Howard Schultz, part owner, the former CEO of Starbucks, and now the global strategist says that he believes Starbucks is only in the “infant stage” in terms of growth, with an amazing 7500 stores world wide and an average loyal customer visiting the store 18 times a month. This statement may seem hard to believe, but Howard Schultz has turned Starbucks into a high performance organization (HPO), doing what was right for his employees and customers. Schultz grew up in public housing in Brooklyn NY. His father worked for minimum wage and had no health benefits. His father was hurt on the job, and there was no way for their family to have income. Schultz took this into consideration when growing Starbucks into what it is today. He wanted a company that his father never got a chance to work for. Starbucks offers health insurance to employees working over twenty hours a week, and offers employee stock options. All of this unheard of for a retail company going public in 1992.