Howard Schultz, Starbucks Chairman, took the bull by the horns when he saw that Starbucks stock price was continually dropping, even though profits had risen by 22 percent and net profit amounted to 600 million dollar during the business year 2005/2006. The company has developed globally at a breathtaking speed. Yet, head of the executive board Schultz complains that this rapid global expansion takes place at the expense of “the romance and theatre from the stores”. The sensational business success of the Starbucks idea to brew freshly roasted coffee and serve it in comforting atmosphere, is reaching its limits. A “Premium Standard” cannot be expanded arbitrarily. Howard Schultz is speaking of “watering down” the Starbucks image. Starbucks built a world of indulgence through the brand which had been able for a long time to convince the customer that they stand for the ideal world of a traditional coffee house. Such a world cannot be maintained in a chain with 10,000 shops and the goal of becoming an empire with 40,000 shops. At this point, Starbucks turns into a mass product. He, who industrializes the intimacy of a coffee house, kills it. And if Howard Schultz now publicly in front of his fans tells his management that it’s time to revive the past, the history, the tradition and passion from the period of foundation, he knows very well that this is not possible. Global growth forces compromises. Surely, part of these compromises is the conversion to automated coffee machines. This way the customer gets his coffee quicker. But is that what he really wants, if he decided to drink his coffee at Starbucks and enjoy his coffee in a coffee house atmosphere? What was originally unique about Starbucks is more or less dead. There is no such thing as forty-thousandfold uniqueness. Howard Schultz puts it this way: “We have lost the original qualities as the company has sought to increase scale, efficiency and return on investment.”

It may well be that Howard Schultz wrote this letter fair and square to his management. However, he knows full well that one cannot turn back the clock. When brand and product part ways they both will eventually not make the grade. We can only hope that Howard Schultz and the company Starbucks are going to rediscover the original idea and the soul of the business again.