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Howard Schultz on Free Trade
Starbucks CEO; independent candidate for President until July 2019
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Trump's tariff war is a strategic mistake
The trade and the tariff war that President Trump has started is a strategic mistake. This war has resulted on a tax on U.S. consumers on lots of goods and services. Every farmer, everyone within the agricultural industry,
everyone in the steel industry has lost markets that will not come back for years. Most importantly, we have damaged an important diplomatic relationship with China.
Source: CNN Town Hall: 2020 presidential hopefuls
, Feb 12, 2019
Bring manufacturing back, even at cost to bottom line
Q: What would be your recipe for the rural economy? They were one-manufacturer towns, right? That manufacturer leaves. So what do you do? HOWARD SCHULTZ: Well, let me tell you an example. I was in East Liverpool, Ohio, right outside of Pittsburgh.
We saw an old factory that has been out of work for over ten years. A pottery factory. We went to that factory. Starbucks gave them an order, and we started employing people and we started that factory. Businesses across the country need to recognize
we need to bring manufacturing back to America. And these rural towns cannot be left behind.
Q: Do you think it should be a priority of companies to decide, even if it's not the best for the bottom line, to rebuild rural America?
SCHULTZ: The rules of engagement for a public company today have changed dramatically. It's not only about the bottom line. There has to be a balance between profitability and doing everything we can to get the country moving again.
Source: Meet the Press 2014 interview by Chuck Todd
, Nov 9, 2014
Starbucks has opened thousands of stores in China
Greater China is destined to become Starbucks' second home market as we open thousands more stores across the country. Already, the majority of our stores throughout
China are delivering double-digit profit margins, a far cry from their performance just two years ago.As part of our long-term strategy to be locally relevant on many fronts,
Starbucks will soon open its first research and development center in China, and--in partnership with the
Chinese government and working closely with universities--we have already begun to grow coffee in the country's beautiful Yunnan province.
Source: Onward, by Howard Schultz, p.322
, Mar 27, 2012
Framework for coffee importers: improve quality of life
By 1995, we had completed " Starbucks' Commitment to Do Our Part," a framework outlining our aspirations, and commitments for helping to improve the quality of life in coffee-origin countries. We used the term "framework" rather than "code of conduct"
because our guidelines necessarily differed from the codes adopted by importers of manufactured goods like jeans & shoes. Starbucks buys, indirectly, from thousands of farms in about 20 origin countries. We could never conduct meaningful inspections the
way a manufacturer does.We stopped short of threatening to impose penalties on Guatemalan plantations that didn't live up to our standards because of the practical difficulty of enforcing those standards. Our aim was to do our part in ways for which w
could be held accountable.
As far as I know, no American company importing agricultural products has ever attempted a code of conduct for foreign suppliers. But after we announced our framework, some still criticized us for failing to put teeth in it.
Source: Pour Your Heart Into It, by Howard Schultz, p.298-299
, Jan 6, 1999
Page last updated: Apr 30, 2021