The coffee chain founder and former CEO posted a two-page letter on LinkedIn on Thursday that he sent to the company’s leadership in early February.
Schultz, 70, first served as CEO from 1987 to 2000, then from 2008 to 2017, and then returned in April 2022 as interim CEO until March 2023.
He stepped down from Starbucks’ board of directors in a planned transition in late 2023 and was given the title “lifelong Chairman Emeritus.”
Schultz wrote in the letter titled “The Soul of a Brand” that Starbucks is at an “inflection point.” He said this crossroad shouldn’t be unnerving because most companies go through it at some point.
Rather, the company should seize the moment as an opportunity to reset and reinvent itself, Schultz said. The way to do so is for the brand to return to its core values and rediscover its “soul.”
“The organizations that endure — and thrive in — the disruption of today and tomorrow will be those that are not just nimble and innovative,” Schultz said in the post. “But those that embrace their core purpose and reason for being.”
Schultz said that not all companies stand the test of time or have a “soul,” which he describes as a combined sense of history, culture, values, and connection.
But he said Starbucks, whose customer base shares a love for coffee and community around the world, is one of the few brands that does. Schultz said leadership should address Starbucks’ systemic issues and come back to the brand’s core values, Schultz said.
The founder didn’t specify what the systemic issues were but ended the letter with a bleak picture of the world, which is “seemingly on fire, steeped in disinformation and so much hate, in which people are so disconnected from each other.”
A Starbucks spokesperson said Schultz has valuable perspectives on the brand, which the team appreciates.
The company recently experienced “a significant impact on traffic and sales” in the Middle East due to the ongoing conflict, according to a first-quarter earnings call.
Schultz has also recently been misaligned with Gen Z, who make up a significant part of the fast food workforce, including Starbucks.
The founder and former CEO of Starbucks faced criticism for his anti-union mentality. He has also made comments about employees’ distrust of companies.
