Onward : how Starbucks fought for its life without losing its soul

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, the CEO of Starbucks recounts the story and leadership lessons behind the global coffee company's comeback and continued success. In 2008, Howard Schultz decided to return as the CEO of Starbucks to help restore its financial health and bring the company back to its core values. In Onward, he shares this remarkable story, revealing how, during one of the most tumultuous economic periods in American history, Starbucks again achieved profitability and sustainability without sacrificing humanity. Offering you a snapshot of the recession that left no company unscathed, the book shows in riveting detail how one company struggled and recreated itself in the midst of it all. In addition, you'll get an inside look into Schultz's central leadership philosophy- It's not about winning, it's about the right way to win. Onward is a compelling, candid narrative documenting the maturing of a brand as well as a businessman. Ultimately, Schultz gives you a sense of hope that, no matter how tough times get, the future can be more successful than the past.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. xii)
• Part 1 Love
• Chapter 1 A Beverage of Truth (p. 3)
• Chapter 2 A Love Story (p. 8)
• Chapter 3 Surfacing (p. 14)
• Chapter 4 Nothing Is Confidential (p. 26)
• Chapter 5 Magic (p. 33)
• Chapter 6 Loyalty (p. 39)
• Chapter 7 Believe (p. 47)
• Part 2 Confidence
• Chapter 8 A Reservoir of Trust (p. 55)
• Chapter 9 A New Way to See (p. 69)
• Chapter 10 Playing to Win (p. 81)
• Chapter 11 Elevating the Core (p. 88)
• Chapter 12 Get In the Mud (p. 96)
• Chapter 13 A Reason to Exist (p. 102)
• Chapter 14 Benevolence (p. 116)
• Chapter 15 Beyond the Status Quo (p. 123)
• Chapter 16 Bold Moves (p. 128)
• Part 3 Pain
• Chapter 17 Whirlwind (p. 139)
• Chapter 18 A Lethal Combination (p. 147)
• Chapter 19 Reverence (p. 155)
• Chapter 20 No Silver Bullets (p. 164)
• Chapter 21 I Know This to Be True (p. 170)
• Part 4 Hope
• Chapter 22 Truth in Crisis (p. 183)
• Chapter 23 A Galvanizing Moment (p. 192)
• Chapter 24 Nimble (p. 208)
• Chapter 25 Plan B (p. 217)
• Chapter 26 Stay the Course (p. 224)
• Part 5 Courage
• Chapter 27 Innovate (p. 239)
• Chapter 28 Conviction (p. 250)
• Chapter 29 Connecting Dots (p. 262)
• Chapter 30 Balance (p. 271)
• Chapter 31 Conscience (p. 287)
• Chapter 32 Winning (p. 296)
• Chapter 33 Ni Hao (p. 302)
• Tribute (p. 313)
• Acknowledgments (p. 329)
• Photo Credits (p. 333)
• Index (p. 335)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Part 1: Love Chapter 1 A Beverage of Truth One Tuesday afternoon in February 2008, Starbucks closed all of its US stores. A note posted on 7,100 locked doors explained the reason: "We're taking time to perfect our espresso. Great espresso requires practice. That's why we're dedicating ourselves to honing our craft." Only weeks earlier, I'd sat in my Seattle office holding back-to-back meetings about how to quickly fix myriad problems that were beginning to surface inside the company. One team had to figure out how we could, in short order, retrain 135,000 baristas to pour the perfect shot of espresso. Pouring espresso is an art, one that requires the barista to care about the quality of the beverage. If the barista only goes through the motions, if he or she does not care and produces an inferior espresso that is too weak or too bitter, then Starbucks has lost the essence of what we set out to do 40 years ago: inspire the human spirit. I realize this is a lofty mission for a cup of coffee, but this is what merchants do. We take the ordinary--a shoe, a knife--and give it new life, believing that what we create has the potential to touch others' lives because it touched ours. Starbucks has always been about so much more than coffee. But without great coffee, we have no reason to exist. "We looked at all the options," the team seated around me said. "The only way to retrain everyone by March is to close our stores, all at once." I sat back in my chair. It would be a powerful statement, but no retailer had ever done such a thing. "That's a big idea," I replied, considering the risks. Starbucks would lose several million dollars in sales and labor costs. That would be unavoidable. Competitors would capitalize on our absence and try to lure away our customers. Critics would gloat, cynics would smirk, and the always-unpredictable media scrutiny could be humiliating. On Wall Street, our stock could sink even lower. Most dangerous of all, such a massive retraining event would be perceived as our own admission that Starbucks was no longer good enough. But if I was honest with myself, I knew that that was the truth. I pursed my lips and looked at the team. "Let's do it." There is a word that comes to my mind when I think about our company and our people. That word is "love." I love Starbucks because everything we've tried to do is steeped in humanity. Respect and dignity. Passion and laughter. Compassion, community, and responsibility. Authenticity. These are Starbucks' touchstones, the source of our pride. Valuing personal connections at a time when so many people sit alone in front of screens; aspiring to build human relationships in an age when so many issues polarize so many; and acting ethically, even if it costs more, when corners are routinely cut--these are honorable pursuits, at the core of what we set out to be. For more than three decades, coffee has captured my imagination because it is a beverage about individuals as well as community. A Rwandan farmer. Eighty roast masters at six Starbucks plants on two continents. Thousands of baristas in 54 countries. Like a symphony, coffee's power rests in the hands of a few individuals who orchestrate its appeal. So much can go wrong during the journey from soil to cup that when everything goes right, it is nothing short of brilliant! After all, coffee doesn't lie. It can't. Every sip is proof of the artistry--technical as well as human--that went into its creation. In the beginning of 2008 I deeply wanted people to fall back in love with Starbucks, which is why, even when bombarded by warnings against it, I decided to close all of our stores across America. I did not feel fear as much as a sense of the unknown, like I was flipping over a playing card. All I had was my belief that, even more than perfecting our coffee, we had to restore the passion and the commitment