Howard Schultz Quotes

Starbucks represents something beyond a cup of coffee.

When it comes to Starbucks, I take every threat very personally.

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

Starbucks has a role and a meaningful relationship with people that is not only about the coffee.

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

Starbucks is in my blood. It is such a part of me that letting it unravel simply was not an option.

There's a metaphor Vincent Eades likes to use: "If you examine a butterfly according to the laws of aerodynamics, it shouldn't be able to fly. But the butterfly doesn't know that, so it flies.

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

Starbucks is committed to evolving and enhancing our customer experience with innovative and wholesome food offerings.

Customers must recognize that you stand for something.

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

Do I take criticism of Starbucks personally? Of course I do.

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

I am concerned about any attrition in customer traffic at Starbucks, but I don't want to use the economy, commodity prices or consumer confidence as an excuse.

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.

Don't be threatened by people smarter than you.

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.

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.

Mass advertising can help build brands, but authenticity is what makes them last. If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Risk more than others think safe.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

My kids probably started drinking coffee in their late teens.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Success is something that has to be earned every day.

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

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.

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.

Business leaders cannot be bystanders.