Top 100 Howard Schultz Quotes
#1. Twenty Million New Customers Are Worth Taking a Risk For
Howard Schultz
#2. I probably have about four or five cups of coffee a day. I make myself an espresso macchiato when I wake, which is a shot of espresso and just a dollop of steamed milk. Then, if I'm going to do some work at home, I would make myself a French press. It's the best way to make conventional coffee.
Howard Schultz
#3. I never wanted to be on any billionaires list. I never define myself by net worth. I always try to define myself by my values.
Howard Schultz
#4. We have a big opportunity in China. We think the number of stores here can rival the number in North America.
Howard Schultz
#5. Without fanfare, Starbucks was also going to open two coffee shops in Seattle that were not like any of our existing stores. Each would serve Starbucks coffee but be unique
Howard Schultz
#6. I think the currency of leadership is transparency. You've got to be truthful. I don't think you should be vulnerable every day, but there are moments where you've got to share your soul and conscience with people and show them who you are, and not be afraid of it.
Howard Schultz
#7. When you give up,' said a slim older man whose home we rebuilt, 'you might as well lay down and die.' It was obvious that we weren't just giving people back their homes, but also restoring a sense of dignity.
Howard Schultz
#8. I've said often that every enterprise and organization has a memory. And those memories create a path for people to follow.
Howard Schultz
#9. Everyone starts strong. Success comes to those with unwavering commitment to be at the end.
Howard Schultz
#10. Do I take criticism of Starbucks personally? Of course I do.
Howard Schultz
#11. Post-9/11, we saw an immediate uptick in the amount of people in our stores, all over the country. People wanted that human connection. We are not going to fracture the Starbucks experience.
Howard Schultz
#12. At its core, I believe leadership is about instilling confidence in others
Howard Schultz
#13. Life is a sum of all your choices, wrote Albert Camus. Large or small, our actions forge our futures, hopefully inspiring others along the way.
Howard Schultz
#14. There's an energy and excitement when you're building a company. You have so much tail wind. You're planting new seeds. But it's also scary, because there's no safety net.
Howard Schultz
#15. Customers have different need states and life experiences.
Howard Schultz
#16. I think my whole life, because of where I came from, I had a fear of failure.
Howard Schultz
#17. The lifeblood of job creation in America is small business, but they can't get access to credit.
Howard Schultz
#18. Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can't tell you whether someone will fit into a company's culture.
Howard Schultz
#19. I'm not as interested in what you make as I am in what you're passionate about. What business are you really in?
Howard Schultz
#20. People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they're really proud of, that they'll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust.
Howard Schultz
#21. Great opportunities can be and have been created during tough economic times.
Howard Schultz
#22. In anything we do, any endeavor, it's not what you do; it's why you do it
Howard Schultz
#23. Our history is based on extending the brand to categories within the guardrails of Starbucks.
Howard Schultz
#25. We think of Starbucks not as a coffee company but a media company.
Howard Schultz
#27. Cutting prices or putting things on sale is not sustainable business strategy.
Howard Schultz
#28. In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.
Howard Schultz
#29. The issue of managing through a crisis is you have to be decisive even if you don't have perfect information.
Howard Schultz
#30. Many of us spent time talking with the men and women who had lived through Katrina, and we heard stories of not only individual sacrifice and loss, but also of neighbors taking care of neighbors. The power of community was so evident in New Orleans.
Howard Schultz
#31. I was taken by the power that savoring a simple cup of coffee can have to connect people and create community.
Howard Schultz
#32. In times of adversity and change, we really discover who we are and what we're made of.
Howard Schultz
#33. Overnight the digital age had changed the course of history for our company. Everything that we thought was in our control no longer was. But within a year we had invested in social media and digital experts. Now Starbucks is the number one brand on Facebook.
Howard Schultz
#34. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received. - ALBERT EINSTEIN
Howard Schultz
#35. To stay vigorous, a company needs to provide a stimulating and challenging environment for all these types: the dreamer, the entrepreneur, the professional manager, and the leader. If it doesn't, it risks becoming yet another mediocre corporation.