that everyone at Starbucks needed to have for our customers. Doing so meant taking a step back before we could take many steps forward. When clocks struck 5:30 p.m. in cities across the United States, our customers were gently asked to leave our stores and the doors were locked behind them. Inside, our green-aproned baristas watched a short film our coffee experts had produced in a matter of days back in Seattle and shipped to all 7,100 stores, along with 7,100 DVD players. What our people heard that afternoon was pure and true: If poured too fast from the spout into a shot glass, like water flowing from a faucet, the espresso's flavor will be weak and the body will be thin. A shot poured too slow means the grind is too fine, and the flavor will be bitter. The perfect shot looks like honey pouring from a spoon. It is dense and tastes caramely sweet. If the espresso was not good enough, I told everyone at the end of the video, they had my permission to pour it out and begin again. And then there was the milk. For our espresso beverages, steaming milk to create a creamy, sweet consistency is crucial. Unfortunately, in the name of efficiency, our company had created some bad habits among our baristas. Not only had we not trained many of them to steam milk correctly--the process requires aerating and heating the milk in just the right fashion--but some had also been steaming large pitchers of milk prior to customers' orders, letting the pitcher sit, and then resteaming the milk as needed. But once steamed, milk begins to break down and lose some of its sweetness. We had to correct these behaviors and return to higher standards. Speaking to our people via the video, I had no script, just a heartfelt plea. "It is not about the company or about the brand," I said. "It is not about anyone but you. You decide whether or not it is good enough, and you have my complete support and, most importantly, my faith and belief in you. Let's measure our actions by that perfect shot of espresso." Meanwhile, in city after city, news crews pointed their cameras at our closed stores as reporters interviewed baffled customers. "A World without Starbucks?" asked a headline in The Baltimore Sun. In New York City: "Starbucks Shutdown a Grande Pain for NYers." Online, opinions pro and con streamed in throughout the day, and on television, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, and others covered the closings with an odd sense of wonder, as if it had snowed in summer. Late-night comedians also roasted us. At my home in Seattle, I watched Stephen Colbert's mock news report about his three tortuous hours without a caffeinated drink, which climaxed as he doused himself in the shower with coffee, foam, and cinnamon. I went to sleep laughing for the first time in months. Not everything went well that day. As predicted, Starbucks lost money. Approximately $6 million. One competitor tried to poach our customers by promoting 99-cent cups of espresso-based beverages. Some critics were brutal, insisting that by admitting we were broken we had forever dented the Starbucks brand. But I was confident that we had done the right thing. How could it be wrong to invest in our people? In the weeks following the closures, our coffee quality scores went up and stayed there as stories made their way to me, like this one from a barista in Philadelphia: A gentleman came into my store this morning and told me he would like to try espresso but was afraid it would be too bitter. So I told him that I would pull some perfect shots for him and also make him an Americano. Together we talked about espresso, its origins, and how to enjoy the perfect shot. He enjoyed it immensely and said he would be back for more. . . . I think I now have a customer for life. That was proof enough for me that we had done the right thing. There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is the right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead. This is the kind of passionate conviction that sparks romances, wins battles, and drives people to pursue dreams others wouldn't dare. Belief in ourselves and in what is right catapults us over hurdles, and our lives unfold. "Life is a sum of all your choices," wrote Albert Camus. Large or small, our actions forge our futures, hopefully inspiring others along the way. Ultimately, closing our stores was most powerful in its symbolism. It was a galvanizing event for Starbucks' partners--the term we use for our employees--a stake in the ground that helped reestablish some of the emotional attachment and trust we had squandered during our years of focusing on hypergrowth. A bold move that I stand by today, it sent a message that decisiveness was back at Starbucks. No doubt, after that Tuesday, thousands of Starbucks espresso shots were poured like honey. But a symbolic act and three hours of education would not solve our mounting problems. We had a long, long way to go--further than I had imagined when I returned as ceo. In the winter of 2008, the fight began for our survival. What we faced was nothing less than a crucible, and I had spent the past year preparing for it. Excerpted from Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz, Joanne Gordon All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In 2000, Starbuck's founder and CEO Schultz (Pour Your Heart into It) stepped down from daily oversight of the company and assumed the role of chairman. Eight years later, in the midst of the recession and a period of decline unprecedented in the company's recent history, Schultz-feeling that the soul of his brand was at risk-returned to the CEO post. In this personal, suspenseful, and surprisingly open account, Schultz traces his own journey to help Starbucks reclaim its original customer-centric values and mission while aggressively innovating and embracing the changing landscape of technology. From the famous leaked memo that exposed his criticisms of Starbucks to new product strategies and rollouts, Schultz bares all about the painful yet often exhilarating steps he had to take to turn the company around. Peppered with stories from his childhood in tough Canarsie, N.Y., neighborhoods, his sequel to the founding of Starbucks is grittier, more gripping, and dramatic, and his voice is winning and authentic. This is a must-read for anyone interested in leadership, management, or the quest to connect a brand with the consumer. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

