The Empire of Starbucks星巴克，从咖啡店到咖啡帝国

Howard Schultz is not a household name to most North Americans, but those living in urban or suburban communities know his company:the specialty coffee retailer Starbucks. In the span of a decade, Starbucks has grown into the largest coffee roaster and retailer of specialty coffee in North America.By 2000，its coffee houses could be found in more than 2600 locations worldwide；even President Bill Clinton has been photographed with a Starbucks to-go container in his hand.According to Newsweek, Schultz's merging with the three Cs-coffee, commerce and community-surely ranks as one of the“1990s greatest retail successes.”

PersonaI Life

Schultz was born in 1953 and grew up in the federally subsidized Canarsie housing project in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. His mother worked as a receptionist, and his father held a variety of jobs, none of which offered decent pay or medical insurance.When“Howie”was seven, his father lost his job as a driver for a diaper service when he broke his ankle.In the ensuing months, the family was literally too poor to put food on the table.It was a memory that Schultz would carry with him into adulthood.

During his youth Schultz was ashamed of his family's“working poor”status. He escaped the hot Brooklyn summer one year to attend camp, but would not return when he discovered that it was funded with government money for low-income families.When he began dating, he feared that his girlfriends'fathers would ask where he lived.He turned to sports as an escape:competitive by nature, he marshaled that drive into succeeding on his high school's football, baseball, and basketball teams.He was awarded an athletic scholarship to Northern Michigan University, and earned a degree in business administration in 1975，which made him the first person in his family to graduate from college.

Career Details

The inspiration for his phenomenal coffee business was a 1983 visit to Milan, Italy. Schultz perceived a new American way of life in the city's 1700 coffee bars, and he sought to recreate such forums for people to start their days or visit with friends.Schultz later described the coffee bar as“an extension of people's front porch”in the New York Times.

In 1987，at the age of 34，Howard Schultz organized a group of investors and purchased his former employer, Starbucks Coffee Company. The small Seattle-based coffee roaster took its name from the coffee-loving first mate in Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick.Schultz renamed his company the Starbucks Corporation.

Schultz's coffee bars were an instant success, fueling rapid growth and expansion, not only for Starbucks but also for the coffee industry as a whole. This new coffee culture supported a proliferation of stores and other sales avenues for Starbucks'beans.The company owns all of its stores, despite the constant stream of franchise inquiries, and has been steadily opening shops throughout the country.In 1992 Starbucks became the first specialty coffee company to go public, a testament to its size and prospects.

Starbucks'first major venture outside of the northwestern part of the nation was Chicago, where mail-order sales were strong. The company's specialty sales division developed new business through Nordstrom's department stores and established Starbucks coffee bars within Barnes and Noble bookstores.Starbucks also formed a partnership with Pepsico, Inc.to create and distribute a new ready-to-drink coffee-based beverage, Frappuccino, as well as entered into a licensing agreement with Kraft Foods.The company even developed a relationship with Capitol Records, releasing Blue Note Blend coffee and an accompanying jazz compilation on compact disc.

When Starbucks opened its first store in New York City, it was a homecoming for Schultz, but he did not act like the conquering hero. The New York Times commented，“The soft-spoken Mr.Schultz has barely a trace of a New York accent and a timid, almost apologetic manner.When he comes to visit the 54th Street store his entrance is ultra low-key.”

Advertisers marveled at Schultz's tactics, including his investments in such“internal marketing”rather than a large external advertising budget. In March 1994 Advertising Age noted that Schultz“turned a small chain into a national brand while spending a relatively small amount on advertising.They don't market……they've established a major presence all through word of mouth.”

Schultz has also attracted considerable attention with his unconventional employment policies. He wanted to give Starbucks'employees both a philosophical and a financial stake in the business.Employees who worked 20 hours a week or more were eligible for medical, dental, and optical coverage as well as for stock options.At a time when other companies were trimming benefits as a cost-cutting measure, Schultz, who grew up in a family without any medical coverage, believed that his approach is critical to building a better workforce.“Service is a lost art in America，”he told the New York Times.“I think people want to do a good job, but if they are treated poorly they get beaten down……it's not viewed as a professional job in America to work behind a counter.I don't believe that.We want to provide our people with dignity and self-esteem, and we can't do that with lip service.”Schultz credits the benefits policy as the key to the company's growth because it gave Starbucks a more dedicated workforce and an extremely high level of customer service.The chain also achieved a dramatically lower turnover rate-half the rate of the average fast food business.This creates a financial payoff for Starbucks, since each new employee costs the company$3000 in recruiting and training costs and productivity losses-the equivalent of two years of premium payment.

