L'histoire de Starbucks et de Howard Schultz : comment un pauvre enfant de Brooklyn créé Starbucks

A few decades ago only a small number of Americans knew the real taste of coffee and some of them even thought it was canned He is a modest Seattle businessman who is about to change history He will be found at the helm of the world's largest coffee chain Starbucks At the beginning of the company's creation three friends are leading and running it But who transformed Starbucks into a company worth 100 billion dollars today He is a man of humble origins from Brooklyn who had finally landed a stable job after years of effort and went on to create the Starbucks we know today His name is Howard Schultz Today we'll see in this video how this man went from nothing to create a coffee empire while almost no bank supported his project In 1962 Gordon Bowker was a student at the University of San Francisco and traveled throughout Europe In a café in Rome he orders a cappuccino and immediately he is captivated by the taste finding it different unique and unforgettable At that time Americans drank powdered coffee in the morning or dubious freeze-dried coffee in restaurants Gordon returns to the United States leaves the university and goes back to his hometown of Seattle His first destination when he decided to start his business was Vancouver Canada He drives there in his car to buy some roasted coffee beans called Murchies from a store he had noticed In 1970 back home Gordon is determined to run a café But in the end it will be a coffee bean store that opens in Seattle He still decides to present this project that is close to his heart to two friends Jerry Baldwin and Ziv Ziegel They then decide together to start their business and go to Pete's Coffee in Berkeley California to gather ideas This café belongs to Alfred Pete the son of a coffee exporter from Amsterdam Alfred is a specialist in a very dark and aromatic coffee in the European style A coffee that exudes all the flavors of the coffee beans In a few weeks Alfred trains Gordon Jerry and Steve in the basics of business management and the coffee roasting process using European techniques In the same year concurrently Howard Schultz advanced in his secondary studies and enrolled at Northern Michigan University He is the first in his family to pursue studies through a sports scholarship Unfortunately in his first season he got injured and had to quit American football To finance his studies he takes loans and does various part-time jobs working as a bartender and sometimes even selling his blood After obtaining his degree he landed a job at Xerox a company specializing in photocopiers He becomes a competent and experienced seller within this company Yet he is unhappy and feels himself deteriorating he wants to access a more motivating position that aligns with his ambitions He leaves his position and works for Amarplast a Swedish company that sells kitchen equipment and household appliances He quickly climbed the ranks again and became vice president and then chief executive officer His salary is $75 000 per year he has a company car credit cards and unlimited business travel But something is still missing from it One day in 1981 Howard noticed an unusually large order and unusual quantities coming from a small unassuming cafeteria which was Starbucks Starbucks has only four stores yet this small chain buys far more than Macy's which is one of the largest stores in the world He has never been to Seattle but decides to rush to the city to see for himself what is happening at the first Starbucks located in the middle of Pike Place Market He discovers a trick Starbucks sells many coffee beans by weight but systematically the salespeople offer customers free tastings to try and discover them Howard also tries it and is immediately won over He instantly feels like he's traveling while drinking his coffee On his flight back to New York all he can think about is Starbucks where he found a gem He goes back to see Jerry and asks if there's a way for him to join the Starbucks team If the idea quickly appeals to Jerry his partners are suspicious and reluctant to include a man like Howard who is considered the dangerous salesman of a major New York group in their team Howard is surprised at himself for doing exactly the opposite of what his mother advised him to do She told him you have a very good position a stable professional future and above all don't give it all up for a small company no one has ever heard of After a year Jerry and Gordon invite Howard to San Francisco to meet their discreet associate Steve Donovan Howard is convinced that he will return to New York with an offer or even a job He's mistaken Jerry's partners don't want to hire him and he thinks it's still too risky But Howard can't be satisfied with a refusal as a response and calls Jerry to tell him that they are all making a terrible mistake and that the future of Starbucks is at stake The next day Jerry calls him back and finally tells him the job is his He asks when he's arriving in Seattle In his memoirs Howard writes no great success is the result of luck In 1983 he had been with Starbucks for a year and was sent to Milan to attend an international home goods trade show In the aisles of the salon he passes several Nespresso bars He is immediately fascinated by the servers' sweep and the large number of customers As he observed them he had a revelation Indeed Starbucks sells excellent coffee beans but they don't serve coffee by the cup In his memoirs he writes they treated coffee as a product something that had to be packaged and brought home with the rest of the groceries They have completely moved away from the heart and soul of what coffee has represented over the centuries One day while Howard is in a bistro in Verona Italy he decides to order the same thing as a local in a bistro The server then serves him his first cappuccino He describes it as the perfect balance between milk steam and coffee He was unaware of the existence of this recipe Immediately he thinks no one in America knows this wonder I must absolutely bring back this recipe Back in Seattle Howard shares his revelation and this discovery with his bosses He dismisses his suggestion with contempt showing no respect for his idea It brings him back to his role as a merely excited marketing director over a mediocre find He refuses to invest a dollar on the grounds that Starbucks is a retailer of whole bean coffee not a restaurant or a bar Howard will understand later why his idea was not popular at that time He was the only one who truly appreciated the taste of coffee and was also so enthusiastic In 1984 