Though a newcomer to retail sales, DellaVecchia has plenty of technology and business experience. DellaVecchia's new challenges are to maintain the projects and partnerships Gillotti initiated, and to help Starbucks expand globally. Starbucks reminds me of some of my early career challenges at IBM, where we built the PC business. There is a similar passion, focus and commitment to the work here.
People love what they do, and it shows.
DellaVecchia has two immediate challenges. As the new CIO, DellaVecchia has to set the tone for recruiting and retaining the best IT talent. To do this, he says he wants to be known as more of a people person than he has been in the past. Toward this end, DellaVecchia is enrolled in Starbucks' vaunted immersion program, which places senior executives out in the field to learn the business from the ground up. He's already spent a week at a Pennsylvania roasting plant, and next he expects to be assigned to mixing brews at a Starbucks retail store.