POUR YOUR HEAR INTO IT: HOW STARBUCKS BUILT A COMPANY ONE CUP AT A TIME by Howard Schultz and Doris Jones Yang (Hachette Books, January 1999) Trade paperback, 351 pages.
Synopsis on the Goodreads website .. . . .
In Pour Your Heart Into It, CEO Howard Schultz illustrates the principles that have shaped the Starbucks phenomenon, sharing the wisdom he has gained from his quest to make great coffee part of the American experience.
The success of Starbucks Coffee Company is one of the most amazing business stories in decades. What started as a single store on Seattle's waterfront has grown into a company with over sixteen hundred stores worldwide and a new one opening every single business day.
Just as remarkable as this incredible growth is the fact that Starbucks has managed to maintain its renowned commitment to product excellence and employee satisfaction. Marketers, managers, and aspiring entrepreneurs will discover how to turn passion into profit in this definitive chronicle of the company that "has changed everything... from our tastes to our language to the face of Main Street" (Fortune).
My Four-Star Review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
This novel begins with a biography of Howard Schultz, the man behind Starbuck's rise as a company for the 21st Century. It certainly helped to learn what molded and shaped his business philosophy as well as his own personal standards/goals. If I had to sum it up, I'd say that Schultz is guided by his heart and a sense of what's important to companies thriving in the modern world: engage the employees.
The remainder of the book covers the first ten years of Schultz's involvement and guiding hand in the growth of Starbucks. Funny, I didn't really pay much attention to their stores until I moved to the eastern part of Pennsylvania where there were more locations. Then, I took a job that required me to travel to thirteen states and Canada, and I saw Starbucks everywhere. Starbucks became a reliable location to secure my morning cup of java. I enjoyed the story of their rise to prominence. Schultz doesn't leave anything out, including some of the setbacks. The years in question are 1987-1997, and since then the company has really spread out. I'd welcome a second book covering those years since 1997.
I'm not certain that Starbucks still employs the same principles as Schultz (he retired as CEO) but weekly or more often visits to the local Starbucks are a regular part of my routine. I still get the sense that it's a decent place to work and employees seem to be appreciative in their demeanor.
While it took me twelve months to read this book, that doesn't mean it was boring or wasn't engaging. It's because I decided to participate in many Goodreads challenges/group reads this year and prioritized the books with deadlines ahead of ones that I could take a more leisurely reading pace with. This book and one other suffered from my lack of attention because of that.
Yet, by only reading one or two chapters at a time I came to appreciate the contents of Howard Schultz's story more than if I had read it straight through. The other book I neglected was fiction, which I abandoned after fifty-plus pages because more interesting reading compelled me. To be fair to it, I'm going to start over from the beginning with that one in 2023.
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