Synopsis
For the past decade, the Starbucks Coffee chain has ballooned from 11 stores in Seattle to a major company with over 1,000 outlets throughout the nation. This is the story of how this extraordinary company combined coffee, commerce, and community into a dynamic force in business. The authors offer entrepreneurs, marketers, and managers innovative ideas to expand their own horizons in a competitive world.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1997-09-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 351 pages | | Height: | 10.0 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 24.0 oz |
Publisher's Note
The vision came to Schultz while traveling through Italy, when he recognized the intense relationship that the Italian people had not only with their coffee, but with the coffee bars that are an integral part of the country's social life. He knew in his heart that Americans would embrace the coffee bar experience in the same way. The idea was the beginning - and the marketing of the brand was brilliant. But Schultz gives credit for the growth of the company to a foundation of values seldom found in corporate America, values that place as much importance on the company's employees as they do on profits, as much attention to creativity as to growth. Schultz tells the story of Starbucks in chapters that illustrate the principles which have made the company enduring, such as "Don't be threatened by people smarter than you", "Compromise anything but your core values", "Seek to renew yourself even when you're hitting home runs", and, most simply, "Everything matters".
Industry Reviews
Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks, and writer-researcher Yang trace the growth and development of Starbucks from a single store in Seattle, which in 1973 sold only dark-roasted coffee beans, to the international business it has become today. Schultz does not conceal his passion for good coffee or for his company. His initial goals were to introduce Americans to really fine coffee, provide people with a "third place" to gather, and treat his employees with dignity. The extent to which he succeeded and the obstacles encountered along the way are the subjects he tackles here. This is not, in the strictest sense, a how-to book despite its considerable detail but more a motivational title. Recommended for large public libraries. Joseph C. Toschik, Half Moon Bay P.L., Cal.
Stefanatos
Starbucks CEO Schultz has given millions of Americans a taste for dark-roasted coffee blends espresso, cappuccino, caffe latte as served in the congenial atmosphere of pseudo-Italian coffee bars. With Business Week writer Yang, he recalls here rounding up often reluctant investors, opening his first store in Seattle, fending off a takeover, providing stock options and health care coverage to employees while doggedly raising new capital despite early losses and eventually delivering a 100-to-1 return on investment. As the company grew, with a new store opening daily nationwide, Schultz hired away executives from 7-11 and Burger King, took on Wall Street with an initial public stock offering, all the while developing additional products (Frappucino) and customizing the music tapes played in the shops. As instruction in plain English on how to build a billion-dollar retail specialty chain, it is hard to imagine a more satisfying brew than this memoir. $300,000 ad/promo. (Sept.)
Lopate
| See an error? Submit a change request |
All rights reserved.
