Starbucks founder says Steve Jobs told him to fire executive team: 'He was right'

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz recalled the moment Apple founder Steve Jobs screamed in his face to fire his whole executive team. 

Within six to nine months of that chat, most of them were gone, Schultz said during an episode on the podcast "Acquired."

In 2008, Schultz – who wrapped up his third stint as CEO last year – recalled walking around Apple's campus with Jobs, venting to him about all his problems. 

"He [Jobs] stopped me and said, ‘This is what you need to do… go back to Seattle and you fire everyone on your leadership team,'" Schultz recalled. "I thought he was joking." 

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But Jobs wasn't messing around. In fact, Schultz recalled Jobs screaming in his face. 

Jobs told him that within six, maybe nine months, they would all be gone. 

"He was right, except for one," Schultz said. 

Howard Schultz, then-CEO of Starbucks, speaks during the company's annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, March 19, 2014. (David Ryder / Reuters Photos)

Schultz was named interim CEO in 2022, after the retirement of Kevin Johnson, and faced the brunt of the unionization effort among its employees at stores across the nation. 

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However, Schultz, who was CEO from 1986 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2017, handed the reins to his permanent replacement, PepsiCo executive Laxman Narasimhan, in March 2023 and pledged he wouldn't return. 

Not only has the company been dealing with ongoing unionization efforts nationwide, but it is also feeling "the impact of a more cautious consumer," Narasimhan said during a recent earnings call. 

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, left, greets Starbucks founder Howard Schultz during an Apple Special event, Sept. 5, 2007, in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

On May 1, the company reported that its quarterly net revenue slipped 2% to $8.6 billion. Same-store sales in the quarter fell 4%, the first decline since 2020.

Even though Schultz may be on the sidelines, he posted on LinkedIn in May that the coffee giant needs to undergo a strategic overhaul after its earnings "significantly" fell short of shareholder expectations. 

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"I have emphasized that the company’s fix needs to begin at home: U.S. operations are the primary reason for the company’s fall from grace," Schultz said in the LinkedIn post.

To start, "the stores require a maniacal focus on the customer experience, through the eyes of a merchant," he said. "The answer does not lie in data, but in the stores." 

Starbucks told Gxstocks that it always appreciates the former chief executive's perspective.