One Cup At A Time

I am in the process of reading "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built A Company One Cup At A Time." It is a pretty amazing story about how Starbucks was able to convert a nation into true coffee lovers.

During parts of the story you think about just how lucky the company was, but in reality it took a man (Howard Shultz) with a certainty of a dream, a love for a product and endless energy and perserverance to do the converting. 

This book is full of inspiration. Every chapter begins with a quote such as "Some men see things the way they are and say 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say 'Why not?'" - George Benard Shaw.

One thing that really impressed me about Starbucks is the fact that they value their employees and they have pride in their product. In 1994 coffee prices rose dramatically due to a frost in Brazil. This affected Starbucks tremendously. But instead of selling a lesser product or hiking the prices or both, Starbucks continued to buy only the best coffee beans and only raised prices minimally.

Starbucks has been able to create brand awareness in a non-traditional way. Instead of marketing the Starbucks brand and spending money on advertising, they focused on educating a nation about good coffee. They also created an environment that was not work and was not home (a third place).

"We never set out to build a brand. Our goal was to build a great company, one that stood for something, one that valued the authenticity of its product and the passion of its people." - Howard Shultz. It is truly refreshing to know that companies exist that put an emphasis on values.