Biography
of Howard
Schultz
Howard Schultz is an American
Businessman that known as the chairman and CEO of Starbucks and a former owner
of Seattle Supersonics. He is born on 19 July 1953 in Brooklyn, New York and
graduated from Northern Michigan University with a Bachelor’s Degree in
Communication before becoming the director of retail operations and marketing
for the Starbucks Coffee Company in 1982. In year 1987, he purchased Starbucks
and become CEO and chairman of the company after founding the coffee company II
Giornale. He announced that he was resigning as CEO of Starbucks in 2000 but
after 8 years, he returned to lead the company. Starbucks had more than 21000
stores worldwide and a market cap of $60 billion. He is currently stayed in
Seattle with his wife, Sheri (Kersch) Schultz, and two children, Jordan and
Addison.
Entrepreneurial
traits that demonstrated by Howard Schultz
1. Observant
Observant
means quick to notice and observe things. The leader will make the changes
instantly when they realize the problem have been occurred and will affect
their business. From Howard Schultz first time entered the original Starbucks
store in 1981, the attractive coffee aroma lets him feels like he is at home. This
feeling give him an idea to open a coffee shop. He think that this coffee shop
may lead him to success in the coffee drink industry. Then, he met the founders
of the company and listened about the story of the coffee. After one year meet
with the founder of the Starbucks Company, he received the job as the director of retail operations and marketing
for this company. Now, Starbucks had more than 21000 stores worldwide
and a market cap of $60 billion.
2. Proactive
Proactive is the creating or
controlling a situation rather than just responding to it after it has
happened. The leader will make the precaution towards the problem that he
thought may occurs in the future but not just find the solution when the situation
happened. To make sure that he really understood about his job, Howard Schultz spent
most of the waking time in the four stores at Seattle. He tasting different
types of coffee beans, working behind the counters, got the feedback from the
customer about the coffee beans, have a good communication with the colleague,
and teaching himself about the retail aspect of the coffee business. He also
trains himself for the process of roasting coffee.
3.
Visionary
A visionary person means a person
that has the thinking or planning for the future with imagination or wisdom that
included short-term plan and long-term plan. When Howard Schultz just started
work in Starbucks Company, he set the mission for himself. Later, he got an
idea to sell coffee drinks instead of just selling coffee beans to the
customers when he influence by the number of coffee bars that he encountered
during Milan’s travel in 1983. He has an idea to open the coffee bars in
Starbucks stores but the company’s creator oppose about this suggestion due to
the background of the company as the coffee bean business. With his persistent
towards this idea, the owner finally lets him created a coffee bar in a new
store that was opening in Seattle. This idea was an instant success to Schultz
and the Starbucks Company because it attracted hundreds of customers per day
and help in develop the brands new product that call “cafĂ© latte” in the
Seattle in 1985. After the merging of II Giornale and Starbucks, he had a
vision to open 2000 physical stores by the year 2000.
4. Open risk taker
Open
risk taker means a person or a business that tends to be present in a way that
may cause financial loss or physical harm, but might also bring an opportunity
for a rewarding outcome. The success of the coffee bar didn’t bring the
original founders to follow the direction of Howard Schultz wanted to take them,
but just keep their business as a coffee bean retailer instead of restaurant
business. So, Howard Schultz left Starbucks in 1985 and open II Giornale, his
own coffee bar chain. With the success of his company and have enough venture
capital, he then purchased Starbucks two years later and combine it
with II Giornale. After that, he became CEO and chairman of the Starbucks. He had
to convince the investors that the Americans would pay in a higher price to get
a high quality of coffee drinks, but in fact coffee bean consumption in the
United States had been going down since 1962.
5.
Failure
is an option
Failure is something hasn't achieved what they
set out to. When someone faced failure, he may learn the lesson from it and be
more careful next time. There were some projects that Starbucks failed to
launch it. One of the memorable projects is Joe Magazine. This is a magazine
produced by Starbucks in partnership with Time Magazine in 1999. The main
reason of this project subjected to failure was the customers didn’t want to
buy this magazine. This causes a big loss to Starbucks. As a reminder, Schultz
kept these magazines in his office and let everyone read through these
magazines to encourage them have the courage to face the failure.
As a conclusion, Howard Schultz is a
successful entrepreneur because he performs the entrepreneurial traits of
observant, proactive, visionary, open risk taker and failure is an option. He
is an observant leader because he can pop out an idea of selling coffee drinks
through his observation in the original Starbucks for first time. Howard Schultz
is also a proactive leader as he spend most of his time in tasting different
types of coffee beans, work behind the counters, got the feedback from the
customers, communicate with colleagues, teach himself about the retail aspect
of the coffee business and even train himself for the process of roasting
coffee without the order from his superior. Besides that, he also is a
visionary leader. He has an idea to open a coffee bar in Starbucks
stores, but this idea had been opposed by the owner of the Starbucks. Due to
his persistence toward this idea, the owner let him created a coffee bar in
Starbucks. He also had a vision to open 2000 stores by the year 2000. Howard Schultz
is an open risk taker. He took the risk to open his own coffee bar chain, II
Giornale, and then merge with Starbucks after left the Starbuck in 1985. Last
but not least, Schultz is a person who holds the quote which is failure is an
option. He faced the failure when he produced a magazine call Joe Magazine in
partnership with Time Magazine and didn’t have customers want to buy it. Then,
he kept these magazines in the office to remind everyone in the company that we
need to face the failure courageously. We must learn lesson from it and take
more consideration when making decision next time.
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