA offices once a week every week without fail year after year, how come they don’t? I came to believe that the fact that Batdorf could do it was indicative of other things in the company, such as attention to detail, respect for relationships, and quality in everything they do. The more I got to know the company and its people, the more I believed this was true.
The punch line to the story happened one day when I was speaking to a writer for the New York Times. We had been talking for nearly an hour about coffee when she asked, “What is your favorite coffee?”
Of course, I demurred, in part because it would not be an appropriate question to answer as a trade association executive, and also because, as coffee people know, even if I wanted to answer the question, I couldn’t. I loved many different coffees.
After pushing a little for an answer, she dropped that question and tried another. “What are you drinking right now?”
Well, what do you think I was drinking? The odds were heavily weighted in favor of the company that sent coffee once a week every week without fail. But anyone can do that. Everyone wasn’t. After a moment I decided that it was a fair question and told the writer I was drinking coffee from Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters. I don’t remember the specific coffee I was drinking, but the writer ordered some off of the B&B website and then mentioned Batdorf in her article. Online orders at Batdorf spiked.
I caught some hell for that from other roasters, but I defended my answering the question. The conversation would go like this.
Roaster: “I just think, you know, if you can’t mention all of us you shouldn’t mention any of us.”
Me: “Well, I think the writer asked a fair question. I could have been drinking anyone’s coffee.”
Roaster: “Not our coffee…I mean, we’ve sent coffee to the SCAA offices before, just not all the time.”
Me: “Uh huh.”
Roaster: “So, how often does Batdorf send coffee?”
Me: “They send coffee every week.”
Roaster: “Really? Well, see, the odds were in their favor.”
Me: “Yes. Yes they were.”
Roaster: “We could send coffee every week.”
Me: “Yeah?”
Roaster: “We sure as hell will now.”
And many of them did…for awhile.
All of this is by way of explaining, in part, and particularly to my friends outside of coffee, why Batdorf & Bronson sat on top of my short list of companies where I wanted to work, and why I’m so excited that things have come together to make that happen. They just always impressed me, the people and the coffee.
Several people have asked if I will continue blogging on business and leadership topics. The answer is, sort of. My personal blog received very little attention from me while my consulting blog was active, so I hope to get back to more personal topics and stories, and the occasional poem. I may touch on coffee industry issues from time to time, coffee itself, and occasionally a business topic, when I can do so in a manner appropriate to my new position.
I hope to blog as I drive to Atlanta from California in January.
I want to thank everyone who sent congratulations and best wishes. It means a lot to me.
