Howard Schultz

I just stood up and apologized and said, we've let you down. I promise I'll do my best, but we're trying to save the company. And literally we were trying to save Starbucks. Things were that bad.

I just stood up and apologized and said, we've let you down. I promise I'll do my best, but we're trying to save the company. And literally we were trying to save Starbucks. Things were that bad.

You say that we were trying to save Starbucks. And in my head, I always thought, well, it couldn't have been that bad. This is a big, successful company. It's fast growing. It's profitable. And then I read you were seven months from being insolvent.

You say that we were trying to save Starbucks. And in my head, I always thought, well, it couldn't have been that bad. This is a big, successful company. It's fast growing. It's profitable. And then I read you were seven months from being insolvent.

So we didn't have enough cash. We never had negative comps in the history of Starbucks. So negative.

So we didn't have enough cash. We never had negative comps in the history of Starbucks. So negative.

Every single quarter was better than 12 months.

Every single quarter was better than 12 months.

Never had a negative comp month in my history of the company. I didn't understand it. Such an anomaly. So we closed all those stores. And then you got to decide, okay, how do we turn it? What do we do? And I think...

Never had a negative comp month in my history of the company. I didn't understand it. Such an anomaly. So we closed all those stores. And then you got to decide, okay, how do we turn it? What do we do? And I think...

Going back to your line of questions in the past about the people is, of all the things that I could point to that demonstrates what Starbucks is, has been, and needs to be, it's the humanity and the people of the company. The company was built on being a performance-driven company through the lens of humanity. That's how it was built.

Going back to your line of questions in the past about the people is, of all the things that I could point to that demonstrates what Starbucks is, has been, and needs to be, it's the humanity and the people of the company. The company was built on being a performance-driven company through the lens of humanity. That's how it was built.

And whenever we've lost our way, we've lost our way because people in power didn't understand that equation. And so I just said, I need to be in front of every store manager. I need a meeting with 10,000 people. It's a big conference room. And so in 2008, no American company was traveling. And so the municipalities were hungry for Starbucks to potentially have a meeting at a discount.

And whenever we've lost our way, we've lost our way because people in power didn't understand that equation. And so I just said, I need to be in front of every store manager. I need a meeting with 10,000 people. It's a big conference room. And so in 2008, no American company was traveling. And so the municipalities were hungry for Starbucks to potentially have a meeting at a discount.

And so we had Detroit come in, we had Houston come in, and then New Orleans came in. What they presented to us was the need for Starbucks to come as a result of Katrina. And when we heard that, we realized we've got to go to New Orleans. And in fact, what we're going to do in New Orleans is we're going to have one full day of 50,000 hours of community service in the Ninth Ward.

And so we had Detroit come in, we had Houston come in, and then New Orleans came in. What they presented to us was the need for Starbucks to come as a result of Katrina. And when we heard that, we realized we've got to go to New Orleans. And in fact, what we're going to do in New Orleans is we're going to have one full day of 50,000 hours of community service in the Ninth Ward.

Next day, we walked through and we built basically a tutorial on how to restore the business and have people walk through it. And we had classes and we had all these things going on. And the third day, was my speech in the basketball Coliseum to 10,000 people. About an hour before, I was really feeling the burden of how important what I was going to say is.

Next day, we walked through and we built basically a tutorial on how to restore the business and have people walk through it. And we had classes and we had all these things going on. And the third day, was my speech in the basketball Coliseum to 10,000 people. About an hour before, I was really feeling the burden of how important what I was going to say is.

And the CFO at the time, who subsequently resigned a week later, wasn't my guy, asked me what I'm going to say. And I said, I'm going to tell him the truth. And he says, you can't possibly do that. You're going to scare the shit out of them. I went up there and I laid it out, chapter and verse. I think we have seven months left. We are going to be insolvent.

And the CFO at the time, who subsequently resigned a week later, wasn't my guy, asked me what I'm going to say. And I said, I'm going to tell him the truth. And he says, you can't possibly do that. You're going to scare the shit out of them. I went up there and I laid it out, chapter and verse. I think we have seven months left. We are going to be insolvent.