Howard Schultz Quotes

People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action is, and how it will be implemented. They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and authority to act on it.

~ Howard Schultz

One of the fundamental aspects of leadership, I realized more and more, is the ability to instill confidence in others when you yourself are feeling insecure

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

Early on I realized that I had to hire people smarter and ore qualified than I was in a number of different fields, and I had to let go of a lot of decision-making. I can't tell you how hard that is. But if you've imprinted your values on the people around you, you can dare to trust them to make the right moves.

~ Howard Schultz

This is not his job, I thought, it's his passion.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

To stay vigorous, a company needs to provide a stimulating and challenging environment for all these types: the dreamer, the entrepreneur, the professional manager, and the leader. If it doesn't, it risks becoming yet another mediocre corporation.

~ Howard Schultz

Years later, that image of my father -slumped on the family couch, his leg in a cast, unable to work or earn money, and ground down by the world-is still burned into my mind.Looking back now, I have a lot of respect for my dad.He never finished high school, but he was an honest man who worked hard.

~ Howard Schultz

In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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

~ Howard Schultz

Business leaders cannot be bystanders.

~ Howard Schultz

What I would say to young entrepreneurs is there's so many moments in your life where you have these dreams, and people are trying to protect you, and they say, perhaps, friends, family, parents sometimes, they don't agree with it, they think, 'This is just too high of a hurdle.' And I don't agree with that.

~ Howard Schultz

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

~ Howard Schultz

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

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

Many companies today are reducing hours of full-time people to get under the minimum so they don't have to pay health care costs. I just shake my head because that's not going to build long-term value and trust with your people.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

I tried to build a company my father would have been proud to work for, that he would have looked back on and said, 'That's the company that honoured me, even though I don't have an education'. I wanted to build a company that had a conscience.

~ Howard Schultz

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

~ Howard Schultz

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.

~ Howard Schultz

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

~ Howard Schultz