Howard Schultz: Businesses must do more

As day 19 of the Occupy Seattle movement against corporations begins, the CEO of one of the largest Seattle-based companies in the world says American businesses need to do more to serve their communities.

“It is no longer enough to serve customers, employees, and shareholders. As corporate citizens of the world, it is our responsibility – our duty – to serve the communities where we do business by helping to improve, for example, the quality of citizens’ education, employment, health care, safety, and overall daily life, plus future prospects,” Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz writes in a blog post for the Harvard Business Review.

Schultz writes about the evolution of good companies. The employer-employee relationship has changed from a “paternalistic, command-and-control contract to a more collaborative, employee-driven model. Companies continue to grow when they connect with their customers in a meaningful way. The next step is natural, he says, where American businesses look beyond their own walls, to serve the community.

Simply writing checks for charity projects doesn’t cut it.

“We must go deeper,” he says. “We must invest the same creative muscle and resources we put toward our products into neighborhoods. We must ask how to fulfill the very real needs of communities in ways that are relevant to our business, take advantage of our strengths while being cost-effective and, yes, potentially profitable.”

While Republican candidates debated how to create jobs and stimulate the economy last night, Schultz already has a plan for creating jobs which will begin November 1, 2011. The Starbucks Foundation is donating $5 million toward an effort that customers will contribute to, he believes. Every $5 donation will provide $35 worth of financing for community businesses.

Schultz also has a comment that makes me wonder if he’ll run for a public office someday.

“With public leaders unable to adequately address the needs of their citizens and fix teetering economies, the responsibility to pick up the slack must shift to private organizations,” says Schultz.

Related: News Chick radio show podcast on creating a better workplace

(AP File Photo/Elaine Thompson)