Howard Schultz’s books are still on sale at 1912 Pike Place, Seattle, but in March last year the man who built Starbucks into an $84bn consumer brand handed the brass key to its first store to a new chief executive. This June the de facto founder stepped down as executive chairman, signing off by writing “Onward with love” on the narrow store’s yellowing wall.
Now, at 6.45am on a dark Monday morning, Kevin Johnson is standing beside his predecessor’s motivational graffiti, joking with the cup-tossing baristas as he instructs a visitor in how to make espresso. A triple-shot macchiato man, the 58-year-old is already caffeinated after an early start in the office.
It is a chance to check in with a handful of his 350,000 “partners” about how the season’s juniper lattes are selling, and to talk about what he describes as a transition “from a founder-led to a founder-inspired company”.