Does Starbucks Want to Become a Tech Company?
Is Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) a restaurant company? Or is it more of a branded consumer staple? Maybe it's an "experiential" stock?
As it turns out, Starbucks is all of those things...yet management isn't satisfied stopping there.
Former CEO Howard Schultz was long a step ahead of others in the industry, right up until he left his positions as CEO in 2016 and as chairman in 2018. In the years leading up to his retirement, Schultz presciently called the disruption of brick-and-mortar retail before others, implemented a best-in-class digital rewards program, invested heavily in Starbucks' digital app and mobile-order-and-pay features, and forged delivery alliances with tech giants Alibaba and Uber Eats. Seeing the need to be tech-forward, Schultz even picked a former technology executive, Kevin Johnson, to succeed him as CEO.
Quelle Fool.com
