The Starbucks Customer And The Teavana Customer

I Was Born On The Other Side Of The Tracks, In Public Housing In Brooklyn, New York. My Dad Never Made More Than $20,000 A Year, And I Grew Up In A Family That Lost Health Insurance. So I Was Scarred At A Young Age With Understanding What It Was Like To Watch My Parents Lose Access To The American Dream.

Authentic Brands Don't Emerge From Marketing Cubicles Or Advertising Agencies. They Emanate From Everything The Company Does.

Growing Up I Always Felt Like I Was Living On The Other Side Of The Tracks. I Knew The People On The Other Side Had More Resources, More Money, Happier Families.

I Think Starbucks Created A Platform And, Ultimately, A Runway For Many Other Companies To Emulate. I Suspect If We Had Not Achieved What We Have, There Would Have Been Many Regional Brands That Would Have Succeeded. But I'm Not Sure There Would Have Been A National Brand Of The Scope Of Starbucks.

More Than Anything Else, Technology Will Pave The Way For Innovative Change At Starbucks. The Bulk Of Starbucks' Innovation Over The Next Several Years Will Be Technology-focused.