Howard Schultz joined Starbucks in 1982 when it was a very small company with just four stores. In 2000, he stepped down as CEO and became chairperson of the company. He returned in 2008 as CEO just as the recession began to reveal itself. In this inspirational first-person account, a follow-up to Pour Your Heart into It (1997), Schultz describes his efforts to lead Starbucks from financial turmoil to reestablish it as the undisputed coffee authority. Schultz's personal business intuition and belief in restoring the company to its core culture and values guided Starbucks into regaining the trust and loyalty of its customers, shareholders, and partners (its name for employees). After Schultz and his team established an official Transformation Agenda and rewrote the company's mission, Starbucks not only survived the recession but built a sustainable company with a conscience: "...one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.. By the end of 2009, Starbucks had overcome many economic, technological, and social challenges. Schultz successfully created an innovative, ethical, and entrepreneurial spirit throughout the organization. Although many key events and concepts are often unnecessarily repeated, this book is an insightful contribution to the literature on how to become a sincere, successful, and decisive business leader. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. D. A. Mullin University of Massachusetts Lowell

Booklist Review

Schultz is the founder and CEO of Starbucks, a company that began as a small Seattle distributor of coffee beans and ground coffee that he transformed into what it is today, inspired by the espresso shops he visited in Italy. Schultz described the founding of Starbucks in his first book, Pour Your Heart into It (1997). Written with Joanne Gordon, a former Forbes writer and contributing editor, this account is a spotlight on the period of 2007-08, when the company lost some of its vision due to overexpansion and the pressure to maintain unabated growth. Seeing that Starbucks was becoming a victim of its own success, Schultz returned to the CEO position after eight years away from overseeing daily operations of the company. He details the struggle to maintain the identity of Starbucks while attempting to branch out into areas such as music sales and hot food, facing competition and the oversaturation that caused the company the painful closing of about 600 stores in 2008. This is one of those turnaround stories that illustrates that a company can overcome its growth pains by returning to its core principles.--Siegfried, David Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

With the assistance of former Forbes journalist Gordon (Closing the Engagement Gap, 2008, etc.), the CEO of Starbucks explains how he collaborated with a cast of thousands to rejuvenate a declining business.In 2000, Schultz (Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time, 1999) surrendered the CEO position but remained as chairman, focusing on spreading the coffee products to other nations, especially China. He was comfortable with his immediate successor, chosen from inside Starbucks, but the next CEO arrived from outside. Though Schultz liked him and respected his work ethic, the quality of the product and the service began to drop and the company's financial growth stagnated. Alarmed, Schultz decided to return for a second act as CEO. In his first book, the author described the early years of the company, with a heavy emphasis on ideals. Here, he looks back occasionally at those earlier years, but mostly provides a chronological account of what happened from 2007 to 2010. The detail is immense, and the cast of characters can feel overwhelming. Overall, though, the chronological account contains enough revelations and suspense to keep readers engaged. Schultz does not dodge outside criticisms of his performance, nor does he eschew self-criticism. For many ofitsemployees and customers, Starbucks is a sacred place that fills needs of connectedness and companionship. Schultz reprints correspondence from both employees and customers that demonstrate the special placethat local Starbucks stores hold in the hearts and minds of so many. The author pledges to donate the book's proceeds to supportneighborhoods where stores are located and to provide financial relief to employees facing emergencies.Anengaging account by a wealthy executive who sounds sincere and seems approachable.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.