Schultz has remained firmly committed to employee and community enrichment. As part of his ongoing efforts, Starbucks teamed up with baseball stars to promote an adult literacy campaign.

His spectacular success has not diminished Schultz's awareness of his working class roots. He dedicated his book to the memory of his father, to whom he had once spoken harshly and accused of a lack of ambition.They were words Schultz would regret the rest of his life, his father died of lung cancer before his son became a millionaire.Schultz once told his audience that his greatest success was that the“got to build the kind of company that my father never got to work for”.

对于大多数北美人而言，霍华德·舒尔茨这个名字并非称得上家喻户晓。但无论是城里人还是农村人，都知道他公司的名字——专业咖啡零售商星巴克。在短短的十几年间，星巴克一跃成为北美地区最大的咖啡烘焙者和专业咖啡零售商。到2000年，星巴克咖啡连锁店遍布世界2600多个地方。甚至在一张照片中，美国前总统比尔·克林顿先生也手握一杯星巴克的外卖咖啡。舒尔茨的咖啡、商业和社区三个“C”的融合被美国《新闻周刊》评为“20世纪90年代最成功零售范例”之一。

个人生活

舒尔茨出生于1953年，在位于纽约布鲁克林区的一个社区长大。该社区属于联邦政府补贴建设的“贫民安顿计划”公共住宅项目。他的母亲是一个公司的接待员，父亲做过好多份工作，但每一份工作都无法给予他一份像样的工资和医疗保险。在他七岁那年，父亲因为扭断脚踝而失去了在一家尿布生产厂做卡车司机的工作。接下来的那几个月，家里的经济更加拮据了，甚至到了“吃了上顿没下顿”的程度。这段刻骨铭心的记忆伴随着舒尔茨的成长。

少年时的舒尔茨羞于自己贫穷的家庭背景。有一年，他从布鲁克林炙热的夏天中“逃”了出来，参加了一个夏令营。但当他得知这是一个由政府出资、为低收入家庭举办的夏令营时，舒尔茨说什么也不肯再返回营中了。约会的时候，他特别害怕女朋友的父亲会问到他住在哪里。为了逃避这一切，舒尔茨将精力转向了体育项目。这个极具运动天赋的年轻人在高中的足球、棒球和篮球校队中都表现得极为出色。后来舒尔茨被北密歇根大学录取，并且获得了体育奖学金。1975年，他获得了工商管理学学士学位，由此也成为家里第一位大学生。

事业发展细节

舒尔茨在咖啡业之所以能够取得惊人成就，灵感来源于他在1983年对意大利米兰市的一次访问。米兰市的1700家咖啡吧使得舒尔茨感知到美国人应该有的一种新的生活方式。他寻求建立这样一个平台，用来供人们开启新的一天或是与朋友相见。舒尔茨之后在《纽约时报》中将这种咖啡吧称作人们“家居前廊的扩展”。

1987年，34岁的霍华德·舒尔茨召集了一批投资者，将他的老东家“星巴克咖啡公司”买下。这个小型的咖啡烘焙店起步于美国西雅图，名字来源于美国文坛杰出的大师赫尔曼·麦尔维尔的经典著作《白鲸》中那个爱喝咖啡的主人公的名字。舒尔茨将公司重命名为“星巴克股份公司”。

舒尔茨的咖啡吧的快速成功不仅使星巴克，同时也使整个咖啡产业得以快速发展和扩张。这种新的咖啡文化也推动了大量衍生店铺及星巴克咖啡豆的其他销售渠道的建立。尽管要求特许加盟的呼声此起彼伏，但是公司依然手握所有店铺的控制权，并且继续在全国范围内稳步地开设多家店铺。1992年，星巴克作为第一家专业咖啡公司成功上市，再一次证明了其庞大的规模和美好的发展前景。

