The contemporary world of business is full of a diversity of business leaders, who inspire the world to believe in luck and success. However, it is important to pay attention to the fact that success does not come from nowhere. Every leader has a history behind success, which has helped him/her to achieve heights of glory and recognition. Every corporation has a leader who has managed to go through a range of difficulties in order to shape a unique experience that helps in fighting and struggling in order to guide the company to the leading positions in the market. Tough competition, various economic barriers and social dissatisfaction are not the only aspects, which can prevent businesses from successful development. Every story of the famous business leaders is worth taking into consideration in order to know more about motivators and stimulators, which explain a range of decisions made by the leader. The paper analyzes biographical facts and elements of the success story of Howard Schultz. It is a fact that the company's progress and its way to recognition depend on the personality of the owner and his/her overall desire to make plans. However, actions combined with personal characteristics prove to be the most effective way of making any plan with an aim of reaching some goals.
Events Shaping the Career of Howard Schultz
One of the most significant periods, which influenced the career of Howard Schultz, is his childhood. Howard Schultz was born in a poor family that could not afford the majority of products and services offered by the business world. Howard Schultz grew up in poor conditions, which did not let him enjoy all benefits of childhood while other children did not have any limitations. Howard's father had to work two jobs, which were not enough to become a reliable source of income for the family. Once, Howard's father broke his ankle and hip, which meant that the family could barely have some food on the table (Entrepreneur, 2008). During that period, companies did not provide their employees with healthcare benefits and other insurance elements. When Howard's mother was pregnant, nobody could help the family to survive. At that time, Howard was only seven years old, which meant that he could not find any kind of job. It is obvious that Schultz was not dreaming about Starbucks or any other legendary company at that moment. Howard grew with a desire to change the financial status of his family and lead it to success, which would improve their living conditions. Today, Starbucks provides every employee with outlining benefits including fair salaries and comforting healthcare services. Memories from childhood helped Howard to create a company that became the first to provide its employees with healthcare services of the highest quality. Howard Schultz worked hard to build a company full of workers who did not need to worry about the welfare of their families. Moreover, Howard's father became his inspiration, which resulted in the creation of the company that could protect its employees, understand them, and provide with appropriate working environment. Full-time and part-time workers are lucky to be a part of Starbucks family created by Schultz, who strives to move away from his childhood memories and provide hundreds of families with financial stability and comfort.
Schultz's childhood helped to formulate not only personal vision and values, but also the company's strategic development. Howard decided to create a company that would value each employee, create a favorable environment for personal development, and take care of every family. Howard Schultz was inspired by the history of his family, which greatly suffered from poverty. In addition, he decided to create a company that builds relations with employees based on trust, support and mutual respect. Schultz respects the rights of every employee to have a high quality health protection and fair salary, which is enough to help families survive. In addition, Starbucks CEO aims to continue the expansion of the company and create thousands of new jobs, which will reduce unemployment not only in the USA, but also in other countries of its operation. Today, Starbucks essentially benefits from the values and principles, which were adopted the small business many years ago along with a promising leader. In particular, Howard Schultz managed not only to transform Starbucks, but also to create a new business structure, which people are willing to join in order to develop. Howard Schultz inspires people to work hard in order to get fair reward and recognition. It would be impossible to create an outstanding company without Howard's desire to make change not only for the sake of personal gains, but also for the benefit of the whole society.
Training and Education
The first jobs that improved Howard's abilities such as strength and endurance were selling newspapers and working in the local caf?. After that, Howard had to work hard at the fur store, where Howard was responsible for stretching leather. The history of jobs made Howard willing to achieve success and remain patient on the way to glory and welfare. Howard attended Canarsie High School and had to work hard to help his family. Because the family was poor, there was a need to work as much as possible for the sake of the family's prosperity. Howard was greatly interested in baseball, basketball and football. It helped him to excel in sports and receive an athletic scholarship, which let him study at the Northern Michigan University. In 1975, Howard Schultz successfully graduated from the university with a Bachelor's degree in Communication (Bio, 2015).
