A Day in the Life of a Senior Vice President at Starbucks Corporation
A Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel at Starbucks spends "a lot of meetings," averaging 10-11 hour workdays, with significant international travel for meetings and store visits. This role evolved from "negotiating things or drafting things" to a more strategic, oversight and decision-making position.
Executive/Leadership, Travel, Meetings, Decision-Making, Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Michael Fink
Senior Vice President
Starbucks Corporation
University of California Berkeley
Harvard Law School JD
Economics
Food, Beverages & Alcohol, Law
Legal
International Student, Honors Student
Video Highlights
1. A typical workday for a Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel involves 10-11 hours of meetings, including one-on-ones, leadership meetings, and cross-functional meetings.
2. Significant travel is also a major component of the role, with trips to Europe and Asia several times a year for meetings with teams and leaders in those markets, including store visits.
3. The role's focus is primarily on oversight, management, strategy, and decision-making, rather than the technical legal work often associated with the position. This is a shift from earlier career stages where more time was spent doing the hands-on legal work itself.
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a senior vice president, deputy general counsel look like?
A lot of meetings. It was probably true for most of corporate America. An awful lot of time was spent.
An average day was 10 to 11 hours. This meant a majority of the time was spent in meetings. These included one-on-ones with my team, leadership meetings, and cross-functional meetings.
I also traveled a lot. I would go to Europe for two weeks and Asia for two weeks every quarter, so four times a year. There were also some other trips in between.
That time was spent in meetings with our teams and leaders in the markets. We also went on store tours and did other things. You had to be out in the markets to see your own people as well as other business people.
There was a lot of travel, and those days were different, but they also had a lot of meetings. Then, I also tried to get some work done. Honestly, in that role, other people were doing a lot of the work.
It was more about being responsible, giving guidance, and making decisions. The job had shifted from spending a good chunk of time negotiating or drafting things. It became much more of an oversight, managerial, strategy, and decision-making role, with much less of the technical work I used to do.