Starbucks' ex-CEO leads a new team

• Starbucks CEO stakes out new grounds

  Addendum: The Starbucks Via Taste Challenge kicks off Friday and runs through Monday in Starbucks stores across the U.S. and Canada. But I got a head start Tuesday morning, as I noted in the post below: I disagree with CEO Howard Schultz's "guarantee" that you won't be able to tell the difference between Starbucks' drip and its new instant (or "ready brew," as he calls it). Starbucks Bold drip handily MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Sep 29, 2009 6:34 PM ET
  Posted in: CEOs, consumer goods, Howard Schultz, Jim Donald, management, Postcards, Power Point, Power Shift, Starbucks

• Ten signs of recovery and renewal

  I'm an optimist. Always have been. So take with a grain of salt--or sugar, perhaps--these signs of hope across the board:

  1. Maybe print isn't dead. My new Kindle 2 makes me think that even though we may not be reading magazines and newspapers on paper a decade or two from now, long-form stories and beautiful page design can endure. (My Monday Postcard, "Amazon: Thinking beyond the Kindle," stirred debate about MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Apr 3, 2009 1:45 PM ET
  Posted in: Amazon, Bono, entertainment, Guest Post, Jim Donald, Kindle, Personal Power, Postcards, publishing, retail, sports, Starbucks, Tom Freston

• Guest Post: Former Starbucks CEO's tips for tough times

  by Jim Donald, former CEO of Starbucks and Pathmark

  "Good morning, general store managers, assistant store managers, VPs and all 26,000 employees…Jim here…

  It's Wednesday morning and the merchandising message today is--and you are not going to believe it-- but I am telling you that it is OK to steal."

  It was 5:30 a.m., and I was on the phone, in my kitchen, sending out my daily voicemail. As I paused for MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Apr 1, 2009 1:02 PM ET
  Posted in: CEOs, Guest Post, Jim Donald, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, Pathmark, Postcards, retail, Starbucks

• Know yourself!

  Who are you? It's more important than ever to know the answer to this question.

  Think about it - When you're on shaky ground (aren't we all these days?), when your bosses and direct reports question your moves (admit it, they do), and when you're rethinking your life or career (you'd better be, or you're a fool), you need one core competency: Know thyself.

  A primer in this regard: a book that I MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Mar 27, 2009 12:54 PM ET
  Posted in: CEOs, Cisco, CSCO, Dawn Hudson, eBay, Jacqueline Novogratz, Jim Donald, Joe Klein, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, Meg Whitman, P&G, PepsiCo, Personal Power, politics, Politics Lost, Postcards, Procter & Gamble, Ramani Ayer, SBUX, self-awareness, Starbucks, The Hartford

• JetBlue's founder flies again

  David Neeleman, the founder and former CEO of JetBlue (JBLU), launched his fourth low-cost airline Monday. This one is in Brazil. It's called Azul, which means "blue" in Portugese. It's a lot like JetBlue: TVs at every seat-back, leather seats, extra leg room, nonstop flights between cities that previously lacked nonstop service.

  Who knows if Azul will take off, but Brazil's economy is growing faster than most (6.8% in the third MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Dec 16, 2008 3:23 PM ET
  Posted in: airlines, Azul, Brazil, CEOs, David Neeleman, Ed Zander, JBLU, JetBlue, Jim Donald, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, Motorola, Postcards, Power Shift, Southwest, Starbucks

• Starbucks' Schultz needs to get real

  Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz needs less optimism and a stronger dose of reality in his brew.

  Monday's fourth-quarter earnings report -- net income down 97% to $5.4 million on revenues of $2.5 billion, which were up 3% -- missed expectations. Same-store sales, down 8% in the United States and 7% globally, were worse than Wall Street predicted. Moreover, $170 million in restructuring costs to close 600 U.S. stores, as detailed by management MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Nov 11, 2008 12:12 PM ET
  Posted in: Bono, CEOs, consumer goods, Costco, Howard Schultz, Jim Donald, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, McDonald's, Postcards, Product RED, restaurants, retail, Starbucks, Wal-Mart

• Starbucks' Schultz on his execution challenge

  I waited 45 minutes to vote this morning. A breeze, I guess, compared to those people standing in line for hours. At 8 a.m., I walked into my Starbucks on Manhattan's Upper West Side for a free tall brewed coffee -- the retailer's Election Day promotion -- and walked straight to the counter. No line. The store filled 20 minutes later. Obviously, Americans are running about one hour late today. MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Nov 4, 2008 1:55 PM ET
  Posted in: Ann Moore, Bono, consumer goods, election, Howard Schultz, Jim Donald, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, media, New Orleans, politics, Postcards, Product RED, retail, Starbucks, Time Inc., turnaround, voting

• Starbucks' Schultz: from cocky to vulnerable

  Seeing Starbucks (SBUX), once America's model retailer, post its first-ever quarterly loss, you realize how dire the retail category is these days. Just about everybody except the low-price players like McDonald's (MCD), Wal-Mart (WMT) and TJX (TJX) are losing.

  But beyond being a victim of the harsh economy, Starbucks made real mistakes. It dramatically over-expanded. And when Howard Schultz, who built the company from a tiny Seattle chain, fired CEO Jim MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Jul 31, 2008 2:42 PM ET
  Posted in: Andy Serwer, Bill George, CEOs, David Neelman, Ed Zander, Howard Schultz, JetBlue, Jim Donald, John Wooden, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, McDonald's, Motorola, Postcards, Power Shift, retail, Starbucks, TJX, True North, UCLA, Wal-Mart

• Why Starbucks is hitting the wall

  The news that Starbucks (SBUX) will close 600 stores and lay off as many as 12,000 employees is not only the news that Wall Street was waiting for. It is inevitable. One thing I've learned from my 24 years following retailers for Fortune is this: Every retailer that expands across the U.S. hits the wall on growth eventually. And every retail entrepreneur, no matter how talented, is eventually exposed as MORE

  Patricia Sellers - Jul 2, 2008 12:35 PM ET
  Posted in: 1-800-got-junk, Arthur Blank, Bernie Marcus, Blockbuster, Bob Nardell, CEO, CEOs, Chevron, Circuit City, Dow, Eddie Lampert, FORTUNE MPWomen, Frank Blake, GE, General Electric, Home Depot, Howard Schultz, IBM, Jim Donald, Kmart, Launi Skinner, Leadership by Geoff Colvin, management, McDonald's, Postcards, Power Shift, retail, Sam Walton, Sears, Starbucks, Wal-Mart, Wall Street