Jim Donald brings new energy to Starbucks CEO post
The News Review:
- Jim Donald brings new energy to Starbucks CEO post
- Prospects Good for Another Farmers Market in Frederick Co.
- World Bank board approves Wolfowitz
- Parting ways: M&M, Ford sell off crossholdings
Jim Donald brings new energy to Starbucks CEO post
nwsource.com - Mar 31, 2005
Chairman Howard Schultz hopes Donald’s "limitless energy" will take the company from 9,100 stores globally to 30,000. It will not have been the first time that the 51-year-old executive has stepped out of his role (and sacrificed sleep) to get some hang time with his employees. In a more than 30-year career in the supermarket business, Donald rose through the ranks in part by being accessible to people who run the gamut of the corporate ladder, from Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, who personally hired Donald to work for him, to clerks at the 130 Safeway stores that Donald managed. As chief executive of Starbucks, which has about 100,000 employees, Donald has too many hands to shake, but he makes it a habit to call about a dozen stores every day to “check in…
– a small number compared with the vast network of Starbucks stores, and their 33 million customers a week, that could be reached. Donald and Schultz said that Starbucks will continue to expand and update its forays into music, which currently include the successful co-sponsorship of albums, such as the multiplatinum “Genius Loves Company” by Ray Charles, and the 45 Hear Music bars, currently in Seattle and Austin, Texas. The CD-burning Hear Music bars debuted in October, at the start of a holiday season in which digital music technology, in the form of iPods, gained enormous market share. As Starbucks installs Hear Music bars in more markets, it will have to meet the expectations of its consumers and their rapidly evolving technological savvy. Failure to make Starbucks’ brand extend successfully into food and music could be costly, but to Donald, it’s a necessary risk that’s worth it for the company. “We’ll always be attempting to do things that are new,” he said. “And if we stop doing that, then the whole entrepreneurial culture and spirit fails.
Prospects Good for Another Farmers Market in Frederick Co.
WTOP - Mar 31, 2005
“This will be more of a special events farmers market held three times a year,” July 8, Aug. 9, complete with music and food, Galbraith said. “It will be more of a family event. Two sites along Carroll Creek are being considered, Galbraith said: one on South Carroll Street between All Saints and East Patrick streets, the other along Carroll Creek between East and Wisner streets. The site is not finalized “by any means…
“If they aren’t happy and don’t feel that this market is worth their time, it will not be successful,” Galbraith said. “The task force believes that the addition of other elements should never lend to a feel of a flea market or craft show. The project will focus on home-grown products, according to the proposal. One option is to charge higher stall fees for out-of-county vendors. This new approach to the farmers market was recommended to the city by the Maryland Department of Agriculture. If the Carroll Street site is selected, the task force will request street closings between All Saints and Patrick streets from 4 p.
World Bank board approves Wolfowitz
USA Today - Mar 31, 2005
James Wolfensohn, the current president, will step down at the end of May, when his second, five-year term concludes. Wolfensohn helped engineer a number of changes in the bank’s philosophy and the way it operates. He pushed to put greater emphasis on “home grown” development planning, trying to connect the bank closer to the countries it seeks to help. He pushed for debt relief for the world’s poorest countries. His 1996 “cancer of corruption” speech focused a new light on corruption as an impediment to development that must be addressed. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Parting ways: M&M, Ford sell off crossholdings
Times of India - Mar 31, 2005
“The (Mahindra-Ford)relationship has served an important purpose for nearly a decade,” M&M saidin a statement. “Both the companies today operate in a much different businessenvironment and the time has arrived for both the companies to manage theirgoals independently. ” M&M said that since it embarked on concentrating itsresources on development and production of the home-grown SUV Scorpio, it viewedits stake in Ford as a portfolio investment. “This association did not have anyoperational or competitive restrictions on either company. Thus, this divestmentis a simple change in portfolios,” itsaid. M&M had inked the newJV to set up a Euro 125 million car making venture. M&M will hold themajority 51% stake in the JV.