Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

Image Source:  Amazon

Last week I finished autobiography of Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks.  I wanted to write this blog since then but one thing or the other kept me occupied.  In more than one ways, this book was an eye opener for me.  For instance, I realized that to start something on your own you don't need a great new idea but a conviction to start it.  Your belief matters more than the idea/ business model/ offering.  The fact that through Starbucks, Schultz revived the dying commodity of coffee in US sounds fascinating.

Following are the key takeaways (along with the coffee :-) ) for me from this book.

• Vision:  Schultz had a crystal clear vision of opening coffee bars to serve the coffee in its pure form.  He even had to quit Starbuck (confused!!! I will get back to this) to start his chain of coffee bars. 
• Scale:  Schultz started with an initial plan of opening hundreds of stores.  This shows his vision towards scale.  
• Organizational practices:  I respect Schultz for extending health insurance benefits to all his employees, even the part timers and offering ESOPS (Beanstock) to each and every person including their baristas.
• Delegation of power:  In Starbucks, even store manager has the authority and budgets to pilot new ideas within their stores.  Once the idea is proven, it is implemented in all the Starbucks stores.  This promotes the culture of innovation within the organization.

Despite knowing Starbucks since a long time and being aware about the company, I got surprised buy some of the facts Schultz presented in the book.

• Starbucks wasn’t founded by Howard Schultz.  Starbucks existed even before Schultz joined and it used to sell authentic roasted coffee beans, which had its own cult following within Seattle.  Schultz learnt everything about coffee after he joined Starbucks.  It was during his first trip to Italy, he came up with the idea of setting up coffee bars.  Original Starbucks founders weren't too enthusiastic about coffee bars so Schultz quit Starbucks to setup Il Giornale.  Original Starbucks founders, however, supported him by investing into his venture.  Later when Starbucks was up for sale, Schultz purchased it and rebranded Il Giornale as Starbucks.
• Another fact, which amazed me, was that Starbucks owns all its stores.  Franchisee is a forbidden word within Starbucks.  Even though it sell Frappuccino at retail stores but franchisees are strict no-no for Starbucks.
• Starbucks doesn't own the coffee plantations.  They source it from Brazil, Europe and other places.  I always thought that the company of this scale will get involved in backward integration to optimize costs, maintain quality and ensure predictable supply.  Perhaps, they wanted to focus on their key competency.  I still couldn't find the reason of Starbucks not getting involved in coffee plantation.

All in all, this book is a very easy read.  I read it like a story and each story ended up with learning for me.  Through this book, Schultz told the remarkable journey of evolution of a brand, which represents America at the world stage along with Ford or GM.