Howard Schultz

The first thing I want to say is I've made it clear to the Starbucks board, Howard Schultz, and I've made it clear to Loxman, Howard Schultz has no desire or intent to return as CEO of Starbucks. If you want, I'll say it again, but I don't. But I can't ignore what we've just discussed for the last few hours. If the company is doing a drift towards mediocrity,

The first thing I want to say is I've made it clear to the Starbucks board, Howard Schultz, and I've made it clear to Loxman, Howard Schultz has no desire or intent to return as CEO of Starbucks. If you want, I'll say it again, but I don't. But I can't ignore what we've just discussed for the last few hours. If the company is doing a drift towards mediocrity,

And I hold leadership and the board responsible for that. And my letter was not accusatory. My letter was not predatory. My letter was steeped in counsel and advice based on 40 plus years of experience in building this company. That's the advice and counsel I'm giving you. If you wanna take the advice, it's up to you. If you don't, you're responsible for the outcome.

And I hold leadership and the board responsible for that. And my letter was not accusatory. My letter was not predatory. My letter was steeped in counsel and advice based on 40 plus years of experience in building this company. That's the advice and counsel I'm giving you. If you wanna take the advice, it's up to you. If you don't, you're responsible for the outcome.

And so I have no operational role. I'm not on the board. And I'm watching from afar and rooting and cheering for Starbucks. And I wrote the letter in hope that it would be a catalyst for a positive interpretation. And what were your recommendations in the letter? The one thing is we're not a beverage company serving coffee. We are a coffee company serving people.

And so I have no operational role. I'm not on the board. And I'm watching from afar and rooting and cheering for Starbucks. And I wrote the letter in hope that it would be a catalyst for a positive interpretation. And what were your recommendations in the letter? The one thing is we're not a beverage company serving coffee. We are a coffee company serving people.

And we need to be much more coffee forward, and we cannot continue to allow the mobile app to be a runaway train that is going to consistently dilute the integrity of the experience of Starbucks. We're not in the transaction business. We have to execute transactions, but that has to go through the lens of being an experienced business, an experienced place.

And we need to be much more coffee forward, and we cannot continue to allow the mobile app to be a runaway train that is going to consistently dilute the integrity of the experience of Starbucks. We're not in the transaction business. We have to execute transactions, but that has to go through the lens of being an experienced business, an experienced place.

People are longing for human connection, even if they're on a mobile app. Let's provide it. But I also recognize this is a complex time. It's difficult. But that's your job.

People are longing for human connection, even if they're on a mobile app. Let's provide it. But I also recognize this is a complex time. It's difficult. But that's your job.

Makes sense. To finish the episode, I can definitely say as an unabashed fan, the same way I opened the episode, rooting for everyone over a few miles away to pull it off.

Makes sense. To finish the episode, I can definitely say as an unabashed fan, the same way I opened the episode, rooting for everyone over a few miles away to pull it off.

Thank you very much. I think Starbucks is so resilient. Starbucks has had many, many challenges. I have great faith in the company and the equity of the brand and the people who wear the cloth of the company, the green apron.

Thank you very much. I think Starbucks is so resilient. Starbucks has had many, many challenges. I have great faith in the company and the equity of the brand and the people who wear the cloth of the company, the green apron.

Great.

Great.

All right, well, listeners, thank you for being on the journey with us. That was super fun to do with Howard. Remember the huge announcement from the top of the show, San Francisco in September. Click the link in the show notes to stay fully in the loop on what that is when we are able to share more details. Our good friends at JPMorgan Payments are cooking up something very cool with us.

All right, well, listeners, thank you for being on the journey with us. That was super fun to do with Howard. Remember the huge announcement from the top of the show, San Francisco in September. Click the link in the show notes to stay fully in the loop on what that is when we are able to share more details. Our good friends at JPMorgan Payments are cooking up something very cool with us.

So stay tuned for more acquired.fm slash sf or click the link in the show notes to stay in the loop. And of course, we'll be sharing this on Twitter and probably talking about it on the podcast again. But find out more Acquired.fm slash SF. If you want to talk about this episode, come to the Slack, Acquired.fm slash Slack.

So stay tuned for more acquired.fm slash sf or click the link in the show notes to stay in the loop. And of course, we'll be sharing this on Twitter and probably talking about it on the podcast again. But find out more Acquired.fm slash SF. If you want to talk about this episode, come to the Slack, Acquired.fm slash Slack.