Howard Schultz: Starbucks
...ed Starbucks that had been buying many Hammarplast Swedish drip coffeemakers that he was selling at the time. Schultz fell in love with not only the eminent scent, but how much care the Starbucks owners put into choosing their coffee beans. When Schultz walked away he was quoted in saying, “I walked away…saying, ‘God, what a great company, what a great city. I’d love to be a part of that.” It took Schultz a year to convince the Starbucks owners to hire him. In 1982 they finally made him director of marketing and operation. He came up with a proposal. When he was in Italy, he took note that their coffee bars existed on almost every street block. Not only did they serve excellent espresso, they served as meeting places or public squares; there were a huge part of Italy’s social glue. And there were 200,000 of them in the country. Starbucks owners opposed Shultz’s plans to serve coffee in the stores because they didn’t want to get into the restaurant business. Angry, Shultz quit, and started his own business, II Giornale. It was so successful, that a year later he bought Starbucks for $3.8 million. Starbucks began to grow quickly in the 90’s. Schultz’s main goal was “to serve a great cup of coffee.” Along with this goal was a principle. Shult...