How did a truck driver’s son (Howard Schultz) build a billion-dollar Starbucks Company

Howard Schultz’s Childhood

Howard Schultz was born on 19 July 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. His parents were Jewish. His father was a truck driver. His childhood was spent in extreme poverty. His house was in a public housing project. Howard was born in such poverty that many times he had to sell his blood to survive.

His father broke his leg in an accident. At that time, Howard was in trouble because he had neither medical insurance nor any savings. Howard did not have enough money to pay the college fees. For this he had to take a student loan.

He did his schooling from Canarsie High School and later went to Northern Michigan University from where he did his B.A. in Communications. After graduating, Howard found a job as a salesman at Xerox Company in New York City. In 1982, he was hired by Starbucks as a director of retail operations and marketing.

Howard’s Italy Tour

Howard went on a tour of Italy. There he went to a coffee shop. There he saw that there the waiter were calling their customers by their names. They were very happy to see the service there and a new idea just came to them. He asked to introduce traditional espresso beverages to Starbucks in the US, but the owners of Starbucks refused because the maintenance and repair of the espresso machine was too expensive in the US. In 1985, Howard left Starbucks and opened his own store.

He did not get any funds for his new company. He approached many people but everyone refused to invest. He was so impressed with the Italian coffee shop that he tried to replicate that experience in his new coffee shop and wanted to give the same experience to his customers.

Beginning Of Starbucks

After a few years it was a coincidence that Starbucks went bankrupt and Howard bought it and became the CEO of Starbucks and changed the name of his company to Starbucks. Today, Starbucks has more than 25,000 stores around the world and the market value of Starbucks is more than $100 billion. Howard’s Leadership Skills, Marketing strategy and Global mindedness made him the successful CEO of Starbucks.

It is because of Howard that Starbucks has become such a big company today. Starbucks today deals in Hot Coffee, Hot Tea, Cold Coffee, Cold Drinks, Hot Breakfast, Bakery, Lunch, Snacks, Sweet, Oatmeal, Yogurt, Cold Cup, Water Bottle etc. If you talk about coffee, then you get Americano, Brewed Coffee, Cappuccinos, Espresso, Flat Whites, Lattes, Macchiato etc, in Starbucks coffee.