Howard schultz quotes

We are witnessing a seismic change in consumer behavior. That change is being brought about by technology and the access people have to information.

California, in a sense, is almost Starbucks' largest country, with almost 3,000 stores.

Believe in your dreams and dream big. And then after youve done that, dream bigger.

I've traveled around the world, and what's so revealing is that, despite the differences in culture, politics, language, how people dress, there is a universal feeling that we all want the same thing. We deeply want to be respected and appreciated for our differences.

I think we are living in a time where the consumer has lots of choices, whether it's coffee, newspapers or whatever it is. And there is parity in the market place and as a result of that the consumer is beginning to make decisions, not just on what things cost and the convenience of it.

I honestly never dreamed at the time that I would one day own the Starbucks and or be in a position where we would have more than 10,000 stores around the world. It has just been an incredible journey for all of us.

The success of the Starbucks has been based on this balance between profitability and a social conscience. Everywhere we're doing business, were trying to manage the business through the lens of humanity.

Starbucks is not an advertiser; people think we are a great marketing company, but in fact we spend very little money on marketing and more money on training our people than advertising.

If you want to achieve widespread impact and lasting value, be bold.

Authentic brands don't emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. They emanate from everything the company does.

Customers must recognize that you stand for something.

Success is empty if you arrive at the finish line alone.

I believe life is a series of near misses. A lot of what we ascribe to luck is not luck at all. It's seizing the day and accepting responsibility for your future. It's seeing what other people don't see And pursuing that vision.

Passionate conviction ... sparks romances, wins battles, and drives people to pursue dreams others wouldn't dare. Belief in ourselves and in what is right catapults us over hurdles, and our lives unfold.

Starbucks trying to build a different kind of company around the balance of profitably and benevolence. A social conscience. And that isn't a program it has to be a way of life.

I don't have any secret sauce and I'm no smarter than anyone else. I will say I have surrounded myself with unbelievable talent that has made my job easier.

I conduct my life with an expectation that people will do the right thing. Yet even with all my experience, I am still surprised when they do not.

Business leaders cannot be bystanders.

Whatever you do, don't play it safe. Don't do things the way they've always been done. Don't try to fit the system. If you do what's expected of you, you'll never accomplish more than others expect.

Europe has always represented a major strategic opportunity to achieve our goal of creating and building an enduring global brand.

The Starbucks customer and the Teavana customer are two very different customers, two different need states that are highly complimentary.

In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart.

The issue of managing through a crisis is you have to be decisive even if you don't have perfect information.

In times of adversity and change, we really discover who we are and what we're made of.

If you put on a lousy production with white actors, it's lousy. There is a problem, or can be, at this stage of our social evolution, with mixing the casts. It may not be a question of race so much as class. You would rarely find a black man in a high executive position where he was swinging his weight around.

There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.

Remember: You'll be left with an empty feeling if you hit the finish line alone. When you run a race as a team, though, you'll discover that much of the reward comes from hitting the tape together. You want to be surrounded not just by cheering onlookers but by a crowd of winners, celebrating as one.

We woke up one day, and all the sudden Starbucks was in the middle of this political crossfire between the people who want to bring a gun into Starbucks and the people who want to prevent it. It is a very difficult, fragile situation.

People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action is, and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and authority to act on it.

Victory is much more meaningful when it comes not just from one person, but from the joint achievements of many.

Work should be personal. For all of us. Not just for the artist and entrepreneur. Work should have meaning for the accountant, the construction worker, the technologist, the manager and the clerk.

Anybody can leverage celebrity for profit.

Everyone must have a shot at the American Dream.

Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can't tell you whether someone will fit into a company's culture.

Customers don't always know what they want. The decline in coffee-drinking was due to the fact that most of the coffee people bought was stale and they weren't enjoying it. Once they tasted ours and experienced what we call "the third place" ... a gathering place between home and work where they were treated with respect.. they found we were filling a need they didn't know they had.

Success is something that has to be earned every day.

The lifeblood of job creation in America is small business, but they can't get access to credit.

Companies should not have a singular view of profitability. There needs to be a balance between commerce and social responsibility... The companies that are authentic about it will wind up as the companies that make more money.

Entrepreneurs must love what they do to such a degree that doing it is worth sacrifice and, at times, pain. But doing anything else, we think, would be unimaginable.

Who wants a dream that's near-fetched?

At an early age, my mother gave me this feeling that anything is possible, and I believe that.

My mother taught me something at a young age - she said 'you are the company you keep.' To define yourself by some label or some level of resources - that's pretty shallow.

