Howard Schultz

Howard Schultz ( born July 19, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American entrepreneur and chairman and CEO of the international " Coffee House " - or coffee house chain Starbucks.

Life

Training

Schultz is the son of a Jewish laborer and grew up in a council flat in Brooklyn. In high school, he was such a successful quarterback of the football team that he received a football scholarship to Northern Michigan University. However, since he did not play well enough for the college team, he had to take out a student loan. He took courses in marketing, rhetoric and communication and could make 1975 his Bachelor. He also became the first graduate of his family. He went back to New York to get the best from Xerox sales training that existed at that time in the United States. He then worked for three years in sales and marketing of Xerox. He then moved to Hammarplast, the American branch of the Swedish group Pestorp, a manufacturer of household appliances.

Coffee trade

In 1981 he became Head of the Sales and Vice President of Hammarplast. In the same year he discovered in the control of sales an unusually high sales of a particular coffee that was ordered by a small company in Seattle called Starbucks. He sought the three owners Gerald Baldwin, Gordon Bowker and Zev Siegl, and enthusiastic about their concept of offering only the best merchandise, ie precious coffee beans and quality coffee machines. Schultz, who had previously never been the usual freeze-dried coffee powder, was on the point gained at the local coffee experience ". It was as if I had discovered a new continent " Quick matured in him the determination to supply the whole country with this coffee quality. After several attempts, the owners of Starbucks in 1982 hired him as a manager for marketing and operations, which consisted at that time of only four stores.

Visiting a sales fair in Milan 1983, Schultz on the idea now offer coffee as a beverage. Only reluctantly took his superiors towards the establishment of small espresso bars in the shops, but refused any further expansion. Therefore, Schultz announced and started his own coffee bar called " Il Giornale ", where he was supported by his former employers.

Next, Schultz spoke with more than 200 potential investors and convinced at the end of fifteen of them, miteinzusteigen in the business. It was enough to abzukaufen 1987 the company owners and to begin an unprecedented boom with eleven stores and one hundred employees.

Schultz paid more than the minimum wage provided a health insurance and part-time employees also granted stock options. For suffered long working hours and little prospect of promotion, and the stock options were lost when was canceled after only a few years.

The chain expanded rapidly: in 1991 the establishment of the branch centenary was celebrated, since 1992 Starbucks is listed, the 1995 expansion began abroad. In 2000, Schultz retired from business operations and joined the Supervisory Board.

In addition to an aggressive expansion strategy, which focuses primarily on the skillful placement of its branches, Schultz also attaches to an excessively differentiated variety selection and smokeless coffee consumption. Starbucks used recently, organically grown coffee and offers the used coffee grounds in vain as fertilizer and compost.

The former football player Schultz since 2002 include 40 % of the basketball team Seattle Supersonics. His fortune was estimated at $ 700 million in 2003. On 17 July 2006, the SuperSonics were sold for a total of 350 million U.S. dollars to an investment group led by Clay Bennett.