Schultz did not need to take much effort in order to look for training or additional courses. Once Schultz began to build his career and switch from one job to another, employers started noticing his enthusiasm, persistence and hardworking traits, which resulted in success. When Schultz graduated, he started working at Xerox Corporation as a sales manager. Xerox Corporation helped Schultz learn about the diversity of business processes, which contributed to the development of the company based on marketing (Neff, Citrin, & Brown, 2001). However, Schultz understood that investigation of the business environment was the most effective way to enhance personal knowledge. It helped Schultz to excel his skills and knowledge about business, which made him an outstanding manager in the department. Working at the marketing and sales division of the company helped Schultz to attract attention of the Swedish housewares company. The company named Pestorp AB recruited Schultz and made him a vice president of the American subsidiary. Hammerplast became the first company, where Schultz worked as a general manager. Recruitment helped to gain personal experience and acquire skills and knowledge, which helped Schultz become a highly qualified manager capable of leading the company to a new level of performance (IESE Insight, 2012). It turned to be a good opportunity to learn more about the company's internal and external environment from the point of view of the vice president. The new job not only opened new opportunities, but also extended the boundaries of responsibility, which helped Howard become more knowledgeable about business processes and management of the company. Howard Schultz did not need any additional training thanks to the personal awareness and the diversity of other characteristics, which helped him navigate through business environment. Howard Schultz successfully boosted the performance of Hammerplast by selling home appliances including coffee machines. The performance in Hammerplast contributed to the development of the personal approach towards sales and profits increase. Schultz did not waste his time and started looking for other opportunities in the business area. The position of a vice president helped him to not only open new horizons in the sphere of business, but also outline opportunities for further growth and career development. Schultz noticed that a small company from Seattle was the only company that always ordered more than other companies did. This became the start of the Starbuck story, which originated from the decision of the history teacher, writer and English teacher to open a small coffee store. However, it is necessary to pay attention to other factors that helped Schultz become an outstanding leader of the Starbucks Company.
Personality Characteristics
Howard Schultz would not achieve success without personal development and enhancement of personal traits. Business is a complex institution, which requires a unique approach from the owner. Howard Schultz always realized that he needed to develop and go through the stages of personal evolution in order to compete with other business leaders. Starbucks became an appropriate business platform for the development of Howard Schultz and his active involvement in business environment. Many authors dedicated their works to the evaluation of the contemporary business leaders and their characteristics. It is obvious that personality has a significant influence on the performance of every individual. Howard Schultz became one of the most remarkable leaders, who knew how to conduct business and achieve success. Howard Schultz believes it is important to be the kind of leader whom everyone will be willing to follow. If people do not feel any motivation or opportunities for engagement, they will not stay at the company. The following characteristics and personal traits of Howard Schultz prove that a successful leader should not only obtain knowledge, but also continuously develop personal character.
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First, Howard Schultz is famous for his ability to envision everything he wants to do. Envisioning helps to not only figure out the outcomes of the decisions, but also shape realistic strategic plans. Howard Schultz had worked for several companies before he became a CEO of Starbucks. He obtained an outlining characteristic feature, which helped him understand the current stage of the company's development and create effective tactics and strategic plans. The sense of personal vision and an ability to transfer the same vision to subordinates became a significant part of the company's development (Neff et al., 2001). Strength, confidence, persistence, and patience became the most helpful features in the performance of Starbucks at the earliest stages of the development under the management of Howard Schultz. In addition, a strong belief in the company's success became a supportive element of the future success. Outstanding communication skills also contributed to the establishment of the effective communication system filled with understanding and free from conflicts and stress. Howard Schultz managed to create a system full of trust and support, which streamed from him as a light of reliability and responsibility. Employees learnt confidence and motivation from Schultz, who became an example for the subordinates. Personal discipline, coordination, and passion for the performance of the company also contributed to the growth and development of Starbucks. Transition from small business to a legendary corporation is not an easy task. However, Schultz had a passion, which inspired his subordinates on the way to success.
Passion is a part of the performance of Howard Schultz. It helps him inspire employees and share positive attitude and love for job. Passion is an important element, which helped Schultz build a corporation with employee sharing a single mission, values and vision. It is a leading element, which cannot make a business leader an outstanding one. In addition, Howard Schultz proved that passion is a light that penetrates personal vision of every leader. He understands that if he does not have interest in his personal performance, employees will not have an example to follow. Moreover, leadership focuses on the enhancement of the personal influence by giving an example of outstanding performance. Howard Schultz became a remarkable example of a decision-maker. Effective communication strategies combined with passion and trust of employees helped to create a mechanism of coordinated decisions, which Howard Schultz made along with the growing personnel.
