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- Saving a Company's Soul
How can you tell if someone is missionary or mercenary?
Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell before they get paid. But, it is abundantly clear afterwards.
The first time Howard Schultz stepped down as Starbucks CEO, he had scaled it to thousands of stores and was a wealthy man.
But from the sidelines, he watched his company expand too quickly, lost sight of its original mission, and started to lose customers.
As a missionary, he could not sit idly by and watch Starbucks flounder. So, he jumped off of his yacht and back in the ring.
Schultz started with the basics, and shut down most Starbucks stores for a full day of retraining. The espresso needed to be great.
He also made the tough decision to lay off over 6,000 corporate team members. The team needed to be lean.
Like a sculptor, he cut away everything that was not the core of Starbucks’ relationship with its customer.
When Schultz returned in 2008, Starbucks stock price was at $7.31 per share. By the time he stepped down as CEO in 2017, the stock price had risen to $57.81 per share. This represents a total return of 757%.
Focus on your team and protect your company’s soul. It’s the founder’s most important job.
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