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My cup is full with gratitude and optimism on&nbsp;this morning&nbsp;of my first Starbucks Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

While Monday may have been&nbsp;<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2023/laxman-narasimhan-assumes-role-of-starbucks-chief-executive-officer/">“day one”</a>&nbsp;for me in my new role, the past six months of my immersion into the company have been shaped by so many of you who have taught me about our very special culture at Starbucks.

With you, I’ve experienced every aspect of the business to learn what it truly means to wear the green apron. You’ve welcomed me into our stores, trained me in how to be a barista, taught me about the work in our support centers, immersed me in our brand, our supply chain and manufacturing business, and you’ve introduced me to our agronomists and farmers in Origin where our coffee is sourced – all to help me deeply understand what we do, how we do it, and the challenges and opportunities facing us.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<a href="https://stories.starbucks.com/press/2023/message-from-laxman-to-all-partners/">Thank you</a>&nbsp;Starbucks partners and, of course, Howard, our founder, for taking such care and time with your support for me as I embarked on this journey.

Through my immersion, Howard, the leadership team, and I have spent a significant amount of time discussing the universal need for human connection – something Starbucks is uniquely positioned to deliver – in a world full of isolation, loneliness, and social exclusion. Together, we have acknowledged the opportunity&nbsp;for a refounding of Starbucks – to nurture the limitless possibilities for our partners, our customers, our communities, our farmers, our earth, and our shareholders by prioritizing human connection over every cup of coffee.

To fully realize our limitless potential, however, we have to first address what is limiting us.&nbsp;With our reinvention plan introduced last year, we will continue our focus on improving the store, customer, and of course, the partner experience, including long-term hiring and retention, and continuing our investment in partner wages and store operations. Actioning our reinvention plan has been a critical step in unlocking our limitless potential. We know we have more work to do, and we will keep our partners updated as we continue to make progress too.

While our performance is strong, our health needs to be stronger. We must care for the artists and the theater in the front of our stores, and the factory in the back. We strive to be&nbsp;a different kind of company operating in a different kind of world. We must appreciate our history and honor what made Starbucks great; while evolving and modernizing our brand, our business, and our culture to meet the needs of today.

For long-term, sustainable growth, we will look to discover ways to further&nbsp;elevate the brand through coffee and in our stores; building on our leadership position, we will&nbsp;strengthen and further scale digital experiences for our customers; we will evolve to a&nbsp;more global presence&nbsp;for our business and our brand; we will work to&nbsp;become less wasteful and move with greater speed; and, critically, we will&nbsp;reinvigorate our culture around what it means to be a partner at Starbucks.

We are a team of partners, and as ceo, I will continue to earn my green apron every day. As we innovate and grow, with rigor and vigor, we will be directly engaging with retail partners to guide us. I have learned so much about the retail experience from working in our stores. To keep us close to the culture and our customers, as well as to our challenges and opportunities, I intend to continue working in stores for a half day each month, and I expect each member of the leadership team to also ensure our support centers stay connected and engaged in the realities of our stores for discussion and improvement.

I’m excited to get to know more of you as we begin creating this future together, and I want you to know that I’ll be bringing the heart, hands, mind, and spirit required to lead Starbucks. I will always be a fierce advocate for our partners and our culture. And importantly, I’ll balance our pursuit of brand innovation and operational excellence with our commitment to building meaningful human connections over coffee to bring out the best in our partners and help us all thrive, together.

As a company that started with just one store in Pike Place market, to now over 36,000 stores in over 80 markets around the world, we celebrate the millions of connections and conversations that happen at Starbucks and the one question we ask our customers each day, “How may we serve you today?”

Dear partners, My cup is full with gratitude and optimism on this morning of my first Starbucks Annual Meeting of Shareholders.

Laxman Letter to Partners: With Gratitude and Optimism - Historias-en

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Laxman Letter to Partners: With Gratitude and Optimism

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/press/2023/laxman-letter-to-partners-with-gratitude-and-optimism/

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I accept the position of ceo of Starbucks with the deepest of humility. I am thankful to chair Mellody Hobson and the Board of Directors for entrusting me with this responsibility.

Starbucks is an incredible company and its best days are ahead of it. We have a critical role to play in bringing human connection to a world that’s quite disconnected. And in that quest, the best days for you, my partners, are ahead of you.

I met Howard Schultz a year ago in New York City. From that moment, he has been a sensei who has introduced me to the company and to its ways — and the importance of coffee. Throughout my six month immersion journey, Howard has been generous in his advice and guidance, all steeped in ensuring I understood the history of Starbucks and its cherished culture. At one point, someone asked why my immersion was to take six months. I replied that the question was asked with a Western lens. If the question was asked with an Eastern lens, it would be: “Why did the immersion take only six months?”

