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Orin Smith Ceo Starbucks

There were praises, cheers, and stories at the last Starbucks annual shareholders meeting. This was the last meeting for one of Starbucks' most successful executives, Orin Smith. As the 62-year old Smith retires this month as Starbuck's CEO, he will be remembered for his leadership in the company by turning the inspiration and vision behind Starbucks into a reality. When previous CEO Howard Shultz approached Smith to join the Starbucks team in 1990, there were only approximately 45 stores in the U.S. and Canada combined (Starbucks). Today, there are around 9,000 stores occupied over 39 countries in addition to the 1,500 planned to open this year (Ouchi A1).

Executive Background
While studying at the University of Washington, Smith decided to take time off to work as an engineer for Boeing Enterprises. During his tenure, he recalls rows and rows of engineers sitting at their desks, reminding him of the assembly line. Seeing this unattractive future, he decided to switch to a Business orientation and eventually enrolled into Harvard Business School in pursuant of an M.B.A. (Smith).

In 1987, Howard Shultz purchased the Starbucks name and assets and presided as the new CEO. Three years later, he approached Smith, who was then working at Danzas (a freight shipping company) to enlist him as the company's CFO. Smith was able to see the vision and future potential of Starbucks. It was then, that Smith began driving Starbucks through its delicate years of raising capital, becoming a public company, and developing goals for future growth (Moix 1).

Management Style
"Before you can have an emotional connection with your customers, you have to have an emotional connection with your people." (Ouchi A1).

The success of Starbucks is partly due to Smith's strong emphasis on relationships between management and lower ranked employees (also called partners). Similar to JetBlue's CEO David Neeleman, Smith believes that a good relationship between management and...