Starbucks’ founders understood a fundamental truth about selling: To mean something to customers, you should assume intelligence and sophistication a… - Howard Schultz

Early on I realized that I had to hire people smarter and ore qualified than I was in a number of different fields, and I had to let go of a lot of decision-making. I can't tell you how hard that is. But if you've imprinted your values on the people around you, you can dare to trust them to make the right moves.

Whether you are Republican or Democrat or independent or Libertarian, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “I think we all have a sense that there’s something not quite right [in the country], that we’re drifting toward mediocrity.

Next, the memo summarized seven priorities: be recognized as the undisputed coffee authority; engage and inspire our partners with better training and new benefits; reignite customers’ emotional attachment to our brand; expand our stores around the world, but try to make each one feel like the heart of the local neighborhood; be a leader in ethical sourcing and environmental impact efforts; create new, relevant products to help grow revenue; operate a more efficient and profitable business model.