Born on 19 July 1953 in Brooklyn, New York, United States, Howard Schultz has given the world a hugely successful coffee joint: Starbucks. It has positioned itself as a place for millennials and young entrepreneurs to spend quality time. The company has reached a point where it can be called the king with a golden crown. Many rivals try to compete with it in terms of quality and ambience, but nothing comes close to them.
Like many others who made it there, Howard had to start from extreme poverty. He joined Northern Michigan University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1975. A sports scholarship helped him to enrol at the university.
After graduating from university, Schultz joined Xerox Corporation and was promoted to full sales representative. In 1979, Howard switched companies and became general manager of Hammerplast, a company with a small staff of 20 employees.
After that, a new phase came into his life, which changed his world forever. He got an offer from his company’s client, Starbucks, that took him to a bigger picture.
At 19, in 1982, Howard joined Starbucks as their Director of Marketing. He was so impressed with the company that he didn’t let go of the deal from his hands. In 1983, he went to Italy on a business trip and was dazzled seeing the amazing coffee culture of the country. On his return to the US, he convinced Starbucks’ management to implement the coffee culture concept in the company’s stores nationwide.
Before the dawn of Starbucks, as we know it today, the company sold coffee beans, not the coffee we love.
Initially, both the owners persisted, but he was stern about his decision and vision. The management gave him permission to roll out the concept of coffee drinks culture at one of the company’s new stores in Seattle, USA. In 1984, the coffee drink store was opened for customers, and it became an instant success.
However, the company’s management was scared of going big and wealthy. They wanted to be limited and grounded and showed their desire to discontinue the concept. Schultz was extremely disappointed and finally left Starbucks in 1985 and opened a coffee shop called ‘Il Giornale’, the name taken from the Italian language for ‘The Newspaper’.
In two years, Howard was a successful entrepreneur, but he was not satisfied with his success. He wanted to achieve something bigger in his life. He expressed his desire to buy Starbucks so he could implement his ideas with the company, but the price tag was out of reach. So, to raise the capital, Howard met hundreds of investors, and most turned him down.
“I was turned down by 217 of the 242 investors I initially talked to. You have to have a tremendous belief in what you’re doing and just persevere.” – Howard Schultz.
In 1987, the company’s founders, Baldwin and Bowker, sold Starbucks, and Howard quickly sealed the deal. Currently, Starbucks operates from around 28,500 locations worldwide.
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