From the You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Department: Steve Legg took an important step on his path to becoming the director of risk management of Starbucks to avoid having what looked like a bad pun on his business card. He had earned his Associate in Risk Management designation, but that meant his name appeared as Legg-ARM. So, he says, he went on to earn his Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation, because it is listed before ARM. His card now (safely) reads “Steve Legg, CPCU, ARM.”
But I’m jumping into the middle of the story, in this second in our series of Thought Leaders in Action. (The first, with Loren Nickel, director of risk management at Google, is here.)
To begin at the beginning, I’ll provide a summary of Legg’s background, then follow with the story of how he earned his prestigious position, some detail on Starbucks and how it manages risk and some insights from Legg for other risk managers.
Steve Legg
His bio
Legg, who is 46 years old, has been at the Starbucks headquarters in Seattle since June 1997. His responsibilities include global corporate property and casualty insurance and risk financing for the company. Legg reports to the treasurer of Starbucks and heads a risk management team of 13 professionals, with two-thirds involved in claims management and the balance working in risk financing and risk transfer, its risk management information system (RMIS) , internal reporting and captive management. Starbucks has 22,519 stores in 66 countries, with a targeted growth rate of 1,650 net new stores during this fiscal year. Starbucks, the name inspired by Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, has one of the most recognized logos in the world. Its mission statement, developed by its founder Howard Schultz, is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”
Before joining Starbucks, Legg worked as an independent insurance broker, as well as in a claims capacity for Crawford & Co. Legg served on the board of the Washington state chapter of the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS) for seven years, serving as president of the chapter during the 2005-2006 year. He has been an active participant within National RIMS and has served as a speaker to other insurance industry groups, such as the CPCU Society, the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) and the Marine Insurance Association of Seattle. He has a degree in political economy of industrial societies from the University of California at Berkeley.
His story
Legg grew up in Kirkland, WA, on the east side of Lake Washington. Nicknamed “the little city that could,” Kirkland is the former headquarters for the Seattle Seahawks and Costco. Kirkland Signature is still Costco’s store brand.
“I grew up interested in a lot of different things, but I wouldn’t say with any degree of certainty that I knew what I wanted to do for a living,” Legg said. “I was intrigued with going somewhere else to study, so I attended UC Berkeley. I was interested in crisis management, and I just happened to be at Cal when the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake [1989] and devastating Oakland Hills firestorm [1991] hit. From those experiences, I thought I might pursue law school.
“As things turned out, my first job was back in Washington state working as a claims adjuster for the branch manager of Crawford & Co., hired by our mutual friend and industry colleague Katrina Zitnik, who was later director of workers’ comp for Costco, 2001-2013. We handled the huge Boeing workers’ comp self-insured account. There were around 100 employees in that office alone. My specialty was working with chemical-related claims, which was really fascinating, before I moved over to liability claims. By my second year there, I started to really understand what risk management was all about.”
From that experience, Legg went on to achieve his ARM designation. “It may sound corny, but I didn’t like the way it looked on my business card as Legg-ARM, so I went on to pursue my CPCU,” Legg said.
“With that formal insurance education, I went to work for a regional insurance brokerage in Kirkland where I learned a lot about insurance and other facets of risk management.” Legg said: “I came to this realization that I didn’t want to handle claims or broker insurance. I wanted to be on the buyer’s side of all this – tending to insurance and a whole lot of other things.”
In 1997, Legg was hired by his predecessor at Starbucks, which had gone public in 1992. At the time he joined Starbucks, the company had about 1,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada and just a few new locations in Japan. Legg describes his experience at that time in risk management as more of a buyer of insurance, but his job responsibilities quickly deepened and expanded with the global spread of Starbucks. He assumed the director of risk management position in 2006 when his boss and mentor retired and became active in the management of Starbucks’ Vermont captive.
The evolving company
Legg explained that the organizational structure is set up based on three key global regions: (1) the Americas; (2) EMEA, which is Europe, Middle East and Africa; and (3) CAP, which is China, Asia Pacific. “Our biggest push is in the CAP region, especially China, which presents a lot of opportunity,” he said. Although that region has a tea-drinking tradition, Legg pointed out that Starbucks owns the tea company Tazo and more recently bought Teavana and its 300-plus stores, providing a high-end, specialty tea product that has become popular at Starbucks locations. He said Starbucks’ specialty coffee and expresso beverages have also become very popular in tea-drinking cultures.
Starbucks has also expanded its offerings in premium pastries (it bought La Boulange), food and merchandise offerings, and it recently began providing beer and wine in selected areas of the country. “Evenings at Starbucks had been under-utilized,” Legg said, “so with the rollout of beer and wine we’re able to serve additional patrons.”
