Pour Your Heart Into It - Howard Schultz

[Liberty]

[amazonsearch]Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time[/amazonsearch]

 

Starting this thanks to recommendations from this board. Thought it deserved its own thread.

 

(Btw, I'm also halfway through 'The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt'. Great stuff! Not really investing related, so probably doesn't deserve a thread, but definitely a lot of life lessons in there.)

[bookie71]

I have been listening to the audio book in the pickup and I highly recommend it.

[ItsAValueTrap]

I found it interesting that some of the ideas presented in his first book are reversed in his second book.  He used to be a champion of authenticity and not making wimpy coffee... and then Starbucks made Pike Place roast.

 

http://glennchan.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/books-from-starbucks-ceo/

[Liberty]

Thanks for the link. Seems like the authenticity shift is part of the first book too, though.

[spartansaver]

About 75% through based off of what my kindle tells me. Have enjoyed it a lot although some of it seems hypocritical. The parts where he talks about any time you have a decision ask yourslef whether it builds or destroys the brand, and then accepting the deal with United was a plain example of destroying the quality of Starbucks and he tried to play it off like it was building the brand because they would get more customers. I'm reading it because of the Art of Profitability and I definitely see the parallels to Wal-Mart building out from a distribution center/major city is a gleaming theme as well as reinvesting in great ideas without testing them and just going at it. I also thought it was funny how Howard defends Starbucks that they are not like Wal-Mart yet I was reading it for the soul intention of comparing the two.

 

Personally I love going to Starbucks, I would rather read around people than being at home alone. Complaints: They are ice-boxes, every time I go in now I dress for winter. There coffee is nothing special and I wonder how long that brand will last.

 

[Morgan]

I read the book too and really, really enjoyed it. I actually had only been to Starbucks a handful of times and never enjoyed the experience, but after reading it I went back to see what I was missing. I found a drink I like, but it's $4-5 and McDonald's has the same drink for $2.50-3. And for some reason the Starbucks drink (from multiple locations) tasted like chemicals, which was really weird. The same drink from Joe Mugs in Books-A-Million was the best of all the places I tried, but it's a ways away.

 

When I think about Starbucks, I can see how Shultz could grow it and also be so profitable, but at the same time it seems like such a bad value to me with the highest price and worst product. I guess everyone else likes it though. What do I know.  ::)

 

I still recommend the book though; it was great.

[innerscorecard]

I read the book too and really, really enjoyed it. I actually had only been to Starbucks a handful of times and never enjoyed the experience, but after reading it I went back to see what I was missing. I found a drink I like, but it's $4-5 and McDonald's has the same drink for $2.50-3. And for some reason the Starbucks drink (from multiple locations) tasted like chemicals, which was really weird. The same drink from Joe Mugs in Books-A-Million was the best of all the places I tried, but it's a ways away.

 

When I think about Starbucks, I can see how Shultz could grow it and also be so profitable, but at the same time it seems like such a bad value to me with the highest price and worst product. I guess everyone else likes it though. What do I know.  ::)

 

I still recommend the book though; it was great.

 

I think that for almost everyone, the product is not what's inside the cup. I also think people really do not think about price and value  the way people on this board or engineers (who make up most of this board) think.

 

I - who can't even drink coffee without not being able to sleep at night - personally don't "get it" on an intuitive level, for example. I only go to Starbucks when it is late at work and there is literally nothing else in my building to eat except the disgusting sandwiches at Starbucks, or when I invite a professional contact to coffee. It's simple to just look at the maps app and find the closest Starbucks to their building. I then get a decaf and don't enjoy it.

 

I'll try to make time to listen to the audiobook.

[ValueHippie]

Has anybody read Onward? Is it worth a read?

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1605292885/ref=s9_simh_gw_g14_i1_r?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=199TE7FP7K2XKBQ95WTH&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2437869742&pf_rd_i=desktop