Howard Schultz tells a shareholder worried about Starbucks' gay marriage support that the company returned 38% to shareholders last year. He says the stance isn't about economics but about the 200,000 employees and diversity. If shareholders disagree, he says, they can sell.
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If you stand for something important, want to make a positive impact on the world, and make money in the process, I'm going to share with you a powerful clip from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz that I think you'll enjoy. Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. I believe in entrepreneurs, and recently a buddy of mine, friend of the channel, Jason Fonseca, put me onto this clip from Howard Schultz, who's the CEO of Starbucks. The clip is from a shareholders meeting at Starbucks where one of the shareholders asked Howard Schultz about his decision to support gay marriage. The shareholder was concerned that Starbucks' valuation would start to decrease and they would lose business because not many people supported gay marriage. Howard Schultz's response was just awesome, and if you stand for something in your business, you're going to enjoy it. Let's roll the clip. Because not every decision is an economic decision.
Despite the fact that you recite statistics that are narrow in time, we did provide a 38% shareholder return over the last year. I don't know how many things you invest in, but I would suspect not many things— companies, products, investments— have returned 38% over the last 12 months. Having said that, it is not an economic decision. The lens in which we are making that decision is through the lens of our people.
We employ over 200,000 people in this company, and we want to embrace diversity of all kinds. If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38% you got last year, it's a free country. You can sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in Netflix. Thank you very much.
