Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul

by Howard Schultz

No business can do well for its shareholders without first doing well by all the people its business touches.

inspire the human spirit. I realize this is a lofty mission for a cup of coffee, but this is what merchants do. We take the ordinary—a shoe, a knife—and give it new life, believing that what we create has the potential to touch others’ lives because it touched ours.

They were about self-examination in the pursuit of excellence, and a willingness not to embrace the status quo. This is a cornerstone of my leadership philosophy.

Conversations about Starbucks were already taking place online, we countered, on sites where we had little or no chance to contribute to the discussion.

“Protect and preserve your core customers,” he told our marketing team when I invited him to speak to us. “The cost of losing your core customers and trying to get them back during a down economy will be much greater than the cost of investing in them and trying to keep them.

We eventually concluded that the product as well as the way we had brought it to market met three critical criteria for success at Starbucks: It was right for and engaged our partners. It was right for and met the needs of our customers. And it was right for the business.

The fault did not lie with our people in our stores. They were doing the jobs they had been asked to do with the resources and training they'd been given.

Success is not sustainable if it's defined by how big you become.

a core capacity of leadership is the ability to make right decisions while flying blind, basing them on knowledge, wisdom, and the ability to stay wedded to an overriding goal.

Hovering above every third place is a virtual fourth place,