Onward

Since 1982, when Howard Schultz took over, Starbucks has experienced rapid growth. More and more coffee houses opened worldwide, providing guests with coffee and other beverages. However, this "faster, higher, further!" approach led to the problem that Starbucks began to lose its soul and typical charm. The coffee houses, which had always prided themselves on being the third most important place in a guest's life after home and work, increasingly resembled branches of any random fast-food chain. This was one reason for Howard Schultz to return to the CEO position in 2008, which he had left nearly eight years earlier. In a publicly known memo from February 2007, Schultz had already pointed out that the romance was gone and emphasized the urgent need to return to the core values and the heritage, the tradition.