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Want To Start Your Own Business? Find The Perfect Business with Hundreds of Business Ideas
When you think of Starbucks, what usually comes to mind? In general, Starbucks brings to mind the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and a quaint coffee bar where people from almost all walks of life meet and share a coffee or two.
What the general public doesn't know is that the man responsible for Starbuck's success is Howard Schultz; an ordinary man with a somewhat extraordinary dream.
He is considered as a topnotch business leader for revolutionizing how coffee should be served in America.
Howard Schultz - A Business Leader with Heart, Soul and Mind
Like most successful business leaders, Howard Schultz started out as an employee. Schultz was raised in Brooklyn, New York in a housing project. He was awarded a football scholarship in Northern Michigan University and got hi BS in 1975. He worked different jobs here and there but it was in 1981 when he was a vice president for a Swedish company, Hammarplast, which specializes in kitchen and house wares that he took his first baby step toward becoming the passionate business leader that he is.
Upon visiting a loyal client of Hammarplast in Seattle, Schultz was delighted and amazed at how the company dedicates their life for love and passion of coffee. Back then, Starbucks wasn t a coffee bar. Even when he was already employed, he set his sights on a position in Starbucks and in 1982; Starbucks made him their director of marketing and operations.
A trip to Italy however, was the major turning point in Schultz's career when he saw how coffee bars are thriving there. When he got back to America, he proposed the coffee bar idea which the Starbucks owners declined.
Following his heart and intuition, Schultz left Starbucks and put up his own coffee bar called Il Giornale. He used this coffee bar business to raise enough funds to buy out Starbucks which became a reality in 1987.
Starbucks was sold to him for $3.8 million. Circa 90's Starbucks took off and Schultz made a daring and compassionate move never before seen in most business practices; although the salary of his workers were pretty much in the lower range, he compensated it by giving complete health coverage and a stock option plan to all his employees who work for at least 20 hours weekly.
Now with over 4,000 coffee bars in different countries worldwide, Starbucks is still growing with no plans of ever slowing down. As the king of coffee bars once said I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It's seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future.
It's seeing what other people don't see and pursuing that vision. - this coming from a kid who grew up in a housing project. Howard Schultz story is not one of luck and chance; it is mainly because of him following his heart and not forgetting where he came from that led to his ultimate success.
The Howard Schultz Quick Bio
Name: Howard Schultz
Birth date: July 19, 1953
Birth place: Brooklyn, New York, USA
Company: Starbucks Coffee Co.
Industry: Restaurant/Coffee bar and Retail
Key success traits: compassionate, never settling for anything less, undoubtedly full of heart
Additional:
Howard Schultz sees to it that Starbucks only purchases organically grown coffee beans. He also built the Starbucks Foundation which is involved in education programs, AIDS walks, Earth Day clean-ups, building schools and health clinics. Starbucks was originally known as Tea and Spice in 1971.
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