Starbucks’ new CFO has turnaround chops. Here’s how she plans to help Brian Niccol fix the company

During his years as a financial leader of major companies such as Nordstrom, Bright Health, and Target, Cathy Smith often went to Starbucks Cafés when she had to make a meeting, stay away to think, or get a Java jolt and kill a little time between appointments.

“I can't tell you how many decades Starbucks is like my personal third place,” Smith said Fate. “I know I can get into a Starbucks, get a good cup of coffee, sit at a table, and do whatever I need.” His drinking was an American with a splash of 2% milk.

But like many of the chain-shop chain customers, Smith has seen a “drift” in recent years from what Starbucks has made a cultural economy: problems such as less reliable services in stores or an environment that make its cafes less than an inviting “third place” beyond work and home. “I started to miss a great coffeehouse experience,” he said.

And now, as the new head of Starbucks' financial officer, Smith will help organize himself in his key role next to chief executive Brian Niccol in his efforts to -on the storied but difficult company around. Smith, just a month in his tenure, will make his public debut as CFO in the next quarterly earnings calling Starbucks on Tuesday.

Smith came to Starbucks looking to shake a long fall, with four straight quarter of sales of the same store, and perhaps more concerned with the long -term, a weaker handle on customers. Niccol has been busy since his last summer appointment trying to reinforce a brand that the swollen menu, often chaotic in-store services, and often foray in cultural wars are worth its customers. (Wall Street expects another quarterly to fall into sales of the same store, even a smaller 0.6%, according to Bloomberg.)

The CEO, whom Smith met just a few weeks now, recently told employees that Starbucks needs to be “more judgmental” in the initiatives it releases, and this is where Smith enters. As CFO, he will make major decisions on what investments and business changes are better to generate sales and profits.

Smith, whose experience also includes old -fashioned roles in Walmart, Gamestop, Express Scripts, and Textron, was chosen by the board in part because of his role in helping CEOs who lost sight of what customers loved about them, but still had a huge reservoir of good mood to draw. He has been in Nordstrom for two years through the Department Store's recent decision to privately, and worked on the target from 2015 to 2019 when the big-chic retailer had pulled one of the biggest comebacks in retail history. (Before deciding to get the target job, he brought his family on a road trip to 65 target stores in 10 states.)

“All brands have been drifting over time, and I have a pattern recognition. I have seen it in a number of brands, and the good ones to recover what's been great for them,” he said.

What changes to Starbucks?

Niccol, a former CEO of the Chipotle Mexican Grill, in which he forced an amazing -wonderful return to the form after incidents of food safety almost a decade ago, made early motions, large and small, to begin starbucks' right.

For one thing, he simplified the menu, removed about 30% of items such as donats and some frappuccinos, to re -grant what he called Starbucks' “extremely complex” offerings and speed up the service. .

His goal is to make Starbucks as a “welcome coffeehouse, in which people gather and we serve the best coffee made by our experienced Baristas,” as he recently said at Wall Street analysts.

Some of the moves to achieve that are not involved in a lot of money, such as the new skill of having a barista has left a letter -handing a message in a cup for a customer or a new dress code. But many other changes he is looking at indicates potential big cash outlays. These include expanded seating, more power outlets so that people can stay longer and work, new risers and specific shelves for mobile order pickups, and store renovations. Thinking that Starbucks will take a huge danger, Smith says something he has learned in places like Target and Walmart, along with their massive store fleets, is how to make sure an idea works before this scaling. “All the good retailers try everything,” he said. This is not the risk-averse. Instead, it is Smith, an avid scuba diver who once said Chain store who competed in Many national events in skydivinginsists on any risk calculated.

Another skill that Smith, who is holding an MBA from the University of Southern California, brings to Starbucks knows how to talk on Wall Street when a company has to say something that investors don't want to hear. At its annual financial community meeting in 2017, as the target struggled to get out of a long funk, CEO Brian Cornell announced a $ 7 billion, Multiyear plan to improve e-commerce and refresh what he called all-often “old and tired stores.” Investors have not been here, sending shares that have been driving on their worst days since 1998. The target approach eventually worked, and Smith, along with his credentials, walked the Analysts of Wall Street through the murkiest time of the multiyear rotation.

Smith says that being the same in showing improvements is the way to restore confidence on Wall Street: “One point of data is not to make a trend. We will start together two quarter of strong results, then three quarter, and by the time we get to the fifth quarter, Wall Street will say, 'Okay, I believe you are,' Smith. Starbucks shares drop 34% from their all -time high in 2021.

During his first weeks at work, Smith learned Starbucks' interior works by visiting a roasting plant near Seattle, the company's chief -seduced, as well as a distribution center, and eventually he would provide a green apron to serve customers in an actual store to gain a little frontline experience.

That is important in helping Niccol. “When you're in a twist, you have to move easily,” Smith said.

Wall Street is not united to want to see the rush; So is Smith the CFO. But Smith the Starbucks customer is also eager for improvement. “When the board calls and I'm asked if I'm interested, it's an immediate yes, because I see where the brand is today. It should be Starbucks I remember, and it can be more.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com