starbucks
The chairman of coffee giant Starbucks has a vision about the future of business – and makes no beans about it. “The rules of engagement have changed,” says Harold Schultz. “Business has let us down and we are living in very fractured times. We as consumers – as customers, but mostly as people – need an emotional connection.”
The chief global strategist of Starbucks Coffee Co. spoke to business students and alumni last week at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.
He was visiting Vancouver as a special guest speaker at a gala dinner celebrating the first two recipients of honourary fellows from the Sauder School of Business.
Vancouver was the first market for Starbucks Coffee stores outside Seattle, and Schultz was part of the team that opened the first location at the Seabus Terminal downtown.
Today, the $21-billion company operates nearly 9,000 stores in 35 countries around the world. On average, 35 million customers are served every week.
“There is nothing we do as a company that can not be emulated by any other business,” Schultz told the UBC students during an afternoon talk.
He added that the company has no secret except to follow its twin passions – to brew the best coffee possible and to maintain a “fanatical commitment” to the people who run the company.
“The most important discipline in our company is human resources,” he said. “And ironically, that is the discipline that most businesses address last.”
Schultz said his goal in building Starbucks was to create the first company in the United States to integrate comprehensive health insurance and equity in the form of stock options to every single employee. “Our focus has been on achieving a balance between profitability and a social conscience,” he said.
“We wanted to build a 100-storey skyscraper and we realized early on that we had to build the kind of foundation that would support a building that size. The foundation is the people – attracting and retaining the
The chief global strategist of Starbucks Coffee Co. spoke to business students and alumni last week at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.
He was visiting Vancouver as a special guest speaker at a gala dinner celebrating the first two recipients of honourary fellows from the Sauder School of Business.
Vancouver was the first market for Starbucks Coffee stores outside Seattle, and Schultz was part of the team that opened the first location at the Seabus Terminal downtown.
Today, the $21-billion company operates nearly 9,000 stores in 35 countries around the world. On average, 35 million customers are served every week.
“There is nothing we do as a company that can not be emulated by any other business,” Schultz told the UBC students during an afternoon talk.
He added that the company has no secret except to follow its twin passions – to brew the best coffee possible and to maintain a “fanatical commitment” to the people who run the company.
“The most important discipline in our company is human resources,” he said. “And ironically, that is the discipline that most businesses address last.”
Schultz said his goal in building Starbucks was to create the first company in the United States to integrate comprehensive health insurance and equity in the form of stock options to every single employee. “Our focus has been on achieving a balance between profitability and a social conscience,” he said.
“We wanted to build a 100-storey skyscraper and we realized early on that we had to build the kind of foundation that would support a building that size. The foundation is the people – attracting and retaining the