Oprah and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz on Super Soul Sunday
HOWARD: You can’t build any kind of organization if you’re not gonna surround yourself with people who have experience and skill base beyond your own. Only as if those people have like-minded values.
OPRAH: That is the key to starting anything.
HOWARD: That’s the key. And I think when you discover perhaps that these people do not have those values, then you have to have a very quick conversation. And if they don’t demonstrate that kind of behavior, not everyone deserves to be on the team.
OPRAH: Compromise anything but your core values. That’s what you say.
HOWARD: Short-term success is not going to build long-term value for anyone. And we live in an age where everything is based on the short term. And I think what we’re trying to do and what we’ve demonstrated is very —
OPRAH: You had to fight that in your own culture.
HOWARD: We did.
OPRAH: Yeah.
HOWARD: It’s hard to do.
EXCERPT: Howard finding Starbucks at a “Spiritual Crisis” Upon His Return to the Company in 2008
OPRAH: Would you say that Starbucks was in a spiritual crisis?
The company, under the leadership of Shultz, began expanding aggressively by the early 90s, as the brand gained popularity across the country.