Free Onward by Howard Schultz, Joanne Lesley Gordon

announcement. I thought Wanda would be the ideal candidate to assist. She was no longer a Starbucks partner, but she understood Starbucks’ culture and my voice. After more than a decade of working together, I trusted her implicitly.
     
    Wanda and I hadn't seen each other since February, when we had discussed the leaked memo, and in December I asked if she would meet me for breakfast at Lola, a restaurant in downtown Seattle. We hugged hello and settled into a booth inside the narrow, bustling restaurant. Over coffee and eggs, I asked Wanda how her family was doing and what projects she was working on. I updated her on the kids and Sheri. Then I casually changed the subject.
     
    “Would you be interested in doing some work for Starbucks?” I asked, careful not to reveal the magnitude or nature of the project. “We might need some help at the end of the year with an announcement.” I was not surprised, but I was pleased when Wanda smiled widely and, without hesitating, said she was available and would be more than happy to help.
     
    I left Lola with a heightened sense of optimism. The team was coming together.
     

Chapter 7
     

Believe
     
    At the end of December 2007, I joined my family for our traditional trip to Hawaii. Family has always been the most important thing in my life, and this was the only time of year when the four of us took time out from our busy lives to reconnect. But considering what I had planned for the New Year, it was hardly a vacation for me.
     
    Every day I was on the phone with Chet in Seattle and Jim Fingeroth in New York, not only mapping out the logistics of the transition, but also planning for what would come in the following days, weeks, and months. There were no obvious answers, and together we thought through what a new management structure might look like and how a variety of people's roles had to change. One of the decisions I made was to eventually eliminate the newly created position of chief operating officer and, instead, to have Starbucks’ most senior leaders report directly to the ceo. I wanted a clear line of sight into every aspect of our operations, from supply chain to store design to everything in-between. Reshuffling, as well as eliminating, some of Starbucks’ leaders would be inevitable.
     
    Given that I had spent the past two years observing and talking about what was wrong with Starbucks, it was invigorating to plan for how to make it right. Ideas and priorities had been percolating in my mind for so long. We needed to reignite our connection with customers. Replace the bureaucracy with a more efficient organizational structure. Slow our US growth to a more sustainable pace while ramping up internationally, focusing on countries like China. We would also have to close some stores, although I did not know how many.
     
    My struggle, however, was with how to appropriately frame my priorities for our people in a manner that would instill confidence and elicit support while communicating that we could no longer do business as usual.
     
    Fortuitously, I spent time in Hawaii with Michael Dell, founder of the PC company Dell, who was spending his holidays nearby. Michael and I had been friends for many years, and only 11 months earlier he'd returned to Dell as chief executive, replacing someone he'd selected to run the company two years prior. Our parallel circumstances were a bit uncanny, and although our respective businesses—coffee and computers—could not have been more different, Michael, as a returning founder, had a unique perspective and insight about what I could expect.
     
    It was during one of our daily three-hour bike rides along the Kona coast that I first confided in him. “I think I have to come back as ceo.”
     
    Michael did not seem surprised, and together we talked through a host of logistical and strategic issues now in front of me: managing theStreet, maintaining morale, the teetering economy and the drop in consumer confidence, as well as