星巴克将其在美国西北部以外地区所做的第一次冒险尝试地点选在了芝加哥。那里的邮购咖啡销售很火爆。公司通过在诺德斯特龙百货商店开展新的咖啡业务和巴诺连锁书店内开设星巴克咖啡吧，拓展了新的专业销售渠道。同时，星巴克也与百事可乐公司建立了合作伙伴关系，共同研制和销售一款即饮的咖啡新饮品——法布奇诺（星冰乐）咖啡。此外，星巴克还与美国卡夫国际食品公司签署了专利使用权转让协定。公司甚至还同百代唱片公司开展合作关系，推出了一款蓝调音符混合咖啡，并附带一张爵士乐专辑的光盘。

舒尔茨在纽约的第一家店开业，这对他而言，似乎有种重归故里的感觉，但他并没有表现得像是一个耀武扬威的英雄。《纽约时报》评价说：“舒尔茨先生说话温和，丝毫听不出一点纽约口音，也看不出他的举止行为有任何的胆怯，甚至近乎于愧疚的痕迹。当他来到54大街商铺参观时，他显得那样低调。”众多的广告商惊讶于舒尔茨的策略，这其中就包括他将资金用于所谓的“内部市场营销”，而非大量的外部广告预算。1994年3月出版的美国《广告时代》杂志曾指出：“舒尔茨用相对较少的广告投入量将一家小型连锁店打造成一个享誉全国的品牌。他们没有进行市场宣传……企业形象的塑造是通过消费者的口口相传而实现的。”

舒尔茨也时常因为在雇用政策方面“不按套路出牌”而受到广泛关注。他想要让星巴克的员工既拥有公司经济上的股份，也得到一份人生哲学上的惠赠。那些每周工作达到或者超过20小时的员工可以享受到公司提供的针对身体、牙齿和视力的医疗保险金，另外还可以按照规定低价购买公司的股票期权。当其他公司把削减福利待遇当成降低成本的重要途径时，在一个没有享受到任何医疗保障的家庭里长大的舒尔茨却认为，他的这一做法对于打造一支更好的员工团队十分重要。他对《纽约时报》的记者说：“在美国，服务已经成为了一门消失的艺术。我认为人们都想把工作做好。可是如果他们没有很好的待遇，那么他们就会表现得无精打采……在美国，人们从不把做收银员看成是一份职业，可我不这么认为。我们希望给予自己的员工以尊严和自尊，而且在这一点上我们绝不能给员工开‘口头支票’。”舒尔茨把福利政策看作公司成长的关键，因为恰恰是这个政策为星巴克带来了更富有奉献精神的员工和极高的顾客服务水平。星巴克的员工流失率极低，仅为整个快餐行业水平的一半。这为星巴克节约了成本，因为公司要在每一位新员工身上投入3000美元来招聘、培训以及弥补由于生产力缺失而造成的损失，而这个数目大约是一个员工两年的加班费。

如今，舒尔茨依然坚定地致力于推动企业员工及所在社区的文化建设。他的努力正得到体现，星巴克与众多棒球明星通力合作，在成年人中间展开了一场扫盲运动。

虽然舒尔茨取得了巨大的成功，但他并没有忘记自己出生于工人阶级家庭。他曾专门写了一本书来追忆自己的父亲，那个曾经被他无情地指责为缺乏抱负的父亲。书中满是令舒尔茨在后半生感到后悔的文字，因为在他成为一位百万富翁之前，他的父亲因患肺癌而去世了。舒尔茨曾经对他的读者说，他最大的成功便是“建立了这样的一家公司，这是我父亲一直向往，却不曾拥有的”。

实战提升

核心单词

suburban[sə'bə:bən]adj.郊区的，近郊的

specialty['speʃəlti]n.特性，特征；特殊性

federally['fedərəli]adv.联盟地；联邦地

steadily['stedili]adv.稳定地；不断地

compilation[,kɔmpi'leiʃən]n.编辑（物）

optical['ɔptikəl]adj.光学的

premium['primiəm]n.贴水，升水，额外费用；奖赏

财经知识一点通

股票期权（stock options）

是指买方在交付了期权费后即取得在合约规定的到期日或到期日以前按协议价买入或卖出一定数量相关股票的权利。

福利（welfare）

是指企业为了保留和激励员工，采用的非现金形式的报酬。福利的形式包括保险、实物、股票期权、培训、带薪假等。

翻译练习

lt was a memory that Schultz would carry with him into adulthood.

Starbucks'first major venture outside of the northwestern part of the nation was Chicago, where mail-order sales were strong.

As part of his ongoing efforts, Starbucks teamed up with baseball stars to promote an adult literacy campaign.