After a less-than-satisfactory expe­ri­ence at his usual Star­bucks, Joel Spol­sky searched-out Star­bucks Gos­sip to find the rea­son­ing behind a new type of employee: the ‘expe­diter’. What he dis­cov­ered prompted him to write an arti­cle for Inc. Mag­a­zine on what hap­penes when Star­bucks’ busi­ness mod­els go awry.

In the arti­cle Spol­sky con­fuses oper­a­tions research with oper­a­tions man­age­ment, as the excel­lent Aure­lie Thiele dis­cusses.