Sunday, June 12, 2005

Pour Your Heart into It, by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang

Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang

I found this to be a good read. The story of how Starbucks came to be is what it is today is pretty interesting, especially for a business biography. Schultz (the CEO of Starbucks) does an excellent job of conveying his passion for coffee and how that has translated into business success. I don’t remember when I last had a cup of coffee, but after reading this I must admit I’m thinking about trying it again—at least the higher end stuff. Because I’m not a coffee person, though, much of the angst and heartache over some of the issues was lost on me. I just kept thinking, “It is only coffee! Get over it!”

Corporate Starbucks seems to have a lot of the same values as Disney: there can’t be too much attention to detail, quality at any cost, and people (both the customer and the employee) come before profits. While it sounds counter-intuitive, you certainly can’t argue with the success of either company. I wonder how many other companies are out there that think this way? A powerful quote along these lines from Schultz: “I want Starbucks to be admired not only for what we have achieved but for how we achieved it.”

First Sentence:
Starbucks, as it is today, is actually the child of two parents.

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