Since 1987, Starbucks's star has been on the rise, growing from 11 Seattle, WA-based stores to more than 1,000 worldwide. Its goals grew, too, from the more modest, albeit fundamental one of offering high-quality coffee beans roasted to perfection to, more recently, opening a new store somewhere every day. An exemplary success story, Starbucks is identified with innovative marketing strategies, employee-ownership programs, and a product that's become a subculture.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a manager, a marketer, or a curious Starbucks loyalist, Pour Your Heart into It will let you in on the revolutionary Starbucks venture. CEO Howard Schultz recounts the company's rise in 24 chapters, each of which illustrates such core values as "Winning at the expense of employees is not victory at all."The success of Starbucks Coffee Company is one of the most remarkable business stories in decades, growing from a single retail store on Seattle's waterfront to a company with more than one thousand stores nationwide and a new one opening every business day. Starbucks has effected a fundamental change in American life, turning coffee into a national obsession and establishing the coffee bar as a new fixture of Main Street - a home away from home for millions of Americans. In Pour Your Heart Into It, Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, shares the passion, values, and inspiration that drive the success of this fascinating company. Schultz gives credit for the growth of Starbucks to a foundation of values seldom found in corporate America - values that place as much importance on the company's employees as they do on profits, as much attention to creativity as to growth. Schultz tells the story of Starbucks in chapters that illustrate the principles which have made the company enduring, such as "Don't be threatened by people smarter than you," "Compromise anything but your core values," "Seek to renew yourself even when you are hitting home runs," and, most simply, "Everything matters." For entrepreneurs, marketers, managers, and Starbucks' loyal customers, Pour Your Heart Into It gets to the heart of a company that, according to Fortune magazine, "has changed everything...from our tastes to our language to the face of Main Street."