Starbucks Reseach Paper

"To inspire and nurture the human spirit - One person, One cup, and One Neighborhood at a time." [1]

The mission statement set forth by the world’s largest coffeehouse, shows the company vision to inspire everyone to enjoy a cup of coffee. In the early 1970’s three partners opened a market place to sell quality coffee beans and equipment. [2] This store became known as Starbucks which at the time was just a single store located in Seattle, Washington. The full potential of Starbucks was not realized until a young entrepreneur name Howard Schultz, would join the team and later become the CEO of Starbucks.

Howard Schultz current CEO and chairmen of Starbucks was never given a silver spoon, it was through hard work and dedication that got him to where he is today. Born into a poor family in Brooklyn, New York, he turned to sports as an outlet. After receiving an athletic scholarship to Northern Michigan University, he was the first in his family to attend and graduate from college. [3] Like most college graduates he worked a variety of jobs including sales for Xerox. Finally he got his first big break in 1979 when he became the general manager of Hammarplast. At the time, Hammarplast was a Swedish drip coffee maker manufacture. [4] As the general manager Schultz would visit some of the key customers. In 1981 Schultz went to visit Starbucks in Seattle Washington as they were a primary customer for Hammarplast, later in 1982 Schultz joined the Starbucks team, as a Director of Retail Operations and Marketing. [3] While traveling to Milan Italy, he noticed a different type of coffee shop, a shop where people gathered as a meeting place instead of a spot to buy a cup of coffee. When he returned to Seattle, he offered suggestions to the three owners in an attempt to grow the business. They rejected his idea since they did not want to go into the restaurant business. [5] Schultz in 1985 decided to step away from Starbucks and enter into the coffee business for...