, Columnist
America Is Divided. Starbucks Really Wants to Help.
Chairman Howard Schultz says closing for racial bias training is a good reminder of the values of the company and the country.
“Our company is steeped in creating a sense of community.”
Photographer: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
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If Howard Schultz were running for president, I would vote for him.
He wouldn’t have a prayer, of course. As competitive as he is as a businessman, he lacks the cynicism, the ruthlessness and the willingness to say whatever you have to, to get elected. The Starbucks Corp. executive chairman is 64, and he’s built the coffee company into one of the most recognizable brands in the world — yet he has an innocence about him, an unironic sincerity, that I find both endearing and ennobling.