Coffee is a part and parcel of our day-to-day life. From starting our day with a fresh and productive mindset to forcing our minds to stay awake to pull off an all-nighter, the role of coffee is pivotal. To have a wonderful conversation or to enjoy a lovely afternoon watching the sunset, the applications of coffee are innumerable. How that chasm of beauty has been converted into a multiple billion-dollar business model is depicted in the life-changing story of Howard Schultz.
Howard Schultz is the co-founder of Starbucks and served as the chairman as well. He is a well-known American Businessman, who was born in Brooklyn, USA. His family wasn’t very rich, facing down the poverty line. Howard had his first job at the age of 12, selling newspapers. Then he went to Northern Michigan University with a sports scholarship. Later on, he graduated and joined Xerox Corporation in 1976. After three years, he became the company’s General Manager. And that’s when things started to get interesting in the life of Howard.
One day, he went to a shop to have a drink during his busy routine day. The shop was selling coffee at that time and he wanted to have that. So he ordered a Sumatra and was very much delighted from its very first sip. He was amazed that people don’t drink coffee to free their minds. To learn more, he went to Milan, Italy. In Milan, he saw that people sat down with ease and gossiped with their very dear people drinking coffee. Everywhere he stepped his foot down, the Italians were having beer and coffee. That amazed him so much because, at that time, Americans didn’t even know what a latte or a cappuccino was.
Seeing such scenes, Howard had a wonderful idea and decided to quit his job to start a new one. In America, he had set up a new coffee shop by the name of ‘Ill Giornate’ in 1985, which was named after a Milanese newspaper. The shop used to make different types of coffee, which Howard learned the recipe from Milan and other Italian cities. Soon after, the shop started to gain attraction and Howard’s business was going well.
Howard didn’t care about profits. All he wanted was to make sure his dreams came true. His vision was to create a successful coffee company in America. So he decided to do that, but his greatest obstacle was to raise 1.2 million dollars in a year. He tried his best to do so, but all the people he had reached to raise money rejected him replying that such a business wouldn’t thrive in an American market. That made Howard feel low but he kept going on.
In 1987, Howard Schultz made contacts with the people from his former company to merge that and form Starbucks alongside Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowler, raising 3.8 million U.S. dollars. Soon after that, the company had its first-ever coffee store in Vancouver, Canada. Since then their business has gone straight upright, having stores in more than 75 other countries. Howard Schultz finally started to live his dream fully.
The features of the business of Howard Schultz was that he was very innovatively engaging. He was a creative, yet critical thinker and problem solver. The features he brought for Starbucks were different Loyalty programs for the customers, home delivery services, distance order services, different other appetizers and fast food items on the menu. He also developed a Starbucks app for better communication with its customers. He also made customers have a ‘Starbucks card’ so that they can easily transact with the stores. These initiatives have made the company unique to think about.
In 2000, Howard Schultz retired from his dream job, but in 2008 and 2017, he came back twice to help the company move forward on its journey. Starbucks is now a very large company thanks to Howard Schultz, and the success of what coffee can make a day for a human being can now be fully acknowledged by companies like these.
In the era of distress and discomfort, a sip of coffee makes our life enjoyable, even for a tiny little bit. And that’s what Howard Schultz has seen throughout his life, just to make sure that people enjoy their little conversations and get-togethers with the most fascinating product ever made.
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Writer,
Abrar Mahir
Content Writing Department,
YSSE.