My biggest concern is that America is drifting towards mediocrity and that people don't recognize - and by people I'm meaning Washington - don't recognize the sense of urgency and the fact that I don't think this is a crisis anymore. I think it's an emergency.

Most business people today are not going to invest in the uncertainty that exists in America.

In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.

China traditionally has been a tea-drinking country but we turned them into coffee drinkers.

And with the right mentor, don't be afraid to expose your vulnerabilities. Admit you don't know what you don't know. When you acknowledge your weaknesses and ask for advice, you'll be surprised how much others will help.

Be bold, but be fair. Don't give in. If others around you have integrity, too, you can prevail

I think if you're an entrepreneur, you've got to dream big - and then dream bigger.

I think Starbucks created a platform and, ultimately, a runway for many other companies to emulate. I suspect if we had not achieved what we have, there would have been many regional brands that would have succeeded. But I'm not sure there would have been a national brand of the scope of Starbucks.

Every step of the way, I made a point to underpromise and overdeliver. In the long run, that's the only way to ensure security in any job.

My passion. My commitment. This is the most important thing in my life other than my family.

Always challenge the old ways.

I can't imagine a day without coffee. I can't imagine!

The rules of engagement around building a brand have changed significantly over the past 10 to 15 years. Where companies at one time could spread their message through traditional marketing, consumers now seek an enduring emotional connection with the companies they patronize. The foundation of that connection is the most important characteristic of building a world-class brand: trust. Trust with your people and trust with your customers.

This may sound a bit naive, but I got here by believing in big dreams.

My father had a series of blue-collar jobs and never made more than $20,000 a year. When I was seven, he got injured on a job. That was a very important point - because of the injury, he couldn't walk, and the company he was working for did not pay him. There was no compensation. So there was no money and no food.

The challenge of the retail business is the human condition.

While we are a coffee company at heart, Starbucks provides much more than the best cup of coffee—we offer a community gathering place where people come together to connect and discover new things.

Don't be threatened by people smarter than you.

In many places where coffee is grown, deforestation is a major issue. With Starbucks' position in the marketplace and the respect and relationships we have, we can - and have, in some cases - been able to educate and influence people.

I think the currency of leadership is transparency. You've got to be truthful. I don't think you should be vulnerable every day, but there are moments where you've got to share your soul and conscience with people and show them who you are, and not be afraid of it.

But when you really believe-in yourself, in your dream-you just have to do everything you possibly can to take control and make your vision a reality. No great achievement happens by luck.

Sometimes you have to create the thing you want to be part of.

One of the fundamental aspects of leadership, I realized more and more, is the ability to instill confidence in others when you yourself are feeling insecure

Don't settle! Embrace a dream--and keep dreaming. Don't be a bystander. Take it personally.

The hardest thing about being a leader is demonstrating or showing vulnerability. And that has a lot to do with trust.

What I would say to young entrepreneurs is there's so many moments in your life where you have these dreams, and people are trying to protect you, and they say, perhaps, friends, family, parents sometimes, they don't agree with it, they think, 'This is just too high of a hurdle.' And I don't agree with that.

Social and digital media is a bullet train, and that bullet train is not coming home.

Great companies are defined by their discipline and their understanding of who they are and who they are not.

If you pour your heart into your work, or into any worthy enterprise, you can achieve dreams others may think impossible.

The premium single-cup segment is the fastest-growing business within the global coffee industry.

Grow with discipline. Balance intuition with rigor. Innovate around the core. Don't embrace the status quo.

At Starbucks 0 as in any business, in any life - there are so many hectic moments during the day when we are simply trying to do the job, trying to put out the fires, trying to solve any number of small problems, that we often lose sight of what it is we're really here to do.

Success is best when its shared

We are not in the coffee business serving people, we are in the people business serving coffee.

Everyone starts strong. Success comes to those with unwavering commitment to be at the end.

Any business today that embraces the status quo as an operating principle is going to be on a death march.

People want to be part of something larger than themselves. They want to be part of something they're really proud of, that they'll fight for, sacrifice for, that they trust.

If it Captures Your Imagination, it will captivate others.

Good results is not an entitlement. It has to be earned and earned each individual working day via the lens of humility.

When companies fail, or fail to grow, it's almost always because they don't invest in the people, the systems, and the processes they need.

I never wanted to be on any billionaires list. I never define myself by net worth. I always try to define myself by my values.

Starbucks is rekindling America's love affair with coffee, bringing romance and fresh flavor back to the brew.

We have a big opportunity in China. We think the number of stores here can rival the number in North America.

Success is the by-product when you work toward the target.

