Interview with Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz 5/14/2004
Kaiser Family Foundation Broadcast Studio, Washington, D.C.
Interview
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transcript )
Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz talks with kaisernetwork.org Editor-in-Chief and Kaiser Family Foundation Vice President Larry Levitt about the uninsured and providing health benefits to workers.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
- On providing health insurance for Starbucks employees: “Early on we recognized that if we were going to succeed as a company, we had to create a unique business model in which long-term value for our shareholders was linked to creating long-term value for our people. So we were the first retail company in America to provide comprehensive health insurance not only to our full-time people but our part-time workers as well. And this has resulted in really establishing a culture and a values system within Starbucks that in large part has been linked with the success we've enjoyed as a company.”
- On the need to address the rising cost of health care: “We’ve said publicly that we are not going to turn our back on our people, but the hard facts are that we are on a collision course with time. And there has to be a significant level of reform. There has to be, I think, some partnership between government, business and the consumer in which we’re going to see a change, a significant change so that companies like Starbucks can continue to provide this opportunity.”
- On whether the Starbucks business model can apply to other companies: “I would submit very strongly that if any business could create an environment in which people were taken care of and given the opportunity to get a benefit like this that the bottom line of the business would be enhanced. The Starbucks model is not an anomaly in relationship to this benefit being something other businesses should embrace.”
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