Let us start with a simple question...
If you find a poor boy whose father is a truck driver, and he is not so well financially... What will that boy's future be???OK... let's push the Fast Forward button, and see...
The father of that boy had a small accident, and he was not able to work so hard now... It is very difficult to weigh whole responsibility of house... But the boy was very passionate about life...
He started to work as a newspaper vendor nearby his area at the age of 12... Later on he gets the admission in Northern Michigan University on the basis of sports skills. He gets graduate in Communication. But there is nothing so extraordinary in this Right??
Remember that Fast Forward button... Let's press it again...
So, in present, that boy who had no scope to become rich, and stable has now become a multi-billionaire... He is counted in celebrity now. His Coffee shop has become an international chain. There are more than 27000 outlets of his shop in the world. It is named in the list of Fortune Five Hundred, World's richest companies. That multi-billionaire boy's name is Howard Schultz and his coffee serving restaurant's name is Starbucks.
Yes, If you are living in a metropolitan, This name is not probably
unknown for you. So, what happened with that poor boy that he has become this much successful...?
So...In between our story, Our hero struggled a lot... He worked as sales manager at Xerox. He also worked at home appliance company. One day he noticed that there is a small coffee store — Starbucks, and they are purchasing more coffee machines than any other coffee shops in Seattle.
He finds it interesting, and make a move to Seattle to meet the owners of the Starbucks. He liked that coffee business very much, and decided to have an experience as an employee there, and He wanted to be the part of that company.
Howard Schultz was 29 years old at that time. He literally fell behind them, and make them convince hiring Schultz as an employee, but on condition that they will pay half of his current salary. Schultz was quite OK with that condition.
In 1982, Howard Schultz joined the Starbucks as a marketing manager. After a yea he went Italy, and he came to learn the recipe of Latte, and Cappuccino from there. He liked the Italian culture very much, and he also noticed that people in Italy are not just coming to drink coffee, but they are coming to spend time with each other, to enjoy, to meet, and share talking there. Howard felt that we should also enter such an concept at Starbucks. He talked about this idea with the owners of the Starbucks too. But they were very orthodox and didn't agree with Schultz.
Howard was very confident with his idea. As he wanted to implement this idea at any cost, He resigned from Starbucks. After collecting a little capital, in April 1986, He opened his own coffee shop in Seattle named - il giornale. it means Newspaper in Italian language.
Howard was Jews by religion. Business-minded Jews do not like to do normal jobs. Howard's shop was a hit. Within a year, it becomes very popular, and mean while Howard came to know that Starbucks is on sell, because the owners can not manage the business well. Howard strikes. He went t so many lenders (Bill gates was one of them) and immediately collect the amount of four million dollars. And he bought all the Starbucks outlets. He was 33 at that time.
Now there is no one to stop Schultz. He went back to Italy and He shoot everything of their local coffee shop - their style of serving coffee, their friendly behavior and very social approach. After collecting so much information he came back to America. He started practical class for his employees. He told that we don't need to copy these tricks, we just need to understand their techniques and modify it according to American culture. In short we need to make the Starbucks lively, playful place where people love to come again and again!
The practical training given by Howard was the foundation stone for Starbucks. After overtaking, within a year Schultz opened new outlets of Starbucks in Chicago and Vancouver. Now total outlets have reached the number 17. Howard promised their creditors that the number of Starbucks' outlets will be delivered from 17 to 125 in next five years.
As an owner, Howard were very strict about his rules. He applied 'No Smoking' slogan in Starbucks. At that time people couldn't even imagine to have this rule in coffee shops in America. Co-workers denied to apply this rule and suggested that there are so many smokers in America, and they can run without your coffee but they can't run without smoking. If we do apply this rule than we will face so many problems ahead.
But Howard was strongly determined about this matter, and He said : "No means No".
So what happened with the rule..? Howard applied that rule..?? Did he get successful with his idea..??
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