When I returned as CEO in 2008, Starbucks had forgotten that meaningful innovations balance an organization's heritage with modern-day relevance and market differentiation, so we had to reorient. In one brainstorming session, we visited and observed great retailers, then asked ourselves, 'If Starbucks did not exist, what type of coffee experience would we create?

In life, you can blame a lot of people and you can wallow in self-pity or you can pick yourself up and say listen, I have to be responsible for myself.

I was taken by the power that savoring a simple cup of coffee can have to connect people and create community.

You must find something that you deeply love and are passionate about and are willing to sacrifice a lot to achieve.

The response to the Starbucks brand has been phenomenal in our international markets.

A great business has to have a conscience. You have to know who you are and who you are not.

My parents really wanted me to get out of New York, be exposed to other people, other ways of life.

Cutting prices or putting things on sale is not sustainable business strategy.

The growth of the company and the license that Starbucks has is to participate in other food and beverage opportunities. We have a global business... and in many parts of the world, tea is much, much bigger than coffee, and we're going to bring tea and bring our capability and our understanding of what we've done for coffee to tea.

Overnight the digital age had changed the course of history for our company. Everything that we thought was in our control no longer was. But within a year we had invested in social media and digital experts. Now Starbucks is the number one brand on Facebook.

I realize that idealism is out of sync with the cynicism of our age. Skepticism has come to be synonymous with sophistication, and glibness is mistaken for intelligence. In such an atmosphere, why bother aiming high? Far too many people don't. I just want to reassure people to have the courage to persevere, to keep following their hearts even when others scoff. Don't be beaten down by naysayers. Don't let the odds scare you from even trying.

When we began Starbucks, what I wanted to try to do was to create a set of values, guiding principles, and culture.

Effective leaders share two intertwined attributes: an unbridled level of confidence about where their organizations are headed, and the ability to bring people along.

Customers have different need states and life experiences.

Cutting prices or putting things on sale is not sustainable business strategy. The other side of it is that you can't cut enough costs to save your way to prosperity.

I probably have about four or five cups of coffee a day. I make myself an espresso macchiato when I wake, which is a shot of espresso and just a dollop of steamed milk. Then, if I'm going to do some work at home, I would make myself a French press. It's the best way to make conventional coffee.

Sports was a great equalizer. It didn't have color. It didn't matter whether you were rich or poor, black or white. It really shaped me in many ways to be able to deal with a lot of different personalities and different cultures. Sports were the common thread.

People around the world, they want the authentic Starbucks experience.

To be an enduring, great company, you have to build a mechanism for preventing or solving problems that will long outlast any one individual leader.

Great companies that build an enduring brand have an emotional relationship with customers that has no barrier. And that emotional relationship is on the most important characteristic, which is trust.

At its core, I believe leadership is about instilling confidence in others.

We want passion for our business.. workers who can interpret and execute our mission, who want to build a career, not just take a temporary job.

It's one thing to dream, but when the moment is right, you've got to be willing to leave what's familiar and go out to find your own sound.

I think that sometimes the difference between winning and losing, success and failure, is this gray line between will, passion and self-belief that says, 'I'm going to do this'.

You cant build any kind of organization if youre not going to surround yourself with people who have experience and skill base beyond your own.

There's this myth that has been exacerbated by others that Starbucks means a $4 cup of coffee, which is not true.

When you're surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible.

Even though people are under economic pressure, they still want to support those brands with values that are compatible with their own.

We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can't copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company.

Early on I realized that I had to hire people smarter and more qualified than I was in a number of different fields, and I had to let go of a lot of decision-making. I can't tell you how hard that is. But if you've imprinted your values on the people around you, you can dare to trust them to make the right moves.

Beverages have to be created. And they're created by looking at what trend is in, say, the fashion industry - what color's hot right now.

I think people will walk into the Starbucks store and overnight recognize the significant difference between what Starbucks represents day-in and day-out and all the other coffee companies that have been serving coffee in India for so many years.

We need to put ourselves in the shoes of our customers. That is my new battle cry. Live and breathe Starbucks the way our customers do.

Our mission statement about treating people with respect and dignity is not just words but a creed we live by every day. You can't expect your employees to exceed the expectations of your customers if you don't exceed the employees' expectations of management.

Success in the United States is not an entitlement in China. You have to go there and earn it, and earn it the right way.

Risk more than others think safe.

We would take something old and tired and common - coffee - and weave a sense of romance and community around it. We would rediscover the mystique and charm that had swirled around coffee throughout the centuries.

When you're building a business or joining a company you have to be transparent, you can't have two sets of information for two sets of people.

Success is best when it is shared.