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Pour Your Heart Into It

How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

By Howard Schultz, Dori Jones Yang

(13)

| Audio Cassette | 9781565112339

Book Description

The success of Starbucks Coffee Company is one of the most remarkable business stories in decades, growing from a single retail store on Seattle's waterfront to a company with more than one thousand stores nationwide and a new one opening every business day. Starbucks has effected a fundamental Continue

The success of Starbucks Coffee Company is one of the most remarkable business stories in decades, growing from a single retail store on Seattle's waterfront to a company with more than one thousand stores nationwide and a new one opening every business day. Starbucks has effected a fundamental change in American life, turning coffee into a national obsession and establishing the coffee bar as a new fixture of Main Street - a home away from home for millions of Americans. In Pour Your Heart Into It, Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, shares the passion, values, and inspiration that drive the success of this fascinating company. Schultz gives credit for the growth of Starbucks to a foundation of values seldom found in corporate America - values that place as much importance on the company's employees as they do on profits, as much attention to creativity as to growth. Schultz tells the story of Starbucks in chapters that illustrate the principles which have made the company enduring, such as "Don't be threatened by people smarter than you," "Compromise anything but your core values," "Seek to renew yourself even when you are hitting home runs," and, most simply, "Everything matters." For entrepreneurs, marketers, managers, and Starbucks' loyal customers, Pour Your Heart Into It gets to the heart of a company that, according to Fortune magazine, "has changed everything...from our tastes to our language to the face of Main Street."

4 Reviews

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Howard Schultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks, returned to the helm of the global cafe group in mid-2008 to save the company from financial distress. Amidst the global economic downturn, Starbucks could no longer produce its previous year-on-year 50% growth in sales and profits, and is faced with ke ... (continue)

    Howard Schultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks, returned to the helm of the global cafe group in mid-2008 to save the company from financial distress. Amidst the global economic downturn, Starbucks could no longer produce its previous year-on-year 50% growth in sales and profits, and is faced with keen competition from cheaper alternatives like McDonald's.

    It is therefore a good time to read this memoir of Schultz published in 1997, 5 years after the company was listed in New York with stunning performance, leading every Wall Street analyst to look for "the next Starbucks". In the book, Schultz explained how he came across Starbucks, a retailer of high-quality roasted coffee beans in Seattle and became a connoisseur of fine coffee. Following a trip to Milan, Italy where he witnessed the art of coffee-brewing by the baristas of espresso bars, he resolved to bring this coffee-drinking culture back to the States. The rest is history.

    Through his description of the early days of building up Starbucks, opening new Starbucks outlets across the country, foraying into Japan, developing new products like Frappuccino, and taking the company public, Schultz demonstrated his passion and perseverance in educating the Americans about good-quality coffee. Despite financial difficulties and challenges that plague every start-up company, Schultz has never lost faith in what he believes. Thanks to his leadership, vision and integrity, Starbucks has successfully become the "Third Place" of many people, next to their home and workplace. This is really a phenomenon.

    Employees of Starbucks are highly valued - they are called "Partners" and even before the company went public, the Partners were already rewarded with stock options. Starbucks was the first private company to offer stock options to its staff. The book shows you that care and focus on staff development is the key success factor of the exponential growth of Starbucks in the 1990s.

    This contrasts drastically with the close-down of 900 outlets and lay-off of 19,000 employees across the globe in the past year, all brought about by Schultz as part of his salvage plan. The stock price of Starbucks has risen from $7 to $14, but whether these measures are sustainable remain to be seen.

    Hence, this memoir written in 1997 is all upbeat, optimistic and high-sounding stuff. It is because the challenges faced by Schultz today were beyond his imagination then.

    An interesting read.

    Is this helpful?

    ― Tracy W said on May 21, 2009 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Half good

    This narrative on the history of Starbucks (written by its founder) starts promisingly. The episodes from the early days are captivating and inspiring, especially for aspiring entrepueners. But the book goes downhill when it gets to the stage where Starbucks becomes a major corporation. Buy it only ... (continue)

    This narrative on the history of Starbucks (written by its founder) starts promisingly. The episodes from the early days are captivating and inspiring, especially for aspiring entrepueners. But the book goes downhill when it gets to the stage where Starbucks becomes a major corporation. Buy it only if you are willing to pay full price for a good half.

    Is this helpful?