How Starbucks manages risk
Serving 66 countries with various laws and customs, Starbucks has a global quality assurance organization work with business units that are immersed in foreign locations. “Risk management and legal principles are practiced with our people that understand and are sensitive to local government, culture, customs and laws,” Legg said. “Starbucks wants to provide appropriate food and beverages, and we have a global safety security organization, as well, that makes sure that we are tending to the different types of risks these different and diverse cultures hold. Safety and security are fundamental components in the initial and on-going training of our partners."
When asked about the challenge of identifying, evaluating and treating risk in far-flung global operations, Legg noted that there is a common thread regardless of demographics that relates to keeping stores well-managed, clean, secure and hazard-free. He added that a global design team works with individual markets to address issues that mitigate any unusual risk factors, which could include something as simple as adjusting counter and stool height. Store components are designed to provide for each locale’s needs while Starbucks maintains the quality and consistency that its customers expect.
As for dealing with its insurance and reinsurance markets, Legg noted that Starbucks collects a significant amount of data on all of its locations to enable its internal team and underwriters to have the geographic information they need for modeling. North American operations are mostly self-insured via large retentions and deductibles; Legg points out that first-dollar and low-deductible insurance policies are far more common, accessible and prevalent in other parts of the world. Compulsory insurance requirements differ across jurisdictions -- in many parts of the world, for instance, workers’ compensation as we know it is not available, and injuries or illnesses among employees (which Starbucks calls "partners") are addressed in different ways.
“Regardless of the transfer or retention of risk, Starbucks feels that no one could ever care as much about our partners and our brand as we do,” Legg said. He added, “We inspire and nurture our partners and customers… through providing good products, friendly service and by contributing to our communities. It’s an important part of our culture and what makes this brand so strong.”
All eligible full- and part-time Starbucks employees receive comprehensive health coverage and equity in their company, referred to as “bean stock.” In turn, employees typically volunteer more than one million hours each year in helping their local communities. Starbucks has also set up agronomy offices in different countries around the world to help origin farmers to better manage their crops and businesses. “It’s really important all up and down the chain from the front-line stores to the source of the company’s most precious commodity to have a seamless connection,” Legg said.
His suggestions
I asked Legg what coaching suggestions he has for people entering the field of risk management.
He said, “I think to be successful in risk management that it helps to have a good understanding of a number of different disciplines like accounting, finance, law, etc. Most importantly, you need to have the ability to think critically through things to make good decisions and to then have the ability to communicate well and to influence others. Knowledge without good communication skills won’t equip you for this career.
“I find myself guiding and teaching other people in the organization every day, helping them develop their own risk assessment philosophy in what they do day in and day out. We in risk management can’t be there all the time, so our job is to train others throughout the organization to make good, sound risk management decisions.
“Be open-minded and flexible. Risk management staff needs to identify and admit their mistakes, correct things and be able to change course as needed.”
Legg added with a laugh, “You think you know in detail how things are, then you find out you really don’t know how things are.”
Steve Legg
His bio
Legg, who is 46 years old, has been at the Starbucks headquarters in Seattle since June 1997. His responsibilities include global corporate property and casualty insurance and risk financing for the company. Legg reports to the treasurer of Starbucks and heads a risk management team of 13 professionals, with two-thirds involved in claims management and the balance working in risk financing and risk transfer, its risk management information system (RMIS) , internal reporting and captive management. Starbucks has 22,519 stores in 66 countries, with a targeted growth rate of 1,650 net new stores during this fiscal year. Starbucks, the name inspired by Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, has one of the most recognized logos in the world. Its mission statement, developed by its founder Howard Schultz, is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”
Before joining Starbucks, Legg worked as an independent insurance broker, as well as in a claims capacity for Crawford & Co. Legg served on the board of the Washington state chapter of the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS) for seven years, serving as president of the chapter during the 2005-2006 year. He has been an active participant within National RIMS and has served as a speaker to other insurance industry groups, such as the CPCU Society, the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) and the Marine Insurance Association of Seattle. He has a degree in political economy of industrial societies from the University of California at Berkeley.
His story
Legg grew up in Kirkland, WA, on the east side of Lake Washington. Nicknamed “the little city that could,” Kirkland is the former headquarters for the Seattle Seahawks and Costco. Kirkland Signature is still Costco’s store brand.
“I grew up interested in a lot of different things, but I wouldn’t say with any degree of certainty that I knew what I wanted to do for a living,” Legg said. “I was intrigued with going somewhere else to study, so I attended UC Berkeley. I was interested in crisis management, and I just happened to be at Cal when the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake [1989] and devastating Oakland Hills firestorm [1991] hit. From those experiences, I thought I might pursue law school.
“As things turned out, my first job was back in Washington state working as a claims adjuster for the branch manager of Crawford & Co., hired by our mutual friend and industry colleague Katrina Zitnik, who was later director of workers’ comp for Costco, 2001-2013. We handled the huge Boeing workers’ comp self-insured account. There were around 100 employees in that office alone. My specialty was working with chemical-related claims, which was really fascinating, before I moved over to liability claims. By my second year there, I started to really understand what risk management was all about.”
