One Week To Go!

I absolutely love the final week before Christmas. The entire North Pole is buzzing with activity. I don't think anyone sleeps more than a couple of hours a night as we all strive to make sure this will be the best Christmas ever. It is truly exhilirating. As most of you know, I love my Starbucks Christmas blend - I drink it non-stop up until I go to bed - but it is not the caffeine that keeps me going. This final week is truly exhilirating.

I was in a full day meeting today with all of my direct reports and their management teams. We spent the entire day reviewing various scenarios for Christmas Eve. It still seems a little unreal that we are only one week away. We started with a review of the top 3 most likely global weather scenarios. After that, Bo (head of Production) provided an update on our production schedules by site. With the overarching scenario set, Bob (head of Flight Operations) laid out 2 different routing options for each of the three weather forecasts. Ollie (head of Logistics) then filled in with the plan with each of the three corresponding plans for staging product at the various replenishment sites. Candy (head of Operations... Bo & Ollie both report to her) tied it all together with a recommended plan that included a framework of how the organization could shift to respond to any of the other possible scenarios with a 36 hour notice. We'll continue to revisit the current conditions & status throughout the week. As long as we can get the weather forecast locked down by 6pm on Saturday, December 22nd, we should be able to adjust and accomodate any of the scenarios we reviewed today. And we are highly accurate with our weather forecasts within a 36 hour window. I continue to have high confidence for this year's Christmas Eve Operation. It may be the best ever!