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June 16, 2005
Make Mine Starbucks!
If you've ever wondered how Starbucks Chairman Howard Shultz built the coffee concern into such a dynamo, try considering the employee loyalty factor as one element of his success. Until I read the bio linked above, I actually gave no thought to the man.
According to the bio, he came from poverty, got out of the projects with a college football scholarship and never looked back.
He worked for Starbucks and during that period of employment, when they only sold their coffee in bean or grounds form to take home, he tried convincing the company that they would do well to open a chain of cafes. They declined to act on his suggestions, he left and later bought the firm, then metamorphised it into what it is today.
What kind of employee loyalty do you suppose you enjoy when you give 20 hour per week part timers full health coverage, and health coverage to unmarried spouses and institute a generous profit sharing plan, especially in these times when most employers go for the cheapest benefit packages they can scrape up and treat part timers like red headed step children(in fact a lot of companies, including the one that picks up and delivers most packages sent in the United States, I won't reveal the name of that company whose acronym is the opposite of 'downs', keep most of their rank and file employees on part time status so they don't have to give them any benefits). At any rate, Shultz is a great American success story if I've ever seen one, and he shares with his employees. The reason, he says, is because he wants to give others the chance to work for the kind of company his father never got to work for. Here's the link again, check out his bio.
What actually brought on this curiosity about the Starbucks chairman was a link emailed to me by my good friend Steve who, like me, is an avid supporter of Israel. It is a long post on a Muslim website inciting readers to boycott Starbucks because Howard Shultz is also an avid supporter of Israel. He's done business there, raised funds for Israel and is a very good friend of the Jewish state, so naturally, it stands to reason in the convoluted minds of members of The Religion Of Peace, he is the archenemy of Islam.
The Islamic site's post begins:
Research Findings Howard Shultz, chairman of Starbucks is an active Zionist.
Read and enjoy.
The U.K. website must have a more sedate readership than we're accustomed to on Islamic forums, since there hasn't been anything in the news as yet about anybody hijacking buses or eighteen wheelers and crashing them into Starbucks coffee houses, or anyone like Mr. Emoticon, here,
setting up shop in a nearby mosque.
Posted by Seth at June 16, 2005 08:16 AM
Comments
Seth, great post! I will never again feel guilty for spending $4.85 on a Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks. I will feel vindicated, knowing that Schultz is a supporter of Israel. Thanks for bringing this to my attention and alleviating my guilt over this little luxury.Btw, I hopped over from http://www.euphoricreality.net . You're welcome there anytime.
Posted by: HE!D! at June 17, 2005 02:19 PM
Thank you for your post, I also was impressed when I learned of Starbucks' support of Israel and they can definitely count on my support of Starbucks.
Posted by: Seth at June 17, 2005 03:36 PM