Strong will, character, and a unique sense of business development helped Howard Schultz reach success according to his vision. Without a character, it is impossible to be a leader and show employees the way to success. Howard Schultz has always remained honest not only to himself, but also to his employees. Starbucks CEO has never tried to develop the necessary character traits, which he did not feel were natural for his personality. Howard Schultz always strived to create a natural environment within the company, which was not perceived as hypocrisy and lies. Otherwise, it would not be possible to create a legendary multinational corporation. It does not mean that Starbucks enjoyed rapid development and growth from the very beginning. However, Howard Schultz successfully combined his knowledge, wisdom, skills and abilities with business opportunities to achieve ultimate success.
Contextual Factors
The development of Starbucks remains one of the most respectable examples of success thanks to the outstanding approach of Howard Schultz. Starbucks became the company, which grew into a corporation that expanded its boundaries with a surprising speed. If the environment of Starbucks were not appropriate for the development, it would be impossible to achieve success. It is possible to define external and internal contextual factors, which helped Howard Schultz build his career and develop a respectable company. Political context, national economics, and social perception became factors of the external environment, which led Howard Schultz to success. The Starbucks CEO developed his interest in a small business on time. He managed to find the most appropriate and favorable time for the growth of business. From the political perspective, Howard Schultz realized that his career could essentially benefit if he enhanced the cooperation with other countries. As soon as Starbucks became stable in its performance, it became possible to make new deals regarding the supply with raw materials. Howard Schultz was not afraid to increase the scope of the company's performance, which was the result of his persistence, strength, and patience. From the political perspective, it is natural that new cooperation helps enhance friendly relations between countries supported by various corporations. Howard Schultz benefited from the international search for suppliers, which helped him reach the company's goals and contribute to personal success.
National economics also became another contextual factor in the development of Howard Schultz and his company. Howard Schultz had to face some problems on the way to personal success and the company's development. Inflation, increasing labor and operational costs became the contextual factors of the economic aspect. Howard Schultz found the most appropriate environment for the growth and development of the company by opening new stores, adding new vacancies and developing the most appealing pricing strategy. All these factors helped the company survive in tough economic conditions and offer new terms of business development to suppliers and unemployed people looking for job opportunities.
The current performance of Starbucks proves that the company plays a significant role in shaping the national economy along with other outstanding corporations. The latest update on the Starbucks financial performance is available at the official website of the company. According to the financial data from Starbucks report dating to 2015, the company managed to experience a revenue jump in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year equaling to up to 18% (Starbucks, 2015). Global sales increased by 8%, which proves that the company manages to successfully grow and develop under the supervision of Howard Schultz.
In the social context, it is obvious that the society needed a comforting store, which would become an outlining part of the routine life. Howard Schultz knew how to define the target audience and analyze customer preferences. It helped shape an effective marketing campaign, which ensured the company's reliability. In addition, the society waited for the innovational and brand new coffee store, which would fill their lives with comfort. Starbucks filled the niche of the company, which the society strived to have. Howard Schultz successfully changed family patterns, lifestyle of millions of people, and values of the population. It happened because the society was looking for a company that could meet its requirements and satisfy its needs. Howard Schultz was the one to understand social needs and desires like no one other.
The internal environment of Starbucks also had several contextual factors, which helped Howard Schultz build his career. Organizational culture, strategy and structure contributed to the success of the company and its leader. Howard Schultz was lucky to come to Starbucks and continue defining its role in terms of shaping social and economic development of the nation. First, Howard Schultz benefited from creating a network of stores from the very beginning. It was easy to establish the most appropriate strategy for the company's growth. In addition, Schultz played the role of a leader building the company's organizational culture by filling it with personal characteristics. As soon as Howard Schultz became the CEO of Starbucks, the company turned into an appropriate platform for further evolution of business according to the vision of its owner. Schultz was lucky to implement his ideas and thoughts in the company ready for changes and flexible adaptation to the business environment. In addition, Schultz saw the potential of the company, which started attracting customers by its unique range of goods and services. Schultz did not need any additional analysis of the target audience in order to choose new products and services. The task of Schultz became optimization of the company's performance and expansion of its boundaries as long as all conditions were favorable.
It is necessary to mention that Howard Schultz is an outstanding leader, who is worth being recognized by the whole world thanks to his hard work and provision of job opportunities for thousands of employees. Howard Schultz has a unique story of personal development, which motivated him to move away from poverty and strive to help his family. It became the initial idea of his performance, which started as soon as he became the CEO of Starbucks. The discussion helped understand the nature of the decisions, which Howard Schultz made in order to take care of the whole society by providing families with financial resources. It is a respectable activity, which deserves a special attention. In addition, the financial performance of Starbucks proves that Howard Schultz has chosen an appropriate strategy to develop his company in order to achieve success and recognition