Howard Schultz

And that's basically worked for decades and decades. It also seems like when you, Starbucks has become such an institution in our society that leading a small disruptive organization Everyone gives you the credit for all the positives and all the exciting things you're doing. And you sort of get a pass on anything that didn't work. Move fast and break things.

And that's basically worked for decades and decades. It also seems like when you, Starbucks has become such an institution in our society that leading a small disruptive organization Everyone gives you the credit for all the positives and all the exciting things you're doing. And you sort of get a pass on anything that didn't work. Move fast and break things.

When you're at this scale, everyone expects you to be wildly successful all the time because you always have been. But anything that's misaligned, that is where 100% of the focus is.

When you're at this scale, everyone expects you to be wildly successful all the time because you always have been. But anything that's misaligned, that is where 100% of the focus is.

Well, I think if you take a step back, not from Starbucks, but if you say to yourself, what company has gotten big in the food business and stayed true to its core purpose and reason for being and then stayed positively inclined to its customers? What are you going to name? And so the odds on getting this big and still being revered for who you once were is very, very difficult.

Well, I think if you take a step back, not from Starbucks, but if you say to yourself, what company has gotten big in the food business and stayed true to its core purpose and reason for being and then stayed positively inclined to its customers? What are you going to name? And so the odds on getting this big and still being revered for who you once were is very, very difficult.

And I would argue in so many ways we are better today than we were when we were smaller. That is expected of us, but I don't think we get much credit. Maybe we shouldn't. Maybe this is our responsibility. The elements, the characteristics that built the Starbucks business, the culture, is compassion, empathy, and love. Those are not just words.

And I would argue in so many ways we are better today than we were when we were smaller. That is expected of us, but I don't think we get much credit. Maybe we shouldn't. Maybe this is our responsibility. The elements, the characteristics that built the Starbucks business, the culture, is compassion, empathy, and love. Those are not just words.

It's like real things that are not being taught in business schools, and people on the outside view it as not true. Well, I'm telling you, The reason we've succeeded is because the underpinning of the company's purpose has been just that. And it's much harder today to execute that because you're dealing with cynicism as the first order of defense that you have to overcome.

It's like real things that are not being taught in business schools, and people on the outside view it as not true. Well, I'm telling you, The reason we've succeeded is because the underpinning of the company's purpose has been just that. And it's much harder today to execute that because you're dealing with cynicism as the first order of defense that you have to overcome.

But the responsibility as leaders is to do just that.

But the responsibility as leaders is to do just that.

All right, I'm going to take us to Starbucks today. I'll kind of map that out and give you the stats. And then we're going to go into playbook where we basically try to take all the lessons we just learned over the last few hours and figure out why did Starbucks work. And at such a grand scale that it did.

All right, I'm going to take us to Starbucks today. I'll kind of map that out and give you the stats. And then we're going to go into playbook where we basically try to take all the lessons we just learned over the last few hours and figure out why did Starbucks work. And at such a grand scale that it did.

So to catch listeners up on the business today, Starbucks does $36 billion in revenue, $4.1 billion in net income. There are 380,000 employees. You gave me a stat. I think over 450,000. 450,000 now. Globally. I must be using an old number. And over the lifetime, the company has employed over 5 million employees.

So to catch listeners up on the business today, Starbucks does $36 billion in revenue, $4.1 billion in net income. There are 380,000 employees. You gave me a stat. I think over 450,000. 450,000 now. Globally. I must be using an old number. And over the lifetime, the company has employed over 5 million employees.

Five million alum. That is scale right there. 39,000 stores globally in 86 countries, almost half of which are in North America, 18% in China. And about half of those are licensed franchise and half are company operated. And so while we're not... You mentioned we don't franchise in the traditional McDonald's sense.

Five million alum. That is scale right there. 39,000 stores globally in 86 countries, almost half of which are in North America, 18% in China. And about half of those are licensed franchise and half are company operated. And so while we're not... You mentioned we don't franchise in the traditional McDonald's sense.

You do these joint ventures, and you do this way of entering countries where you don't need to own and operate the entire store yourself. They're not franchises in the typical sense. Yeah, so tell us about that.

You do these joint ventures, and you do this way of entering countries where you don't need to own and operate the entire store yourself. They're not franchises in the typical sense. Yeah, so tell us about that.