Howard Schultz

Nine Dead After Church Shooting In Charleston
CHARLESTON, SC - JUNE 19: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz greets employees and others at the coffee shop around the corner from the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church June 19, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. Schultz came to comfort and support the employees who work at the store in the wake of a shooting that left nine people dead at the church Wednesday. Authorities arrested Dylann Storm Roof, 21, of Lexington, South Carolina, after he allegedly attended a prayer meeting at the church for an hour before opening fire and killing three men and six women. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Photograph by Chip Somodevilla — Getty Images
  • Title
    CEO
  • Company
    Starbucks

If you want to see the future of retail, look no further than Starbucks. Under Schultz, it is becoming as much a tech behemoth as it is a coffee giant. He has made big hires from Adobe Systems and Juniper Networks and is leading the industry with its integrated rewards program and mobile ordering and payment; a fifth of the company’s U.S. transactions now take place on mobile. Cracking the code on delivery is next. The transformation is paying off. Starbucks has enjoyed 23 consecutive quarters of same-store-sales growth of 5% or more, along with record revenue and operating income and a market cap approaching $100 billion. Schultz has defied critics by proving that the company has yet to reach its saturation point; he increased store traffic and built new locations that are brewing up scalding sales in their first year. His “Race Together” initiative fell flat, but the damage was brief: Schultz’s name was floated as a possible presidential candidate.