Invest in people above all. A company’s
most important assets—mission, reputation,
and people—are not on the balance
sheet. Schultz is deeply invested not only
in Starbucks’s 200,000 partners (employees)
but also in its global coffee bean farmers.
Whether offering stock options and
health coverage to part-time U.S. workers,
hosting “family partner forums” for employees’
parents in Beijing and Shanghai, or
donating cows to coffee farmers in Rwanda,
he sees enlightened decision making as
smart business: Health benefits and parent
engagement build trust among employees;
cows for coffee farmers strengthen loyalty
and productivity. “To be a benevolent organization,
you have to make a lot of profit,”
he told Fortune in 2011. goal is to maximize profit, you’re on a collision
course with time.”