From that experience, Legg went on to achieve his ARM designation. “It may sound corny, but I didn’t like the way it looked on my business card as Legg-ARM, so I went on to pursue my CPCU,” Legg said.
“With that formal insurance education, I went to work for a regional insurance brokerage in Kirkland where I learned a lot about insurance and other facets of risk management.” Legg said: “I came to this realization that I didn’t want to handle claims or broker insurance. I wanted to be on the buyer’s side of all this – tending to insurance and a whole lot of other things.”
In 1997, Legg was hired by his predecessor at Starbucks, which had gone public in 1992. At the time he joined Starbucks, the company had about 1,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada and just a few new locations in Japan. Legg describes his experience at that time in risk management as more of a buyer of insurance, but his job responsibilities quickly deepened and expanded with the global spread of Starbucks. He assumed the director of risk management position in 2006 when his boss and mentor retired and became active in the management of Starbucks’ Vermont captive.
The evolving company
Legg explained that the organizational structure is set up based on three key global regions: (1) the Americas; (2) EMEA, which is Europe, Middle East and Africa; and (3) CAP, which is China, Asia Pacific. “Our biggest push is in the CAP region, especially China, which presents a lot of opportunity,” he said. Although that region has a tea-drinking tradition, Legg pointed out that Starbucks owns the tea company Tazo and more recently bought Teavana and its 300-plus stores, providing a high-end, specialty tea product that has become popular at Starbucks locations. He said Starbucks’ specialty coffee and expresso beverages have also become very popular in tea-drinking cultures.
Starbucks has also expanded its offerings in premium pastries (it bought La Boulange), food and merchandise offerings, and it recently began providing beer and wine in selected areas of the country. “Evenings at Starbucks had been under-utilized,” Legg said, “so with the rollout of beer and wine we’re able to serve additional patrons.”
How Starbucks manages risk
Serving 66 countries with various laws and customs, Starbucks has a global quality assurance organization work with business units that are immersed in foreign locations. “Risk management and legal principles are practiced with our people that understand and are sensitive to local government, culture, customs and laws,” Legg said. “Starbucks wants to provide appropriate food and beverages, and we have a global safety security organization, as well, that makes sure that we are tending to the different types of risks these different and diverse cultures hold. Safety and security are fundamental components in the initial and on-going training of our partners."
When asked about the challenge of identifying, evaluating and treating risk in far-flung global operations, Legg noted that there is a common thread regardless of demographics that relates to keeping stores well-managed, clean, secure and hazard-free. He added that a global design team works with individual markets to address issues that mitigate any unusual risk factors, which could include something as simple as adjusting counter and stool height. Store components are designed to provide for each locale’s needs while Starbucks maintains the quality and consistency that its customers expect.
As for dealing with its insurance and reinsurance markets, Legg noted that Starbucks collects a significant amount of data on all of its locations to enable its internal team and underwriters to have the geographic information they need for modeling. North American operations are mostly self-insured via large retentions and deductibles; Legg points out that first-dollar and low-deductible insurance policies are far more common, accessible and prevalent in other parts of the world. Compulsory insurance requirements differ across jurisdictions -- in many parts of the world, for instance, workers’ compensation as we know it is not available, and injuries or illnesses among employees (which Starbucks calls "partners") are addressed in different ways.
“Regardless of the transfer or retention of risk, Starbucks feels that no one could ever care as much about our partners and our brand as we do,” Legg said. He added, “We inspire and nurture our partners and customers… through providing good products, friendly service and by contributing to our communities. It’s an important part of our culture and what makes this brand so strong.”
All eligible full- and part-time Starbucks employees receive comprehensive health coverage and equity in their company, referred to as “bean stock.” In turn, employees typically volunteer more than one million hours each year in helping their local communities. Starbucks has also set up agronomy offices in different countries around the world to help origin farmers to better manage their crops and businesses. “It’s really important all up and down the chain from the front-line stores to the source of the company’s most precious commodity to have a seamless connection,” Legg said.
His suggestions
I asked Legg what coaching suggestions he has for people entering the field of risk management.
He said, “I think to be successful in risk management that it helps to have a good understanding of a number of different disciplines like accounting, finance, law, etc. Most importantly, you need to have the ability to think critically through things to make good decisions and to then have the ability to communicate well and to influence others. Knowledge without good communication skills won’t equip you for this career.
“I find myself guiding and teaching other people in the organization every day, helping them develop their own risk assessment philosophy in what they do day in and day out. We in risk management can’t be there all the time, so our job is to train others throughout the organization to make good, sound risk management decisions.
“Be open-minded and flexible. Risk management staff needs to identify and admit their mistakes, correct things and be able to change course as needed.”
Legg added with a laugh, “You think you know in detail how things are, then you find out you really don’t know how things are.”