Starbucks acquired Pete's Coffee and this acquisition heavily indebted the company and prevented it from developing new ideas It took Howard almost a year to convince Jerry to try and serve espresso This one which did not consider this idea at all as a major priority Accept even though it was a concession on the occasion of the opening of the sixth Starbucks store located in downtown Seattle Businesses are developing but Jerry finds the development of this shop too slow and sluggish Howard will be depressed for several months and feel torn between his loyalty to Starbucks and his desire to open espresso bars At that time to take his mind off things he joined a basketball club and ended up on the same team as a lawyer named Scott Greenberg They become friends and sometimes meet up together to drink beers Howard tells him about his frustrations with Starbucks and confesses to Scott his desire for independence This one knows investors whose ideas might interest After talking about his idea with Scott and his partner Jerry Howard says It's now that it's going to happen If I don't seize this opportunity if I don't step out of my comfort zone if I don't take a risk if I procrastinate the right moment will disappear In 1985 he then decided to take the plunge and left Starbucks to open his own business Il Giorniale That meant a newspaper in Italian While focusing on a strategy to approach investors and raise funds for his business Jerry will surprise him He sets up a meeting at his office and proposes that he invest 150 000 dollars of Starbucks' money Howard sees the opportunity for a good clearance Supported also by the support of Jerry and Gordon he believes he can then recover the amount he needs for the six months intended for the launch Howard and Gordon also go to Italy to get the best recipes and meet a renowned espresso machine manufacturer in Milan Faema They were determined to return to Seattle with $1 million investment But Faema convinces them to abandon the project and give up everything They insisted explaining that there was no way the Americans could have appreciated coffee as much as the Italians But in January 1986 Howard raised the initial startup capital he needed He can then rent a space and open the doors to his first store He now devotes all his time to seeking money and raising funds From a meeting with bankers to a meeting with investors Howard tirelessly explains that his plan is to reinvent the perception of coffee for all Americans He takes the example of Nike At that time Nike was the only company with a comparable ambition In his memoirs Schultz writes: Sneakers were just a common cheap standard and generally of mediocre quality product Nike's strategy first involved designing world-class running shoes en to create around it a mindset of high-level athletic competition Most of the investors that Howard approaches view new technologies as more promising and secure industrial sectors for long-term investment than his coffee He flatly opposes it saying he's selling an outdated idea with no hope of success He says "That name is unpronounceable " How can you leave Starbucks What a silly idea How in the world could you possibly imagine for a moment that it has any chance of making money Never will Americans spend a dollar and a half for a miserable cup of coffee Howard spent an entire year soliciting a total of 242 investors 217 of them rejected all his arguments This period was very demoralizing and humiliating for him Yet in April 1986 Howard opened his first store he had to At launch many mistakes are made The first was to recreate the atmosphere and decor of a traditional authentic café An Italian opera soundtrack baristas dressed in white shirts and bow ties A simple counter without a place to sit Nothing suits the American clientele It is not at all in line with the spirit of old Seattle and the customers make that clear They are demanding that they change the music add more chairs and offer takeout coffee cups Once adjusted to meet customer needs sales exceed all expectations but barely cover the rent Some months later Howard therefore needed funding again and decided to set out to conquer the three most prominent businessmen in Seattle Jack Benaroya Herman Sarkovski and Sam Strawn After a first meeting with Herman's son named Steve Herman agrees to meet Howard and arranges a meeting with the other two major figures in finance After long negotiations and difficult dealings with these finance sharks who are trying to cheat him Schultz receives an investment of 750 000 dollars from these three men In 1987 Howard's luck strikes again Indeed Jerry and Gordon decide to sell Starbucks To buy it Howard must come up with a huge sum of 3.8 million dollars These investors are impressed by the progress made by Il Giornale in a very short period of time Howard is therefore convinced that at least one of them will invest even more Yet one day everything almost collapsed Howard nearly lost Starbucks before even buying it Indeed a wealthy businessman from Seattle decides to invest in Starbucks But Howard is suspicious of him He is convinced that this man is dishonest and that he exploits the ideas of the businesses he supports to copy them later Howard and Scott then devise a strategy to meet the investor Scott then signed a partnership with Microsoft and its founder Bill Gates who agreed to support them The investor threatens Howard and tells him that if he does not comply with his agreement he will close all the doors of the companies And that he would never work in Seattle again earn a single dollar and be completely destroyed After their conversation Howard is devastated He collapses and even cries in the hallways Bill reassures him and guarantees that they will find a solution Two days later Howard meets with other more modest less wealthy investors He will convince them by explaining that he wants all partnerships to be welcome And no matter how much financial power one has it gives a chance to participate in the future success of El Giornale The plan is actually working and admires his courage for refusing an offer that benefited big investors at the expense of smaller ones In a few weeks Howard managed to raise the 3.8 million dollars he needed When Howard decided to embark on this adventure he had nothing left He left a stable and secure job to take huge risks Then once everything had stabilized again he became even bolder In his memoirs he writes Thank you for watching this video If you found the topic interesting subscribe and click the bell This is the best way to support us Remember to like the video We release a video every Friday at 6 PM See you next week