Richard Honack

Adjunct Professor of Executive Education at Kellogg School of Management

Schools

  • Kellogg School of Management

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Biography

Kellogg School of Management

Richard P. Honack is an award winning professor, international speaker and consultant on the topics of managing generational differences, cultural trends and realities, marketing, strategic leadership and services marketing and management.

Honack's research and teaching focuses on generational marketing and management in the "Nanosecond Culture." His lectures emphasize the need to understand the changing values and dynamics of the six-generations that makeup that culture in today's marketplace: Great Generation, Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen "X," Gen "Y," and now Generation "Z." He discusses the impact that these generational differences, and technology, make in the marketing of services and products as well as the importance of the different expectations that each of these groups have on management within an organization.

He has been an Academic Director and faculty member in several Executive Education programs, including Strategic Marketing Communications and programs for Brazilian Executives through Kellogg's partner school Fundacao dom Cabral (Belo Horizonte, Brazil). These include the Skills, Tools, and Competencies (STC) program as well as custom programs for Brazilian clients.

He also has taught in the Executive Development Program (EDP), Kellogg on Marketing (KOM) and several other Kellogg open enrollment and custom programs, where his sessions focused on Understanding Generational Differences, Leading and Marketing in the Nanosecond Culture and Services Marketing and Management.

Honack has been a faculty member for the Kellogg Center for Nonprofit Management where he taught in programs focused on Strategic Leadership for Nonprofits and Fundraising and Marketing. He was a faculty member for the Center's Custom Programs teaching and consulting organizations like Ronald McDonald House Charities, the United States Olympic Committee, USA Swimming and the BMO/Harris Bank's nonprofit leadership program, to name a few.

From 1997 to 2010 he taught the following courses in Kellogg's MBA programs: Services Marketing and Management, Nonprofit Marketing, Marketing and Fundraising. In 2008 he developed a Sports Marketing and Management course for Kellogg. In March 2010 students selected Honack as one of five Kellogg professors to receive a school wide "Faculty Impact Award" for his teaching.

Honack taught Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) for more than 12 years. He started teaching GIM in 1997 and from 2002 thorough 2009 did so in the Kellogg Executive MBA Program focusing on "Doing Business in China." He was voted by EMP 59 as the "Outstanding Professor for Electives" for 2003-2005.

Honack was the editorial director of Wide Awake in the Windy City a book written by Matt Golosinski, "Celebrating a century of excellence at NU's Kellogg School of Management, 1908-2008."

Prior to becoming a full-time faculty member in July 2008, Honack was Assistant Dean and Chief Marketing Officer for the Kellogg School and an associate adjunct professor of marketing.

Before joining NU and the Kellogg School staff in 1995, Honack had more than 20 years of award winning experience in the media business, holding positions in marketing, general management, strategic planning and editorial primarily at the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune.

Honack is a former U.S. Army Captain and a former civilian advisory board member to the Chief of Public Affairs, USAR. He has a Kellogg MBA and B.S. Degree in Journalism Education from Indiana University.

Areas of Expertise Cultural Trends and Realities
Generational Marketing
Managing Across Different Generations
Nonprofit Marketing
Services Marketing and Management
Sports Marketing
Strategic Leadership

Education MBA, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

BS, Journalism, Indiana University

Honors and Awards Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Awards, Kellogg School of Management, 2005

Education Honors and Awards

Read about executive education

Cases

Honack, Richard and Sachin Waikar. 2009. Growing Big While Staying Small: Starbucks Harvests International Growth. Case 5-309-503 (KEL447).

By early 2009 Starbucks had nearly 17,000 stores worldwide, with about a third of these outside the United States. Despite multibillion-dollar annual revenues, the giant coffee retailer’s yearly growth had declined by half, quarterly earnings had dropped as much as 97 percent, same-store sales were negative, and its stock price was languishing. Factors such as a global economic downturn and increasing competition in the specialty coffee market from large players such as McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts had driven this decline, resulting in the closings of hundreds of domestic stores already, with many more planned. Founder Howard Schultz, who had recently returned as CEO, and his executive team were convinced that Starbucks’s growth opportunities lay overseas, where the firm already had a strong foothold in markets like Japan and the United Kingdom and was preparing to open hundreds of new stores in a variety of locations. But recent international challenges, including the closing of most Australian stores due to sluggish sales, made clear that Starbucks had more to learn about bringing its value proposition—a combination of premium coffee, superior service, and a “coffeehouse experience”—to foreign soil. The key question was not whether Starbucks could transport its value proposition overseas, but how the value proposition’s three elements would play in recently entered and new markets. And the stakes of making the right international moves rose with each U.S. store closure. Schultz and his team also faced a broader question, one that applied to both their U.S. and foreign stores: Could they “grow big and stay small,” remaining a huge retailer that delivered both high-quality products and a consistently intimate and enjoyable experience to consumers worldwide? This case presents this challenge in the context of Starbucks’s history, well-established value proposition, and domestic and international growth and vision.

Honack, Richard and Sachin Waikar. 2009. Growing Big While Staying Small: Starbucks Harvests International Growth. Case 5-309-503 (KEL447).

By early 2009 Starbucks had nearly 17,000 stores worldwide, with about a third of these outside the United States. Despite multibillion-dollar annual revenues, the giant coffee retailer’s yearly growth had declined by half, quarterly earnings had dropped as much as 97 percent, same-store sales were negative, and its stock price was languishing. Factors such as a global economic downturn and increasing competition in the specialty coffee market from large players such as McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts had driven this decline, resulting in the closings of hundreds of domestic stores already, with many more planned. Founder Howard Schultz, who had recently returned as CEO, and his executive team were convinced that Starbucks’s growth opportunities lay overseas, where the firm already had a strong foothold in markets like Japan and the United Kingdom and was preparing to open hundreds of new stores in a variety of locations. But recent international challenges, including the closing of most Australian stores due to sluggish sales, made clear that Starbucks had more to learn about bringing its value proposition—a combination of premium coffee, superior service, and a “coffeehouse experience”—to foreign soil. The key question was not whether Starbucks could transport its value proposition overseas, but how the value proposition’s three elements would play in recently entered and new markets. And the stakes of making the right international moves rose with each U.S. store closure. Schultz and his team also faced a broader question, one that applied to both their U.S. and foreign stores: Could they “grow big and stay small,” remaining a huge retailer that delivered both high-quality products and a consistently intimate and enjoyable experience to consumers worldwide? This case presents this challenge in the context of Starbucks’s history, well-established value proposition, and domestic and international growth and vision.

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