Who is Howard Schultz? Truth behind Star Bucks
Howard Schultz is an American entrepreneur and the CEO of the Starbucks Coffee Company. Starbucks is the largest coffee store chain in the world.
Howard Schultz was born on July 19, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York to Fred and Elaine Schultz. He was born into a low middle class family.
His father worked as a truck driver and his mother was a receptionist. When Howard was seven, his father lost his job because he broke his ankle. Due to this, Howard’s family struggled financially.
School Life of Howard
His parents wanted him to be educated so they enrolled him in Canaries High School. He graduated in 1971. His only relief from his difficult life was sports.
He was even awarded an athletic scholarship to the Northern Michigan University. Howard was the first person in his family to attend college. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Communications in 1975.
Life after College and Job
He graduated from college; he got a job at the Xerox Corporation as a sales representative. He worked with Xerox for four years. In active. He worked at a Swedish Company, Hamamplast.
He worked there as a general manager selling home appliances to customers. Schultz became curios about one of his customers who had purchased plastic cone filters and coffee machines in large quantities.
Visited a Coffee-Bean Shop
In 1981, he visited a coffee-bean shop called Starbucks Coffee Company in Seattle. He realized that the company was run by the same client. He was amazed by their knowledge and art of making coffee.
Upon tasting the coffee, he was immediately impressed; it was better than anything he’d tried before. Inspired by their dedication, a business opportunity occurred to Schultz.
As a Marketing Director of Starbucks
In 1982, he was offered the post of the Marketing Director at Starbucks. Next year’s Schultz traveled to Italy; he noticed that every street had coffee bars that served as meeting places. Soon, he returned with tasteful recipes of lattes and cappuccinos, which increased Starbucks’ sales.
Café for social meetings. In the United States, socializing was mostly carried out in fast food restaurants.
Became the owner of Starbucks
In 1985, Schultz proposed this idea to the CEO of Starbucks, to create a network of coffee houses. However remained confident and resigned from called II Giancarlo meaning ‘the daily’. His coffee shop was an instant success.
Schultz found out that the owners of Starbucks were planning to sell the company. So, he secured a loan and bought Starbucks.
After Bought Starbucks Howard Life
When Schultz visited Italy for the second time, he not only brought back photos and menus, but also videotapes in which he’d documented the Italian baristas in action. He showed the tapes to his employees to train them for better performance.
A major factor in Starbucks’ success was how the company dealt with its employees. Schultz started a training program to groom his employees.
He gave complete healthcare benefits to his full time and part-time employees. Schultz designed his coffee shops with the aim of encouraging customers to relax and converse.
The menu started with a basic cup of coffee and later expanded to fancier coffee beverages such as espresso, cappuccino, café latte, iced coffee and café mocha.
Massive Growth of Starbucks by Howard Schultz
Schultz experienced a massive growth throughout the1990s. In 2000, he resigned as the CEO of Starbucks. However, he regained his position in 2007. He partnered with a French yogurt make, and introduced a New Greek yogurt to the Starbucks menu.
Schultz is also involved in charitable work. In 1998, Starbucks came up with products to contribute to local literacy programs across America.
Awards and Achievements
For his exceptional work as an entrepreneur, he was given the Israel 50th Anniversary Tribute Award in 1998. Schultz was awarded the National Leadership Award for his donations and educational efforts to battle AIDS in 1999.
He received the international Distinguished Entrepreneur Award in 2007. He was named Fortune Magazine’s ‘Businessperson of the Year’ in 2011. Schultz married Sheri Kersch, an interior designer in 1982. The couple have two children.