In 2008, Apple founder Steve Jobs screamed within the face of Starbucks’ then-CEO, Howard Schultz, and demanded that the coffee chain’s boss fire his management team.
Schultz is a well-known face on the helm of the Seattle-founded brand, having served three terms in that corner office. His first term was in 1987, when he and native investors bought the brand, and he stepped down in 2000 to deal with global expansion as chief strategist.
His second stint lasted from 2008 to 2018 before he returned for the ultimate time in 2022 for one 12 months.
The timing of Schultz’s second two appearances is significant: 2008 was a 12 months when the corporate was in crisis and desperately needed a turnaround, and the ultimate return got here after the coronavirus pandemic, when the ship needed to be righted.
But although Schultz was repeatedly appointed as a protected steward of the brand, which is valued at over $92 billion, he still relied on other well-known Fortune 500 CEOs. And during his tenure in 2008, he met Jobs and asked him for advice on how you can navigate the board he had inherited.
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Jobs invited Schultz – whose company was headquartered in Washington – to Apple’s offices in Cupertino, California, to debate the matter in person. At the time, Apple’s offices were positioned on the now-famous “Infinite Loop” campus, which consists of six buildings arranged around an oval courtyard.
Jobs was known for strolling across the courtyard in query – a habit that has since been adopted by current Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is thought for strolling around the corporate’s circular headquarters in Apple Park.
“[Jobs] “I had a specific love of walking,” Schultz said. “He would exit and walk across the constructing. So I went over and we might take a walk. I might just tell him all my problems – all the pieces that was happening.”
“He just stopped me and said, ‘This is what you need to do.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Go back to Seattle and fire everyone on your leadership team.’ I thought he was kidding.”
Schultz said he fought back: “I said, ‘What do you mean, ‘fire everyone’?’ He said, ‘I just told you. Damn it, fire all those people.’ He screamed in my face, ‘Fire all those people, that is what I might do.’ I said, ‘Steve, I can not fire all those people, who’s going to do the job?’
“He said, ‘I promise you, in six, maybe nine months, they’ll all be gone.’ He was right. Except for one, the general counsel, everyone was gone.”
Jobs and Schultz actually met again and Jobs’ prediction got here true.
“I’ve spoken to him since then. We were on stage together at an event and I told him, ‘They’re all gone.’ He said, ‘Well, you’re six months, nine months late. Think of all the things you could have done.'”
Missed opportunity
As the world’s largest coffeehouse chain with over 32,000 stores world wide, Starbucks has clearly made essentially the most of the opportunities available to it.
However, there are a number of decisions that Schultz regrets. In particular, he regrets not having the term “Caffe Latte” – often shortened to simply “Latte” – trademarked in America.
While the origins of the latte – essentially mixing milk and occasional – may be traced back in some form to the seventeenth century in Europe, the drink was standardized in America within the Seventies with the assistance of Starbucks.
“We introduced Caffe Latte to America,” Schultz added. “We didn’t trademark it. We trademarked Frappuccino later, but we didn’t trademark Caffe Latte, I didn’t think about it.”
