Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul

I realize this is a lofty mission for a cup of coffee, but this is what merchants do. We take the ordinary—a shoe, a knife—and give it new life, believing that what we create has the potential to touch others’ lives because it touched ours.

es, love what you do, but your company should love you back.

Work should have meaning for the accountant, the construction worker, the technologist, the manager, and the clerk.

, the coffee team selected aged Sumatra, because aging our own coffee to reveal its rich cedar and spice notes has become a defining Starbucks trait. Next, Colombian, because the dense, high-grown beans of that country’s southern Nariño region are a cornerstone of our most popular blends and because Colombia is where Starbucks first began actively contributing to social programs and practices that improve the lives of farmers. Next, naturally sun-dried beans from Ethiopia, because the beans’ intense berry aroma reveal even before tasting that the coffee is unlike any other.

details are about being locally relevant and respectfully reflecting the cultures our stores are operating in.

Such a lens, however, has its strengths and weaknesses.
On the plus side, founders know every brick in the foundation. We know what inspired the company and what was required to create it. That knowledge, that history, brings with it a high level of passion to do whatever it takes to succeed, as well as an intuition about what is right and what is wrong.
But sometimes we are too close to a situation. Entrepreneurs can be blinded by emotion, by our love of what we have built, unable to see it fresh and with the eyes of a more objective outsider.

Entrepreneurs are builders, and the lens through which I view Starbucks and the marketplace is somewhat different from what it would be if I were a professionally schooled manager.

First, harvesting high-quality green coffee beans requires a unique

That meant long communal tables for group conversations and community boards for posting information. Softer colors, exposed architectural features, and less artwork; more symbolic, authentic, and carefully placed

architect with an MBA’s perspective and a psychologist’s sensitivity to how space resonates with people—