From the Ground Up; A Journey to Reimagine the Promise of America

New York, NY: Random House, 2019. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Rainer Hosch (Jacket photograph). xiii, [1], 352, [2] pages. Illustrations (most in color). Index. Signed by the author on a bookplate on the front free endpaper. Howard D. Schultz (born July 19, 1953) is an American businessman, author, and philanthropist. He served as the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Starbucks Coffee Corporation for more than two decades; first from 1986 to 2000, and then from 2008 to 2017. After stepping down as CEO, Schultz stayed at the company from 2017 to 2018 as its executive chairman overseeing Starbucks's philanthropic and charitable giving arm. Born and raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Schultz graduated from Northern Michigan University in 1975. Coffeehouse startup Starbucks onboarded him as their marketing and operations head in 1982. A business trip to Milan, Italy and the country's coffee culture inspired him to open Il Giornale, a specialty coffeeshop that merged with Starbucks during the late-1980s. Shultz pushed the new company to sell more than coffee beans and equipment, quickly establishing a large network of stores that served espresso, coffee, teas, and casual food. Following large-scale distribution deals - particularly with major hotels, groceries, and bookstores - Starbucks became the largest coffee-house chain in the world. Shultz took the company public in 1992 and used a $271 million valuation to double their store count in a series of highly publicized coffee wars. He stepped down in 2000 to focus on Starbucks' international expansion. He is the author of three business books, Pour Your Heart Into It (1997), Onward (2011), and From the Ground Up (2019). Howard Schultz shares a uniquely American journey that begins in the public housing projects of Brooklyn, and leads to the boardroom of one of the world's most admired companies. More than a memoir or a compilation of business lessons, it is a compelling story about how character and values can spur positive change in people's lives. Derived from a Kirkus review: The former CEO of Starbucks wants to give everyone a chance to be their best selves. Schultz reflects on his personal and professional journey "to try to answer a vital question of our time: What can we do to effect meaningful change and create the just, fair, and secure future we all desire?" He recounts successes, challenges, and failures as he pursued his goal of creating a profitable business that balances "seemingly competing priorities of humanity and prosperity." Schultz envisioned Starbucks as more than a coffee shop: a place of respite and community where people would feel welcomed, a "third place," he calls it, not home or work but rather an escape from both. Schultz wanted to give his employees respect, fair pay, and benefits such as health insurance, stock options, and, eventually, tuition reimbursement. Starbucks, he hoped, would become known "as a great place to work" as well as a place "that fostered human connection over great coffee." The author comes across as a sensitive observer of injustice and a "common-sense" problem-solver open to innovative ideas. In 2014, after the deaths of Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin, for example, he began to ask himself "what the tragic deaths, court rulings, and uprisings revealed about the plight of black people in America today." As a white, wealthy male, he wondered, "Where had I been?" His response was to mount an initiative called Race Together—a message featured on Starbuck cups and discussed in open forums—which, he was surprised to discover, generated "biting headlines" and satirical jokes. Nevertheless, he believes his decision to focus on race embodied the company's values "of trying to uphold human dignity by fostering civil conversation about complex topics." Other initiatives include college mentoring, job creation for veterans and refugees, and philanthropic giving from the author's family foundation. Optimism about America from a man mulling his next expression of civic responsibility.