Howard Schultz
#36. More than anything else, technology will pave the way for innovative change at Starbucks. The bulk of Starbucks' innovation over the next several years will be technology-focused.
Howard Schultz
#37. One of the fundamental aspects of leadership, I realized more and more, is the ability to instill confidence in others when you yourself are feeling insecure
Howard Schultz
#38. I was working probably at the age of 10, when I had my first paper route. I had every different kind of job you could possibly imagine as a young kid.
Howard Schultz
#40. Starbucks trying to build a different kind of company around the balance of profitably and benevolence. A social conscience. And that isn't a program it has to be a way of life.
Howard Schultz
#41. Passionate conviction ... sparks romances, wins battles, and drives people to pursue dreams others wouldn't dare. Belief in ourselves and in what is right catapults us over hurdles, and our lives unfold.
Howard Schultz
#42. I could've just walked away but I never could have forgiven myself to allow Starbucks to drift into mediocrity or not be relevant. I just couldn't be a bystander.
Howard Schultz
#43. It's ironic that no matter where I go, I meet people from Brooklyn. I'm proud of that heritage. It's where I'm from, who I am.
Howard Schultz
#44. You walk into a retail store, whatever it is, and if there's a sense of entertainment and excitement and electricity, you wanna be there.
Howard Schultz
#45. We live in an age where everything is based on the short term.
Howard Schultz
#46. My mother taught me something at a young age - she said 'you are the company you keep'. To define yourself by some label or some level of resources - that's pretty shallow.
Howard Schultz
#47. Customers must recognize that you stand for something.
Howard Schultz
#48. The businesses that thrive over the long haul are likely to be those that understand that cost cutting and revenue growing aren't mutually exclusive. Eternal vigilance to both the top and bottom lines is the new ticket to prosperity.
Howard Schultz
#49. If you want to achieve widespread impact and lasting value, be bold.
Howard Schultz
#50. The premium single-cup segment is the fastest-growing business within the global coffee industry.
Howard Schultz
#51. With a population of more than 600 million people, an emerging middle class that is driving strong consumption, and a robust and resilient economy, Southeast Asia presents a compelling growth opportunity for Starbucks.
Howard Schultz
#52. So when some refer to Starbucks' coffee as an affordable luxury, I think to myself, Maybe so. But more accurate, I like to think, is that the starbucks experience - personal connection- is an affordable necessity. We are all hungry for community.
Howard Schultz
#54. We sell tea in Starbucks, but I think the experience is very different. I think coffee is something that is quick - it's transactional. I think tea is more Zen-like. It requires a different environment.
Howard Schultz
#55. Starbucks has a role and a meaningful relationship with people that is not only about the coffee.
Howard Schultz
#56. Many companies today are reducing hours of full-time people to get under the minimum so they don't have to pay health care costs. I just shake my head because that's not going to build long-term value and trust with your people.
Howard Schultz
#57. On balance, I am a supporter of the minimum wage going up. We've got to be very careful what we wish for because some employers - and there could be a lot of them - will be scared away from hiring new people or creating incremental hours for part-time people as a result of that wage going up.
Howard Schultz
#58. Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from one person, but from the joint achievements of many.
Howard Schultz
#59. We will never-and I mean never-turn our backs on our employees.
Howard Schultz
#60. Success in the United States is not an entitlement in China. You have to go there and earn it, and earn it the right way.
Howard Schultz
#61. There's this myth that has been exacerbated by others that Starbucks means a $4 cup of coffee, which is not true.
Howard Schultz
#62. I honestly never dreamed at the time that I would one day own the Starbucks and or be in a position where we would have more than 10,000 stores around the world. It has just been an incredible journey for all of us.
Howard Schultz
#63. Sports was a great equalizer. It didn't have color. It didn't matter whether you were rich or poor, black or white. It really shaped me in many ways to be able to deal with a lot of different personalities and different cultures. Sports were the common thread.
Howard Schultz
#65. A founder's perspective is unique.
Entrepreneurs are builders, and the lens through which I view Starbucks and the marketplace is somewhat different from what it would be if I were a professionally schooled manager.
