Click on the linked picture above to go to a pbs.org video interview with Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, the world's largest coffee chain. Starbucks has over 10,000 stores in the U.S. and over 5,000 internationally. You can also find the written transcript together with the video here at [ http://www.pbs.org/nbr/site/onair/transcripts/starbucks_success_secrets_110329/ ].
Howard Schultz was the entrepreneur who began the rapid expansion of the Starbucks chain which only really started on its path of rapid growth some ten years following the very first early '70s Starbucks cafe. Schultz has been Chairman and CEO since 1985; but as noted in the video he was absent from the CEO post from 2000 to 2008.
In 2000 he stepped back from the CEO role, retaining his Chairmanship position. However, as markets boomed in 2006 as well as 2007, the outlook for Starbucks became cloudy - its performance stumbled and its stock price fell steeply for almost all of 2007, and did not stop falling despite Chairman Schultz taking up his CEO role again in 2008.
Things haven't looked back since the market turnaround in 2009, and Schultz is publishing a new book titled "Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul" - which is the subject of this interview. (The interview also mentions the following Starbucks business ventures: Seattle's Best Coffee and K-Cups.)
Some notes on the language:
- "leverage" - is usually a noun referring to the multiplied effect of using the power of a lever on something; but you will see here that it is used as as a verb "to leverage" meaning to use the multipled effect of a lever on something (here it is to use the power of the Starbucks cafe retail network into the grocery market)
- "transition" - to move or change (usually smoothly) from one to another, often from one stage in a process to another stage in the process
- "commodity" - is usually any kind of market good/service that can be bought and sold; but here it refers to standardized bulk goods (often with low per unit cost) with large mass trading markets, such as coffee, other agricultural commodities, oil, metals etc.
I'll be happy to receive questions and comments from English learners, and I'll try to answer your queries here about the language in this video. I look forward to your comments!
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