Starbucks CEO announces retirement! Howard is back as CEO of Starbucks.

I believe that many of my friends who know Starbucks have heard of Howard Howard Schultz. The veteran subject, who has long been behind the scenes, announced his return yesterday and will temporarily take over as chief executive from April 4, 2022, until a new successor is elected.

The arrival of the epidemic has dealt a heavy blow to the catering industry, and Starbucks' share price has plummeted. During the outbreak, current Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson used his experience at a technology company to bring Starbucks into the digital age while shifting more of its business to drive-ins and other forms of takeout. Starbucks' performance is beginning to recover steadily, and even though many restaurants are struggling, Starbucks' sales are still strong. By the spring of 2021, Starbucks said coffee sales in the United States had fully recovered.

After seeing a full recovery in Starbucks' sales business, current Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson also signaled to the company's board of directors some time ago that he was considering retiring. Until yesterday, hours before Starbucks' annual shareholder meeting, the website posted an announcement about the transition of senior leadership, saying Kevin Johnson would step down as chief executive and retire.

Howard Schultz, the former chief executive known as the "star dad", will temporarily return to the role of chief executive until a suitable candidate is found. On this return, Howard Schultz will receive a nominal base salary of $1 and allow him to participate in Starbucks' employee benefit program.

At the shareholders' meeting on the same day, the chairman of the board said that Howard Schultz was well qualified to be the company's interim CEO and thanked Johnson for leading Starbucks through the historical challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Howard Schultz contributed to the prosperity of Starbucks. Although Starbucks was not founded by Howard Schultz, he gave Starbucks a chance to be reborn. Founded in 1971, Starbucks encountered a financial crisis in the late 1980s, and its founder contacted Howard Schultz to help rescue the crisis.

So Howard Schultz bought the company's retail business from its founder for $3.8 million in 1987 and became Starbucks' first CEO. It was just a coffee brand with 11 stores and more than 100 employees in the United States.

After the acquisition of Starbucks, Howard Schultz expanded Starbucks around the world in just four years, at an astonishing pace at the time. In addition to the amazing speed of development, Starbucks has also been officially listed under the leadership of Howard Schultz. But also because of excessive corporate expansion, the 1997 financial crisis Starbucks also suffered a lot of impact, but finally survived.

After solving the financial crisis, Howard Schultz resigned as president and CEO of Starbucks in 2000 to become chairman of the company's board of directors. A few years later, Starbucks had management problems and needed Howard Schultz to lead again, so he became chairman of the board and CEO again in 2008. Howard Schultz announced his retirement in 2018 until Kevin Johnson, who had been on the Starbucks board for seven years in 2017, took over as chief executive.

In the 21 years from 1987 to 2018, Howard Schultz led Starbucks from a small company with only 11 stores to a listed company with more than 28000 stores in 77 countries, which is a testament to Howard Schultz's leadership.

In 2022, as the retirement date of current CEO Kevin Johnson drew nearer and nearer, the company was unable to find a suitable replacement, so Howard Schultz was brought back as Starbucks CEO for the time being. For coming out again, Howard Schultz faces not only the problems of future development, but also the recent negative and thorny events of Starbucks.

For example, the cost and sales pressure brought about by the rapid expansion of stores in the Chinese market in the past two years, the report that some stores used expired ingredients last year, and the police incident at a store this year have all put all kinds of pressure on Starbucks' development in the Chinese market.

The United States has also been "protested" by serving employees because of a shortage of manpower, and the company has also failed to stop the counting of union votes. So far, employees of six stores in the United States have successfully voted to join the union, and there are still more than 100 store petitions pending. If these votes are confirmed, Starbucks will be legally required to negotiate with the union on the working conditions of employees in these stores.

"Howard Schultz is the right person to lead the company through these challenges until we find someone who can be the next chief executive," said Michael Michael Halen, a senior restaurant analyst at Bloomberg.

From this sentence, we can see that at present, only this old subject has the ability to lead Starbucks to turn around the current situation. So far, Howard Schultz himself has not made his plans public for the time being. Let's wait and see what happens to Starbucks in the future.

Photo Source: Internet

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