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What does almost every medium sized town to large city in the developed world have in common? well most will have a McDonald's, most will have a KFC and most will have a Burger King. All three of those companies could compete for the title of Americas leading symbol of multi-nationalism, American corporations of incomparable world influence, and all have amazing stories in their own right. But there is one multi-national with a story like no other, one completely unrivalled in its rate of prosperity and growth. Starbucks.

The first Starbucks opened as recently as 1971, in Seattle's heritage rich Pike Place Market. The name was derived from Herman Melville's legendary novel Moby Dick, a name that was considered appropriate for a store that imported coffees from all over the world for the people of Seattle. The story Moby Dick is of course about the 19th century whaling industry. Over ten years later, and Starbucks were still sitting happy in the same location and selling exactly the same coffees to exactly the same customers, when in 1982 a man named Howard Schultz joined the business. Whilst on a business trip in Italy, Schultz became enthralled in the cafe culture of Milan and was impressed by their famous Espresso bars. Within months the good people of Seattle were drinking Lattes and Mocha's like there was no tomorrow.

Despite the popularity of the new coffees in Seattle, it was another decade before Starbucks decided to expand beyond the city, fuelled by a growing demand worldwide for great tasting coffee. Throughput the nineties the company was setting up shop in every city in America, and by the end of the decade it had shops not only across America but also in a few other countries. Starbucks became a publicly traded company and made history by being one of only a few companies to ever offer stock options to its part-time employees. In under a decade Starbucks had grown from a small independent specialist coffee shop to an eternally growing monster, spilling franchise after franchise out of their over-sized coffee mugs and attracting investment from shareholders across the globe.

This growth has shown no sign of slowing, and the company now has over 6,000 locations in an astonishing 30 countries, a level of growth that can only ever be described as a 'phenomenon'. The business now acts as an inspiration to any small business owner and the important thing to be learnt is that by keeping your local customers rewarded for 20 years, you could be keeping a dream alive that will be a catalyst for the most amazing two decades of your life.

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