Howard Schultz may be thinking about a presidential run, as he’s hired the PR firm Edelman — and, specifically, Steve Schmidt — who helped manage the strategy of the presidential campaign of John McCain. While he has not specifically stated that he will run, there are signs that it may be possible for him to make a run for president in 2020.
Howard Shultz began his rise in the business world with Starbucks, a company which he joined in 1982 and bought for himself in 1987. After helping to expand the coffee chain, the company went public in 1992 and is now a globally recognized brand with a market cap of nearly 90 billion dollars. The returns from Starbucks are very uncharacteristic of food companies during the last 20 years. Investment returns for Starbucks were comparable to some of America’s best known and fastest growing companies, such as Netflix, Amazon, and Apple.
They have achieved these impressive financial numbers while at the same time giving their part-time employees benefits usually reserved for full-time employees. Benefits such as full medical and dental, free college tuition, and 100% matching on 401K are some of the most generous benefits for 20-hour-a-week employees.
The financial success of Starbucks is not the only aspect which people have come to recognize about the brand. Schultz has also been successful at making Starbucks seen by many as a socially progressive company, which has inserted itself into some current political issues such as gun control, immigration, and social issues. Below are a few examples of some of the issues which they have taken stances on:
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