Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul – Howard Schultz

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2011: Onward is not a puff piece. In just under 400 brisk pages, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz details the multitude of factors–the recession, new consumer behavior, overexpansion–that led to the company’s downturn during 2007-2008. Obviously, Schultz was successful, and his book has plenty of valuable lessons about management and leadership–standard features for most business books. But the most interesting thing about Onward is Schultz’s honesty about the whole process, from his determination to make difficult personnel changes to his admission that he considers it a personal failure when he sees someone with a competitor’s cup of coffee. Schultz even makes the chapters about his agonies over the company’s breakfast sandwiches a fascinating study in the minute decisions that go into running a multibillion-dollar company. Conflicts, raw emotions, high stakes: Onward is a business book that goes beyond feel-good maxims and actually has a story to tell. Darryl Campbell
 
In this #1 New York Times bestseller, the CEO of Starbucks recounts the story and leadership
lessons behind the global coffee company’s comeback
In 2008, Howard Schultz decided to return as the CEO of Starbucks to help restore its financial health and bring the company back to its core values. In Onward, he shares this remarkable story, revealing how, during one of the most tumultuous economic periods in American history, Starbucks again achieved profitability and sustainability without sacrificing humanity.


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