    ― Greg Sung said on Sep 6, 2005 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 咖啡是不少人生活中的一部分，若有一天沒喝一杯濃郁暖熱的咖啡，靈魂就像沒被喚醒。《用心煮咖啡》(Pour Your Heart into it)一書，星巴克(Starbucks)主席兼行政總裁舒爾茲(Howard Schultz)，分享了他如何白手興家，將星巴克發展成全球最大咖啡連鎖店的經驗，鼓舞了有志創業的夢想家。

    舒爾茲大學畢業後，曾在Xerox當推銷員，從而練得一身巿場推廣好本領。其後，他轉到一家廚具公司工作，並在西雅圖遇上由三個咖啡愛好者開設的星巴克。當時星巴克規模還很小，只有5間店舖，不過舒爾茲卻受到創辦人向顧客推廣優質咖啡的熱情感染，相信星巴克前景大有可為，於是他便毅然 ... (continue)

    咖啡是不少人生活中的一部分，若有一天沒喝一杯濃郁暖熱的咖啡，靈魂就像沒被喚醒。《用心煮咖啡》(Pour Your Heart into it)一書，星巴克(Starbucks)主席兼行政總裁舒爾茲(Howard Schultz)，分享了他如何白手興家，將星巴克發展成全球最大咖啡連鎖店的經驗，鼓舞了有志創業的夢想家。

    舒爾茲大學畢業後，曾在Xerox當推銷員，從而練得一身巿場推廣好本領。其後，他轉到一家廚具公司工作，並在西雅圖遇上由三個咖啡愛好者開設的星巴克。當時星巴克規模還很小，只有5間店舖，不過舒爾茲卻受到創辦人向顧客推廣優質咖啡的熱情感染，相信星巴克前景大有可為，於是他便毅然放棄高薪厚職，加入星巴克，追逐他的咖啡夢。

    所謂「讀萬卷書不如行萬里路」，舒爾茲亦因工作需要來到意大利，他深受當地咖啡店帶那種濃厚社區氣息所觸動，覺得若把這種社區氣息帶到美國，將令星巴克更完美。不過舒爾茲在創辦人的反對下，至1985年平靜地離開了星巴克，自行開設了I1 Giornale，繼續追尋自己的咖啡夢。
    創業從來都不是易事，舒爾茲在書內講述了星巴克的發展里程碑，首次把I1 Giornale跳出西雅圖，勇闖芝加哥﹔1987年收購星巴克並採用星巴克為新公司名稱﹔1992年把星巴克成功上巿等事件，他亦向讀者分享了自己的創業經驗。
    舒爾茲回憶當初籌錢開I1 Giornale時，曾面對資金不足難題，開咖啡店是傳統行業，與高回報、高風險的IT業相比顯得不吃香，故他向投資者推介他的創業夢時，亦屢吃閉門羹，在242次推介中僅有25家表示有興趣。被投資者拒絕的感覺自不好受，不過舒爾茲點出，無論過程有多困難，創業者仍應保持愉快的情緒，並要向投資者展示其創業熱情。
    不少創業者都擔心引入外來資金後股權被攤薄，他們隨時被新股東「過橋抽板」奪去公司的控制權。舒爾茲則以身說法，指出最有效控制公司的方法是做好本分，從而得到股東支持，即使所佔的股數不是壓倒性也不用怕。

    舒爾茲提到，他的創業原動力不是來自金錢，而是他對咖啡店的那份熱情。星巴克的成功在於堅守經營理念，永遠向顧客提供優質的咖啡和舒適的社區感覺，不會將貨就價，並且善待員工，視員工為自己的合伙人，例如星巴克會向所有員工，包括兼職的，推出認股證和全面的醫療保健服務，並履行星巴克自願堅負的企業責任，從而推動員工，建立互信及支持。
    舒茲爾在書內除分享他的創業旅程外，亦談及他的生活點滴，例如他對父親的深刻感情﹔紐約布魯克林貧民區的童年，如何磨練出他堅毅不屈的性格﹔大學半工讀時曾窮到賣血賺錢，他的經歷無疑給讀者上了一堂寶貴的人生課。
    《用》書收益會捐入星巴克慈善基金，讀者在細味舒爾茲的創業歷程的同時，亦可做善事幫助有需要的人。

    Is this helpful?

    ― 曙光情意結 said on Apr 19, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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