Play Book Tag discussion

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

Howard Schultz took Starbucks from a small company that sold coffee beans to a hugely successful corporation. He is passionate about everything that he does. He came from poverty and he was determined to give his employees more security (and health insurance) than his family had when he was growing up. He is passionate about his brand, the product, and the culture for employees. He is driven by value, he's idealistic and somewhat naive. He was successful in so many ways, he didn't understand when all the stores had difficulty living his values on a consistent basis.

I read other books or articles by Schultz and about him over the years and this is far from the best. It's hard to preach autonomy and entrepreneurship while tightly prescribing behavior. It's more mechanistic. It's about policies and procedures. I read another book by him this month and it's hard to believe they were written by the same person.