Harvard Business School Professor and historian Nancy Koehn has studied Starbucks and its leader Howard Schultz for close to years. For her the company represents much more than a phenomenal success story. In a recently published case Starbucks Coffee Company Transformation and Renewal available soon Koehn and coauthors Kelly McNamara Nora Khan and Elizabeth Legris trace the dramatic arc of the company s past seven plus years—a period that saw Starbucks teeter on the brink of insolvency dig deep to renew its sense of purpose and direction and launch itself in new untested arenas that define the company as it exists today.
This case distills years of my thinking about the most important lessons of Chinese Overseas America Number Data strategy leadership and managing in turbulence in the frame of a very relevant company says Koehn the James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration. As a brand leadership and entrepreneurship scholar I ve been dogging Starbucks for a long time. a Starbucks store for the first time and was struck by what she saw and felt. The notion of a third place between home and work to relax and enjoy the small affordable luxury of a special coffee beverage seemed to resonate with the social and economic moment she recalls. Six months later she met Howard Schultz an entrepreneur who acquired the company in and was struck by his seriousness of purpose and the breadth of what he wanted to accomplish.
The case Koehn s fourth to focus on Starbucks opens in February . Schultz no longer Starbucks CEO but still its chairman is worried the company is losing its ability to be true to its values while providing a store experience that conveys a sense of comfort connection and respect for its product and the communities Starbucks serves. CEO Howard Schultz has reignited Starbucks with innovative new offerings and by refocusing workers on the company s core values.Photo iStockPhoto So Schultz composed a heartfelt searching memo to senior leadership.