For the first time in years, one of NMU’s most famous alumni has returned. Howard Schultz, multi-time CEO of Starbucks and former quarterback for the football team, came back to NMU. Despite struggling though an injury, drowning in student loans and living states away from home during his time on campus, Schultz completed his bachelor’s in communications in 1975.
After graduating, Schultz got a job at a Swedish-based company that was opening coffee stores in Seattle, Washington. The coffee company was called Starbucks and only had three local locations. He became head of marketing when they had opened six stores, and after just a few years, he bought the chain from the founder. Today, there are 38,000 Starbucks locations in 86 countries with 500,000 employees.
NMU President Brock Tessman contacted Howard Schultz months in advance and even visited him at his home in Seattle to convince the alumni to return to NMU and speak with students. Schultz’s former fraternity, TKE, was invited to join the audience on Monday, Oct. 21 in Reynolds Recital Hall. The students were thrilled to meet with the legend as he walked around to greet everyone.
One student asked Schultz what made him believe he could go as far with Starbucks as he did, and he responded with the story of the first store outside of the U.S.
The Starbucks board of directors had debated opening a store in Tokyo, Japan. The location was only decided on because it had a direct flight to Seattle, Washington. It was around 100 degrees in August of 1994 when the store opened. There were no options for iced coffee of any kind, and Howard’s expectations for the success of the store were plummeting.
“On the way home the night before, I told our partner via the translator, ‘please tell Yuji that it’s not going to be a great first day,'” Schultz said. “And the translator was so nervous that she said, ‘Mr. Schultz said, it’s going to be a record day.'”
Despite low expectations, at 6 a.m. on opening day, there was a line around the corner to order from Starbucks with CNN covering the story. It was then that Schultz realized the company would go around the world.
He took a moment to connect with the audience and explain that, despite all the data saying it would go wrong, the people made it succeed. The most important aspect of business is the connection with people.
Schultz says the most important quality in a person he would hire is their ability to be curious. A person’s innate curiosity, desire to seek out knowledge and approach challenges is their best ability.
He says their second-best ability is their emotional empathy and intelligence. To connect with others on a personal level and understand each other is a skill that cannot be taught in classrooms but only through life experiences. He says cultivating these experiences will be difficult at times, but the growth is worth the effort.
