Mohammad Forouzani

Assessing a Company Based on their Coffee

Posted on 24. Jul, 2010 by admin in Web Development

There is a method of company assessment that seems to be working quite well for me – assessing a company based on their coffee. This system only really works for coffee connoisseurs, but if you fall into this category, the results are surprisingly accurate.

The key concept is to ask for a cup of coffee, when offered one by the company staff during a meeting or interview. A single sip of this coffee should be enough to identify what type of coffee you are being given – allowing you to judge the company based on “coffee type”…

• Espresso Based – your dealing with a company that cares about its employees – chances are that this coffee is from a vending machine that has cost over a couple thousand dollars – this investment for company employees speaks volumes about the company. Employees are obviously catered for properly, which usually means lower employee churn, and higher retention. The company will probably have 10+ employees (i.e. not a startup at prototype stage).
• Nespresso – differentiating between espresso based coffee and nespresso based coffee can be very difficult – the only real difference I would say is that the company size is probably a bit smaller. Nespresso machines can’t provide massive volume so are more suited so smaller offices. The refills for Nespresso is also quite expensive – but obviously this company values its employees and wants to maintain a great working environment.
• Brewed coffee- This is the most popular type of coffee delivered by a company. It states that the company is trying to cater for its employees, but isn’t going to bend over backwards to do so. It listens to its employees, but tries to remain efficient – no vending machine maintenance contracts or unnecessary overheads. This company is forcing employees to spend time brewing coffee, instead of working. Probably a startup, or a bigger company that doesn’t want to waste office space on a vending machine.
• Instant Coffee – Frugal. This company thinks coffee is bad for you and doesn’t want to encourage coffee consumption. Either that or they are just really cheap and don’t provide much benefits for their employees. Usually a startup or small company – you can expect high employee churn here.
• Vending Machine – This category is reserved for coffee that tastes like it came from a vending machine. You know what I’m talking about – the stuff that tastes worse than instant – that’s what I mean. This is a company that doesn’t like investing in its employees. They take the cheapest route every time, and have to pay above market rates when hiring – because working for this company can be tiresome.

Of course you can also make some other conclusion based on how cold the coffee is served, if they used fresh milk, how close the nearest Starbucks is etc. But from my experience, assessing a company based on coffee type alone is much more conclusive.