Starbucks Howard Schultz On How He Beams

When I thought of American business culture, I thought of things like “The American Dream” and how that strong work ethic, initiative and determination has driven people for decades. It’s that belief our parents and grandparents talked about where you had to work hard to get ahead. It’s worked out well for Howard Schultz, the Starbucks CEO who said in an interview, "Growing up I always felt like I was living on the other side of the tracks. I knew the people on the other side had more resources, more money, happier families. And for some reason, I don’t know why or how, I wanted to climb over that fence and achieve something beyond what people were saying was possible. I may have a suit and tie on now but I know where I’m from and I know what it’s like." (Mirror.co.uk, 9/5/2010, Starbucks Howard Schultz on How He

The mission statement of Starbucks is “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time”. I must confess, my youngest daughter is in college and works part-time at Starbucks, in fact she just calls it “The Bucks”. During the training process she had a specific trainer come in just to train her and two other employees where they talked about how important asking questions and being positive and kind were. Not unlike all Starbucks baristas, she was a mentor and trained to listen to the customer because customer service is key. As a matter of fact, customer service is so key that if you don’t like your coffee, they’ll remake it, which is splendid if you’d like to try something new. If they can’t make what you’d like because they’ve run out of something, they’ll work with you to make things right. This CEO has also implemented programs to show his employees how important they are to the business. For example, benefits for part time employees and their partners, tuition reimbursement and adoption assistance programs are all available to Starbucks