Howard Schultz
#66. But when you really believe-in yourself, in your dream-you just have to do everything you possibly can to take control and make your vision a reality. No great achievement happens by luck.
Howard Schultz
#67. For all the promise of digital media to bring people together, I still believe that the most sincere, lasting powers of human connection come from looking directly into someone else's eyes, with no screen in between.
Howard Schultz
#68. It's one thing to dream, but when the moment is right, you've got to be willing to leave what's familiar and go out to find your own sound.
Howard Schultz
#70. Starbucks is rekindling America's love affair with coffee, bringing romance and fresh flavor back to the brew.
Howard Schultz
#71. Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think possible. Care more than others think wise.
Howard Schultz
#72. You can't build any kind of organization if you're not going to surround yourself with people who have experience and skill base beyond your own.
Howard Schultz
#73. 55 percent - about 1.4 million veterans among this generation - said they feel disconnected from civilian life in America.
Howard Schultz
#74. Starbucks is committed to evolving and enhancing our customer experience with innovative and wholesome food offerings.
Howard Schultz
#75. The future of America is not an entitlement. We have been given a treasure chest of gifts and opportunities, but some people are being left behind, and success is not sustainable unless it is shared.
Howard Schultz
#76. London, a city where creativity and innovation have always flourished, provides a significant home for Starbucks and a significant gateway into Europe.
Howard Schultz
#77. China traditionally has been a tea-drinking country but we turned them into coffee drinkers.
Howard Schultz
#78. Success is the by-product when you work toward the target.
Howard Schultz
#79. We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can't copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company.
Howard Schultz
#80. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, ... begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. - GOETHE
Howard Schultz
#81. My parents really wanted me to get out of New York, be exposed to other people, other ways of life.
Howard Schultz
#82. If you can raise profits by shaving costs on your main product and 90 percent of your customers wouldn't even notice, why not just do it? Because we can tell the difference.
Howard Schultz
#83. A well-built brand is the culmination of intangibles that do not directly flow to the revenue or profitability of a company, but contribute to its texture. Forsaking them can take a subtle, collective toll.
Howard Schultz
#84. The entrepreneurial opportunity in America is alive and well.
Howard Schultz
#85. The challenge of the retail business is the human condition.
Howard Schultz
#86. The success of the Starbucks has been based on this balance between profitability and a social conscience. Everywhere we're doing business, were trying to manage the business through the lens of humanity.
Howard Schultz
#87. Mass advertising can help build brands, but authenticity is what makes them last. If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.
Howard Schultz
#88. Beverages have to be created. And they're created by looking at what trend is in, say, the fashion industry - what color's hot right now.
Howard Schultz
#89. Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is will. The will to make it happen.
Howard Schultz
#91. Starbucks being an extension of peoples home and work. The sense of community, human connection. That appears to be as relevant in Turkey, China, Japan and Spain as it is here in America. And Starbucks I think is creating something for people all over the world that has not existed before.
Howard Schultz
#92. Social and digital media is a bullet train, and that bullet train is not coming home.
Howard Schultz
#94. When it comes to Starbucks, I take every threat very personally.
Howard Schultz
#95. My biggest concern is that America is drifting towards mediocrity and that people don't recognize - and by people I'm meaning Washington - don't recognize the sense of urgency and the fact that I don't think this is a crisis anymore. I think it's an emergency.
Howard Schultz
#96. I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It's seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It's seeing what other people don't see And pursuing that vision.
Howard Schultz
#97. Certainly the caffeine in coffee, whether it's Starbucks or generic coffee, is somewhat of a stimulant. But if you drink it in moderation, which I think four or five cups a day is, you're fine.
Howard Schultz
#99. Starbucks is not an advertiser; people think we are a great marketing company, but in fact we spend very little money on marketing and more money on training our people than advertising.
Howard Schultz
#100. Companies should not have a singular view of profitability. There needs to be a balance between commerce and social responsibility ... The companies that are authentic about it will wind up as the companies that make more money.
Howard Schultz
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