If Starbucks is your Achilles’ heel (it is mine), then you’ll be happy to know how healthy of a company it is values wise. CEO Howard Schulz recently sat down with the New York Times to talk about Starbucks’ early days and his vision for the coffee empire.

Interesting to note is how Schulz’ values and past impacted his vision for company culture, and especially the commitment to that vision. Establishing a company culture early on is key to success, he mentions, since changing culture later in the game may not be effective.

Schulz also talks about how important HR is to both startups and developed businesses. Starbucks is well known for their amazing treatment of employees, and this resonates with their company culture of committing to their employees. I was surprised to learn that even part-time employees still get comprehensive health care and equity options. That’s unheard of! However, Schulz ensures workers fit Starbucks’ culture and passion for coffee with interviews centered not only on standard interview questions, but more insightful questions which helped him judge the applicant in a more well rounded manner. For example, he asked questions about family and what book the applicant was reading.

Schulz also mentioned that CEOs rarely believe they belong at their posts, and to the surprise of many people, feel vulnerable a lot of time time. Showing vulnerability is a measured way to employees is a good way to emphasize the humanity and relatedness of the CEO to workers no matter at what station. It’s a gesture of “hey, I’m human too” which makes the CEO more approachable.

In all, Schulz emphasizes developing values, a company culture, and sticking with them as the company grows. Consistency is key to developing a culture which empowers both employees and management.

Image thanks to http://www.flickr.com/photos/pierofix/3094329703/lightbox/