Nancy Koehn, a historian at Harvard's business school, has talked with Schultz several times over the years and is working on her fifth case study on Starbucks. She says the CEO learned from the hard knocks of his childhood. "Unlike some people who rise and take a place at a much higher level of income, Howard has the ability to relate to people at all levels," she said. "He shows up as a full person no matter who he's talking to."

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