Howard Schultz

Howard Schultz (1953-)
Starbucks Corp.

“It is possible to start from nothing and achieve even beyond your dreams.”
— Howard Schultz

More than just a cup of coffee; it’s become a way of life. Howard Schultz’s vision and audacity has reinvented the simple Italian coffeehouse culture into an American national pastime, and rapidly growing into a global phenomenon. From four obscure coffee powder retailer shops in 1986, Schulz has since brewed up an incredible 10,000 strong coffee specialty bars worldwide today.

Born in 1953, Schultz, together with his younger sister and brother, was raised in a cramped two-bedroom unit in the Bayview Projects, Brooklyn, a neighbourhood for the “working poor”, where Schultz’s Jewish blue-collar parents struggled to make ends meet. An honest, hardworking and a loving man, Schultz’s Dad was unable to hold down a job. From a truck driver, a factory worker to a cab driver, sometime taking on three different jobs at a time, he never in his life made as much as $20,000 a year and was unable able to afford his own home. No matter how hard he tried, he just could not raise the family up from the level of hand-to-mouth existence. The world around him seemed to have moved on, leaving him behind.

When Schultz was seven, Dad broke his leg and subsequently lost his job. With no income, no health insurance, no worker’s compensation, they had absolutely nothing to fall back on; they even resorted to borrowing in order to pay for the hospital expenses. It immediately dawn upon Schultz the grim truth that how vulnerable his family financial situation situation was. That left a indelible mark on Schultz that he would carry with him into adulthood.

Determined to break free from the poverty trap of his parents and not to be left out of the American dream, Schultz made himself economically useful at an early age. At twelve, he worked as a newspaper boy; at sixteen, a lunch counter helper, as well as other jobs like stretching animal skin in a garment factory, and even steaming yarn at knitting workshop. Always hungry and driven, Schultz, together with his unbridle passion and determination in work and studies, ultimately earned him an athletic scholarship to Northern Michigan University and made him the first college graduate in his family.

Schultz started his career as a salesman for Xerox and rose quickly through the ranks. Ever eager for more challenges, Schultz took up a position with a Swedish company Perstorp. In less than three years, at the age of only twenty-six, he was promoted to vice president and general manager. Schultz had come far and fast from the days of his parents’, but he was not going to stop and be satisfied.

His antsy character and inquisitive nature led him to a small Seattle company named Starbucks, who was placing unusually large orders for coffeemakers from Perstorp. With four outlets, Starbucks, started by coffee aficionados, sold freshly roasted gourmet coffee beans and various coffee-making accessories. Mainly a coffee roaster and seller, Starbucks only brewed coffee for customers when requested, a stark contrast to the Starbucks of today. After Schultz sipped his first cup of Starbucks specialty coffee, he became an instant convert. From that moment onwards, Schultz would embark the journey to becoming gourment coffee’s greatest apostle.

So enamoured with this heavenly beverage, he left his well-paying and prestigious job behind, took a huge pay cut and uprooted his family from Manhattan to join this relatively unknown coffee retailer as head of marketing and operations.

Like everything else he does, Schultz quickly immersed himself into this business and the art of making good coffee, learning and studying everything, from the selection of beans, to the grinding and roasting, and even the final preparation and serving.

He loves Starbucks coffee and he even loves the idea of making this great beverage accessible to more than just a handful elite group of coffee drinkers. Finally, when he was in Italy sitting at one of Milan’s many espresso bars, it came to him in an Epiphany that coffee is more than a beverage, but a whole lifestyle revolving around it: People come to share, mingle, interact, relax, doing all that over a good cup of coffee. Schultz’s revelation: Coffee bar.

However, the Starbucks original owners were less than enthusiastic of his idea, fearing it might dilute their core business of retailing and selling premium coffee powder. Sensing he was onto something big, Schultz left Starbucks in 1986 to open his own espresso bar awkwardly named Il Giornale. The business was a run-away success.

Later when he learned that Starbucks’ owners were selling their business. Schultz saw the opportunity of a lifetime and jumped at that, buying the original Starbucks’ chains and merged with his own.

From that point onwards, there was no looking back. Starbucks brewed up a coffee storm in America, opening one outlet after another as well as spawning a slew of copycat coffee bars. From less than ten outlets in the 80s to nearly 10,000 worldwide today, Starbucks emerges as America, maybe the world’s, No. 1 specialty coffee retailer. All the more remarkable is the fact that most of outlets are directly owned, not franchised, in order to ensure quality is not sacrificed for the sake of expansion.

This year, during the recent visit to the United States, China’s President Hu said if he was not serving the office, he would prefer serving coffee at Starbucks. Maybe he said that in jest, but in a country that has no coffee culture or tradition, President Hu’s remarks confirmed the Chinese acceptance of Starbucks, another verification that the Starbucks experience transcends borders and cultures.

It’s more than just a cup of coffee; it’s become a way of life.