Howard Schultz on Leadership

Introduction 

Howard Schultz (Schultz) is revered as a transformational leader in the business world in America and beyond. He started as a chairman and the chief executive officer of Starbucks coffee company (Starbucks) from 1986 to 2000. He was later reappointed to lead the coffee company from 2008 to 2017. At the peak of his professional career, he also owned the Seattle SuperSonics basketball team from 2001 to 2006. With his extensive marketing and retail operations experience, Schultz progressively transformed Starbucks into a recognized international brand. Schultz expanded Starbucks business from its eleven itinerary retail outlets to more than thirty thousand stores globally. In this regard, Schultz transformed Starbuck into an American social hub. The exemplary entrepreneurial skills of Schultz have consistently been implored within the Starbucks trading environment.

Leadership Style 

Schultz was a transformational leader. He re-energized the Starbucks business, making it an international trend. He developed a strong vision and mission for Starbucks and embraced an internal partnership with its employees. Hence, he used his charismatic leadership and values to establish and sustainable work environment for Starbucks employees. The transformative environment presided over by Schultz motivated employees to remain committed to organizational success ( Bonsu & Twum-Danso, 2018). This move drastically improved the financial performance of Starbucks. Schultz built a coffee empire through his transformative leadership style, charismatic personality, and personal values. As such, he embraced employee motivation as a critical success factor to influence sales. Besides, he transformed the marketing strategies and framework in the coffee shop; this move greatly supported its financial performance. For example, Schultz used reference groups to market Starbucks, which promoted its market penetration.

There is overwhelming evidence that Schultz was a transformative leader. For instance, he began by creating a conducive environment for its employees. He motivated employees to remain committed to Starbucks’ success by branding them as strategic partners to the coffee company ( Fashina, 2019) . He provided employees with healthcare services and insurance, making it a company of choice. Schultz endorsed that putting employees and other strategic partners to the company has to be in the front line in implementing its vision and mission. He wanted to bring reality to the theoretical strategic plan of the company in the long run. This move was a success since, during Schultz’s tenure, Starbucks realized an exponential growth in its financial performance.

With a strong sense of emotional intelligence, Schultz, as a transformational leader, focused more on outcomes than the processes used in attaining them. Schultz aimed at satisfaction and trust to build strong employee commitment by aligning them to organizational vision, mission, and strategic plan. This approach has expanded to higher levels and opened more retail outlets in different parts of the world. Therefore, transformative leadership was a critical success factor in Starbucks. Similarly, transformative leadership can be used in another industry since leaders work with teams in their respective organizations to establish the desired change and strategize towards propelling the company to attain its strategic vision and mission. According to Khan et al. (2018), transformational leadership leverages four main elements: individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and idealized influence. Notably, these premises can be applied to any industry to attain the desired organizational results.

Leadership Success 

Schultz was an inspirational leader at Starbucks. He inspired employees to work and embrace the company as strategic partners and not just act as workers. He motivated teams to market the company to become a leading social hub. For instance, when Starbucks was on the brink of bankruptcy, he encouraged his employees to remain committed to the company’s vision. His high level of emotional intelligence saw him collaborate with strategic partners to revamp the company to positive financial flows. Secondly, Schultz has a charismatic personality which supported his communication skills, persuasiveness, and Starbucks’ bargaining power in the market. His charisma enabled him to communicate with employees and stakeholders to solve managerial challenges objectively. Schultz was innovative, and he quickly revamped Starbucks’ marketing strategies by using referent groups. Through innovation, he developed strategic plans that steered the coffee company to success. Innovation and integrity supported Schultz’s vision to enhance its flexibility in marketing, strategic management, and reinforcing employee commitment to organizational success. Lastly, Schultz was passionate about his managerial role, and this saw him come to the helm of the company’s leadership even after stepping in down 2000 after serving for fourteen years. He came back as a manager in 2008 and held the executive position until 2017.

Takeaways 

Schultz was a transformational leader who revitalized the business environment of Starbucks. As a transformational leader, Schultz inspired his employees to pursue a significant vision and expand their economic base by re-investing in the company. Transformational leaders share common values, core competencies, and organizational mission and vision for the company. In perspective, transformational leaders lead by creating a conducive environment for respect and empowerment of their teams. I also realized that transformative leaders are inspirational and must have personalized qualities such as charisma and passion for work. Innovativeness is a critical factor in supporting organizational flexibility to conform to market trends and customer needs, tastes, and preferences.

References 

Bonsu, S., & Twum-Danso, E. (2018). Leadership style in the global economy: A focus on cross-cultural and transformational leadership.  Journal of Marketing and Management ,  9 (2), 37-52. 

Fashina, O. A. (2019).  The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Motivation to Innovate as Moderated by Generational Cohorts  (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University). 

Khan, H. U. R., Ali, M., Olya, H. G., Zulqarnain, M., & Khan, Z. R. (2018). Transformational leadership, corporate social responsibility, organizational innovation, and organizational performance: Symmetrical and asymmetrical analytical approaches.  Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management ,  25 (6), 1270-1283.