Summary Of Por Your Heart Into It By Howard Schultz

In Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, Howard Schultz emphasizes his desire to create a business that contributes positively to the world. In his words he hoped to “build a company with a soul”. This aspiration of his is an example of the business concept of creating shared value. The Harvard Business Review defines shared value as “policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates” (Kramer, 2011, p.6). The concept of shared value is often thought of as counter to normal business practices as most businesses work solely towards ensuring their own profits with little regard

This sentiment strongly reflects the idea of creating shared value. Throughout Pour Your Heart Into It, Schultz often reiterates how important giving back to the community is to him. He makes this especially clear in the prologue when he states “I’m not writing this book to make money. All my earnings from it will go to the newly formed Starbucks Foundation, which will allocate the proceeds to philanthropic work on behalf of Starbucks and its partners” (Schultz, 1997, p.7). In the book he often brings up how he feels a company should have a strong sense of values and should benefit not only the company itself, but also its employees and

The photograph that I captured is a picture of the area behind the cash register at the CVS on campus. This area, just like the same location at all other CVS’s, was once filled with tobacco products. Instead it is now filled with nicotine patches and gum, along with messages encouraging customers to quit smoking. A study released by CVS showed that when their stores in Boston and San Francisco stopped selling cigarettes it led to a thirteen percent reduction in tobacco sales in the cities. The claim that extrapolated over the entirety of the United States this decision could lead to 65,000 fewer tobacco related deaths a year (O’Donnell, 2014). It is clear that this change in policy will have a positive effect in the community. However, CVS is not leaving its two billion dollars in tobacco sales on the table purely to help people quit smoking. This move is a part of their strategy to shift themselves further into a healthcare role. With this move they have renamed themselves CVS Health. CVS now operates over 900 walk-in clinics and are constantly adding more. They are hoping to profit substantially from this shift towards a healthcare oriented store (Abrams 2014). In stopping the sale of cigarettes they are not only attempting to help the community, but also attempting to grow their own company. This makes them a prime example of a company attempting to create shared