Howard believes strongly that the partners in this company come first. While there is always more we can do, and will do, the investments set in-place by Howard over the last year have set the table for a new future for the company. He knows — because he came up with it — that in order to exceed the customer expectations, we must first exceed partner expectations. For that, Howard deserves nothing but all the praise and the gratitude.

I know this to be incontrovertibly true, even if some in the world may choose to assert a different view. For Howard, every decision, every idea, and every innovation has to be viewed through the lens of our partners and how it will shape their experience. Take our newest innovation, Oleato- a creation that came from Howard’s mind. While we may all take great pride in the excitement from our customers, Howard’s biggest joy was seeing that partners were energized by the idea, eagerly queuing up to try the product at the Seattle Support Center.

I was at Pike Place last week very early in the morning. It was before the store opened. And then we opened it. There was silence. I walked the store, touching the wood on the shelves. I saw the hook that stood near the entrance that was meant for Caroline, a customer who came there to connect with employees. I saw the shelves — exactly as they were when the store first opened many years ago. The espresso machines slowly turned on. The market began bustling. And soon, lines of customers formed. Customers that craved what Starbucks has to offer.

Think of this. Our business is a human connection business. It’s a human connection business over coffee. It took genius to take Starbucks from 11 stores to 36,000. It took genius to make us the first company that gave out Bean Stock. It took genius to lead on healthcare and benefits — including our transgender healthcare. It took genius to be the first company in China to provide benefits no other company had. It took genius to coin the phrase “performance through the lens of humanity”.

And it took 40 years of work. Of inspiration. Of struggles. Of doing the right thing even when no one thought it to be the case. And it took the genius of the individual coupled with the symphony of thousands of partners to create the magic of Starbucks. And that is the foundation of the limitless future that I know we will enjoy as a brand. A brand that our partners make special, every day.

And as Howard leaves, let me repeat what I said in our town hall. He will always be our founder. We will always honor him.

Quite simply, and with love: Thank You Howard.

Message from Laxman to All Partners - Historias-en

Dear partners, I accept the position of ceo of Starbucks with the deepest of humility. I am thankful to chair Mellody Hobson and the Board of Directors for entrusting me with this responsibility. Starbucks is an incredible company and its best days are ahead of it. We have a critical role to play in bringing […]

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/press/2023/message-from-laxman-to-all-partners/

Message from Laxman to All Partners

As I step down as interim ceo of Starbucks, I am leaving you with this letter, written on the sunset of my last day as ceo for all of you to read on the morning of this new era. This is not a letter with advice. Everything you need to know resides inside of each of you.

What I want to write to you about is the love and responsibility for our company that we all share. Today, I am entrusting you all with Starbucks – something that holds a place in my heart second only to that of my beloved family.

Starbucks truly has been my life‘s work – but more than that, it’s always been about the lives of the millions of partners over the years who have proudly worn the green apron and it’s about the hundreds of thousands more who will join Starbucks in the years to come. It’s about every customer who comes through our doors. It’s about the communities our stores call home. Our company is like a river – the stewards of it will change over time, but it’s always growing and changing, carving a new path and moving forward to something better.

As I step away, I leave you all as the stewards, in service of all of our partners. They are the heart and soul of our company – the living embodiment of human connection. Through the years, I’ve seen over and over the profound impact our partners have on our customers, from a new parent whose first outing is to a Starbucks to introduce their baby to their favorite barista, to a store where partners learned sign language to better serve a deaf customer, to a widower who said that when he goes to his Starbucks, it may be the only time all week someone greets him by name. Our partners are making a difference in millions of lives a day. Serve them well.

I want to acknowledge that there are times when the responsibility for our partners, customers and communities around the world will feel heavy. But as partners, know that you are not shouldering the responsibility alone. Lean into one another – you will find support everywhere, from the boardroom to partners in plants to store managers to the newest baristas. Our partners have been teaching me for more than 40 years. They will help you all continue to earn your green apron every day.

And, importantly, lean into the joy. There is so much joy. Every single interaction that we have as partners and that we have with customers is an opportunity for meaningful connection. It adds up to a limitless capacity for joy, love and support, with the center being Starbucks. Remember that.

As I turn Starbucks over to you now, know that you have my utmost confidence, trust and love. You all are the future of Starbucks.&nbsp;The world needs Starbucks – and Starbucks needs all of you.

The privilege and honor of being part of Starbucks has been the gift of my lifetime. I know it will be yours as well.

“As I step away, I leave you all as the stewards, in service of all of our partners. They are the heart and soul of our company – the living embodiment of human connection,” wrote Howard Schultz to the senior leadership team on the eve of Laxman Narasimhan’s first day as Starbucks new chief executive officer.

‘You are the future of Starbucks’: Howard Schultz’ letter to leaders as he steps down

https://historias.starbucks.com/en-es/press/2023/you-are-the-future-of-starbucks-howard-schultz-letter-to-leaders-as-he-steps-down/

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