Howard Schultz Quotations

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

You can't build any kind of organization if you're not going to surround yourself with people who have experience and skill base beyond your own.

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

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

It's ironic that no matter where I go, I meet people from Brooklyn. I'm proud of that heritage. It's where I'm from, who I am.

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

Starbucks has changed the rules of engagement for the music industry.

Certainly the caffeine in coffee, whether it's Starbucks or generic coffee, is somewhat of a stimulant. But if you drink it in moderation, which I think four or five cups a day is, you're fine.

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.

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

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.

Starbucks represents something beyond a cup of coffee.

On balance, I am a supporter of the minimum wage going up. We've got to be very careful what we wish for because some employers - and there could be a lot of them - will be scared away from hiring new people or creating incremental hours for part-time people as a result of that wage going up.

You walk into a retail store, whatever it is, and if there's a sense of entertainment and excitement and electricity, you wanna be there.

I'm not losing any sleep over Dunkin Donuts.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 think there is probably no better person to aspire to emulate than Steve Jobs and what he has done at Apple in terms of his leadership, his innovation, not settling for mediocrity.

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

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

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.

I was born on the other side of the tracks, in public housing in Brooklyn, New York. My dad never made more than $20,000 a year, and I grew up in a family that lost health insurance. So I was scarred at a young age with understanding what it was like to watch my parents lose access to the American dream.

When I first discovered in the early 1980s the Italian espresso bars in my trip to Italy, the vision was to re-create that for America - a third place that had not existed before. Starbucks re-created that in America in our own image; a place to go other than home or work. We also created an industry that did not exist: specialty coffee.

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.

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

In the 1960s, if you were a blue collar worker or uneducated, and you had an injury on the job, the company basically dismissed you.

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.

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

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 reinvent food at Starbucks. Less could be more.

Managing and navigating through a financial crisis is no fun at all.

The future of America is not an entitlement. We have been given a treasure chest of gifts and opportunities, but some people are being left behind, and success is not sustainable unless it is shared.

People have come to me over the years and said to me: 'I admire the culture of Starbucks. Can you come give a speech and help us turn our culture around?' I wish it were that easy. Turning a culture around is very difficult to do because it's based on a series of many, many decisions, and the organization is framed by those decisions.

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

I'm not as interested in what you make as I am in what you're passionate about. What business are you really in?

In many places where coffee is grown, deforestation is a major issue.

We sell tea in Starbucks, but I think the experience is very different. I think coffee is something that is quick - it's transactional. I think tea is more Zen-like. It requires a different environment.

I do feel, in a sense, the rules of engagement for citizenship has changed, and we must encourage other people to speak up and to take action.

Often, organizations need bold, grand gestures to galvanize people towards a new mission or refocus their attention.

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.

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

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

The challenge of the retail business is the human condition.

Profitability is a shallow goal if it doesn't have a real purpose, and the purpose has to be share the profits with others.

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

With a population of more than 600 million people, an emerging middle class that is driving strong consumption, and a robust and resilient economy, Southeast Asia presents a compelling growth opportunity for Starbucks.

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

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

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.

I think my whole life, because of where I came from, I had a fear of failure.

Pouring espresso is an art, one that requires the barista to care about the quality of the beverage.

If Vancouver did not succeed as Starbucks from '87 on, our entire international business, which is now thousands of stores and a significant amount of growth and profit, may not have existed.

Our history is based on extending the brand to categories within the guardrails of Starbucks.

Turning a culture around is very difficult to do because it's based on a series of many, many decisions, and the organization is framed by those decisions.

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

The evolving social and digital media platforms and highly innovative and relevant payment capabilities are causing seismic changes in consumer behavior and creating equally disruptive opportunities for business.

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

We live in an age where everything is based on the short term.

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.

My son is trying to be a sports writer, and my daughter is a college student. She wants to be a comedy writer, and she's at film school. I discouraged both of them early on from getting involved in Starbucks. I didn't think it would be fair; plus, they didn't have any interest anyway.

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

I really believe that you cannot use the stock market as a proxy for the economy.

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

Everyone must have a shot at the American Dream.

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

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

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

Managing a business, small or large, today requires an extremely disciplined, thoughtful approach with regard to the pressure that people are under.

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

Great opportunities can be and have been created during tough economic times.

We think of Starbucks not as a coffee company but a media company.

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.

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.

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.

In the 1960s, if you introduced a new product to America, 90% of the people who viewed it for the first time believed in the corporate promise. Then 40 years later if you performed the same exercise, less than 10% of the public believed it was true. The fracturing of trust is based on the fact that the consumer has been let down.

Growing up I always felt like I was living on the other side of the tracks. I knew the people on the other side had more resources, more money, happier families.

It's different when you're trying to turn something around, especially something that you built, at a time when so many constituents - the media, Wall Street, competitors, ex-employees - are all saying that Starbucks's best days are behind it, and that Schultz is never going to be able to bring it back.

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.

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.

For Starbucks, there will be no shortage of the highest-quality arabica beans. I suspect that for some others there could potentially be a problem, not in the near term, but over time.

I could've just walked away but I never could have forgiven myself to allow Starbucks to drift into mediocrity or not be relevant. I just couldn't be a bystander.

I think the most important thing that I think everyone in America must have is belief that wherever they live, whatever station they have in life, that the American dream is alive and well. I think the fracturing of trust and confidence is in the American dream.

If you look at coffee, tea, food and juice, we think there are inherent opportunities. If you look at health bars or grab-and-go products that are in our stores, we think we can significantly enhance them and make them more widely available.

People ask me what's the most important function when you're starting an organization or setting up the kind of culture and values that are going to endure. The discipline I believe so strongly in is H.R., and its the last discipline that gets funded.

Starbucks has stores in America in many, many communities that are governed by many, many different municipalities. Starbucks cannot dictate to a municipality in Cincinnati or Kansas City or Sacramento how or why or when there should be a recycling program.

I despise research. I think it's a crutch.

If you don't love what you're doing with unbridled passion and enthusiasm, you're not going to succeed when you hit obstacles.

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

I always saw myself wanting to do something deemed successful and good at the same time.

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

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

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

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.

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

When you start a company, it's a singular focus. You have the wind at your back.