American Made - Starbucks

Just saw an excellent interview with Charles Schultz, CEO and founder of Starbucks. What a brilliant, and honest company. I used to be a Starbucks basher for a long time, especially living in Seattle for a while. However, after years of living in California, and a lot of travelling, I find that what he says about the "Starbucks" experience, and who important their employees are really resonates with me. I have a friend who owns a local coffeeshop, and I love going there. But I have to say, that I still frequent Starbucks quite often. The reason? Because I know they provide some of the best health coverage for employees in the entire country. I go there just to support that policy.

Favorite quote (paraphrased.. and/or slightly misquoted)?

He says something about the need for the soul of the company, the values of the company, have to be bigger than the product.

In essence, he says, WHO we are, as employees, and the WORK we do (and how we do it) as human beings, and the VALUE we all receive as either consumers or employees MUST be more important than whatever it is we make.

And the reality is, you cannot make this policy in a company, you can only make this happen by how your leadership decides to lead, and how they chose to value their people.

I will happily keep going to Starbucks.

What a fantastic statement.