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Howard Schultz | “Pour Your Heart Into It” (1997)

“Over the past ten years, in order to achieve the growth, development, and scale necessary to go from less than 1,000 stores to 13,000 stores and beyond, we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.”

Howard Schultz | Internal memo (Feb. 14, 2007)

While “devastated” might be too strong a word, it’s clear Howard Schultz, Starbucks Coffee chairman and chief visionary, regrets decisions his company has made for the sake of growth.

About Starbucks:

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX; SEHK: 4337) is a coffeehouse chain based in the United States. Named after the first mate in the novel Moby-Dick, Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 7,521 company-owned and 5,647 licensed stores in 40 countries, making a total of 13,168 stores worldwide.

Starbucks serves drip brewed coffee, espresso-based hot drinks, other hot and cold drinks, snacks and items such as mugs and coffee beans. Through its Starbucks Entertainment division and Hear Music brand, the company has ventured beyond refreshments into books, music, and film. Many of these products are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. Starbucks brand ice cream and coffee are also sold at grocery stores.

From its founding in Seattle, Washington, as a local coffee bean roaster and retailer, Starbucks has expanded rapidly. In the 1990s, the company was opening a new store every workday, a pace that continued into the 2000s. Domestic growth has since slowed down, though the company continues to expand in foreign markets and is opening 7 stores a day worldwide. The first international location outside of the U.S. and Canada was established in 1996, and they now constitute almost one third of Starbucks' stores.

As of February 2007, Starbucks had 7,521 company-owned outlets worldwide: 6,010 of them in the United States and 1,511 in other countries and U.S. territories. In addition, the company has 5,647 joint-venture and licensed outlets, 3,391 of them in the United States and 2,256 in other countries and U.S. territories. This brings the total locations (as of February 2007) to 13,168 worldwide. Starbucks can be found in many popular grocery chains in the U.S. and Canada, as well as in many airports.

Starbucks' corporate headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, United States. As of March 2007, the members of the company's board of directors are Howard Schultz (Chair), Jim Donald, Barbara Bass, Howard Behar, Bill Bradley, Mellody Hobson, Olden Lee, James Shennan, Jr., Javier Teruel, Myron Ullman, III, and Craig Weatherup.