Introduction Biography Howard Schultz was born in the year 1953 in Brooklyn, New York. Schultz’s mother worked as a receptionist while his dad held several poorly paying jobs. His father lost his job while Schultz was aged seven and the family had to go through tough times including not being able to afford what to eat. The experience acted as a motivation for Schultz to excel in athletics while at school. His football skills paid off and enabled him to get a scholarship to further his studies at Northern Michigan University. Finally, he attained a bachelor’s degree in communications. His first job after graduation was as a salesperson at Hammarplast, a company selling European coffee makers in USA. He later rose up to the position of a sales director after the corporation noticed that they made high sales to a small company in Seattle called Starbucks Coffee Tea and Spice Company. The achievement gave him the urge to visit the company in the year 1981. Starbucks was formed in the year 1971 setting up its first retail store in the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Schultz, however, became part of the company in the year 1982 where he occupied the position of a marketing and operations director. By then the company had only four retail stores in Seattle, which were selling only coffee beans. The company hardly engaged in the sale of coffee drinks (Schultz, 2011). In the year 1983, Schultz visited Italy where he was moved by the romantic coffee experience in the country. The experience influenced him to work towards bringing the same culture in the American coffee market. He had a vision of making the coffee bars a home away from home that cultivated communication among people, created connections, and communal sense. The owners of the company did not immediately welcome Schultz’s ideas. However, by 1984, they finally embraced it leading to the establishment of the first coffee bar in a new store in Seattle. The store soon brought about success by attracting hundreds of customers daily and bringing the coffee culture that Schultz had loved in Italy closer home to Seattle. The owners of Starbucks, however, were not ready for the big success that was shown by setting up the coffee bar. The condition discouraged Schultz and made him resign from Starbucks and set up his own chains of coffee bars by the name II Giornale. The company became successful and within two years, Schultz bought Starbucks with the assistance of other local investors. The partners’ finally merged it with II Giornale. Schultz resigned as the chief executive officer of Starbucks in the year 2000, but returned after eight years to continue with the company leadership. Since then, he has been a pillar for the growth of the company with the focus on customer experience, innovation, and spearheading the company’s coffee heritage. Starbucks is currently the leading seller of coffee drinks globally. Statistics shows that by the year 2012, Starbucks owned over 17,000 supply chains in about 54 nations across the globe. The company’s market value was approximated to be $35 billion. The value rose to $60 billion by the year 2014. It is estimated that Starbucks opens two or three new stores daily and has a weekly customer base of about 60 million. From t