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'Today is Day 1': Starbucks retail leaders are challenged, inspired at leadership event.

So fortunate and so blessed to be part of a company that has the quality of people in this room. “I sat here for two days, so proud, feeling so fortunate to be part of this, so fortunate to see the history of the company unfold this way. “Whereas this time around, I play a really big role in the reinvention of our company and where we want to go,” Nunez said. “And that built the baseline for who we are today, and today is what’s going to build the baseline for who we are 20 years from now. I want that to be the experience that my partners have (in the stores I manage).” Founder Howard Schultz closed the event with a tough-love, tell-the-truth “family meeting.” He talked about how the company grew from 11 stores and 100 employees in 1987, while building a different kind of company. When the financial global recession hit soon after, she said she was “in a threat state” just trying to learn the business. “There were leaders before us, who were in our position right now, and they had to make decisions and they had to be courageous and be inspirational,” Alamian said. “When you have to go through all of that stuff, it drains you from being able to be inspirational. She started at Starbucks as a barista 18 years ago, after having immigrated to the U.S. “Seventy percent of the business is drive-thrus. And though there might be practical reasons – like the snow and bigger cars in her home state – Gamache is also a bottom-line, results-oriented person who’d like to move customers through faster.