说到咖啡,80%的人第一时间会想到一个品牌——没错,就是星巴克。一场席卷全球的金融危机之后,许多大公司纷纷倒闭,而星巴克不仅笑看了风云变幻,还能在逆境中获得利润增长,真是不枉称世界最大的咖啡连锁店。其中有何诀窍?在下面这篇对星巴克总裁霍华德先生的访谈节选中,你或许能找到答案。
发音：英美发音
语速：200词/分钟
使用方法：泛听+讨论
Host: Now the Chief Executive of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, is in the UK and he joins us now. Good morning.
Howard: Good morning. Great to be here!
Host: Well, it's an extraordinary performance to have tripled your profits over that period. How has that happened? 
Howard: Well, clearly we were facing the 1)cataclysmic financial crisis, like almost every other company over last 18 months. And during that time, as you mentioned, we did have a fair amount of cost 2)containment, but the big story is the customers have returned to the company both in the U.S. and here in the UK.
Host: So that during the crisis the business fell off 3)substantially and now you're rebuilding back to those previous levels.
Howard: Yeah, and headline for us is, especially in the UK, we've had ten 4)consecutive months of year-over-year increase in customer traffic, which really demonstrates the power of the brand and that the…the improvement in the 5)health of the UK consumer.
Host: You talk (talked) 6)euphemistically about cost containment, and it was your phrase, which in plain English is cutting jobs and closing stores.
Howard: Well, for the first time in our forty-year history we did have some 7)layoffs in our company in the U.S.. That's true.
Host: Yeah, and has that process stopped now that the profits …
Howard: Yes.
Host: …has (have) started to increase so substantially?
Howard: Not only has it stopped, but we're starting to open up stores again in the U.S. and abroad, and certainly here in the UK over the next 12 months, and began hiring again. So we're cautiously optimistic about the near- and long-term and think the worst is over.
Host: The insurance industry developed from coffee houses back in the 18th century. Coffee houses have played in history a very very strong social role in the development of lots of different things and so far brands like yours and Costa Coffee and Café Nero and the like have created I suppose a remarkable revolution in that you've got us to pay extraordinary amounts of money …
Howard:(Laughing)
Host: …for what is just a hot drink. Has it done anything else apart from that?
Howard: Well, I think it's more than a hot drink, but nevertheless I'd say that I think what we've created, not unlike in years past with the English Pub, [sic] kind of a third place between home and work and this deep sense of community. So, in addition to the great coffee that Starbucks sells, we are creating an environment for people to socialize and, since coffee's such a romantic 8)beverage, it brings people together.
Host: You went to work for it, but you actually were fundamental in changing what it did, because prior to you, it basic…it didn't sell cups of coffee, it just sold coffee beans: coffee was something you bought and made at home. I mean it's not …
Howard: Correct.
Host: …exaggerating to say you revolutionized that.
Howard: Well, I took my first trip to Italy in '83 and saw the Italian coffee bar and that was the 9)catalyst, the 10)genesis for me thinking that there was an opportunity to transform the business. And we introduced café latté to America in 1985 and kinda 11)the rest is history.
Host: Right. And that was the first time that that sort of coffee was…was drunk in the States; it was started…
Howard: Correct.
Host: … by Starbucks
Howard: Correct.
Host: Tell how you got the name Starbucks, 'cause I hear lots of different stories. One is that it was named after Captain Ahab's first 12)mate in the novel 13)Moby Dick, but I've also seen on the internet that, 14)bizarrely, it's named after a mining camp called Starbo …
主持人:星巴克的总裁霍华德·舒尔茨正在英国,现在我们就和他一起聊聊。早上好!
霍华德:早上好。很高兴能来这儿。
主持人:在那(金融危机)期间能增加三倍的利润,是很厉害的表现,你是怎样做到的呢?
霍华德:显然,过去的18个月,我们跟其他所有公司一样,面对着震荡全球的金融危机。而正如你刚才提到的,在那期间我们的确采取了不少成本控制措施,但更重要的是现在顾客纷纷回流我们公司,在美国如是,在英国这里也一样。
主持人:也就是说,在金融危机期间,生意锐减,而现在你们正逐步重拾往昔利润规模。
霍华德:是的,值得我们关注的是,尤其是在英国,我们的顾客量连续十个月呈同比增长态势,这的确显现了我们品牌的力量,也表明了我们在英国市场的客户关系得到改善。
主持人:你用到了“成本控制”这样委婉的字眼,那是你们的措辞,说白一点,其实就是削减职位和关掉一些分店吧?
霍华德:嗯,这是我们在美国40年的营业史上,首次有裁员的情况,是实情。
主持人:那现在裁员行动有停下来了吗,既然利润都已经……
霍华德:停了。
主持人:……都开始大幅提升了?
霍华德:不仅停止裁员,而且我们还打算未来的一年里重新在美国及海外开新的分店,当然也包括英国这里,还会开始重新招聘员工。所以说,我们对目前及长远的发展是谨慎乐观的,最坏的时期应该已经过去了。
主持人:保险业是从18世纪那一家家咖啡馆里一路发展而来的。在历史上,咖啡馆在很多不同事物的发展中充当着不容小觑的社会角色。到现在看来,像你们的品牌,还有“Costa咖啡”、“Nero咖啡”,诸如此类的咖啡店制造了一场非凡的革命,表现在你们让人付上高昂的价钱……
霍华德:(笑)
主持人:……买的无非就是杯热饮而已。除此之外还有别的吗?
霍华德:我觉得不只是一杯热饮这么简单。怎么说也好,我觉得我们创造的,跟英国的小酒馆不无相似,是介于家和工作场所之间的驿站,给人深厚的社群生活感受。所以,星巴克除了给顾客提供味道一流的咖啡,我们还给人们创造了一个社交的环境,要知道,咖啡是种浪漫的饮品,能拉近人与人的距离。
主持人:你进入星巴克工作后,实际上彻底地改变了其原来的业务领域,因为在你之前,这公司基本上……不是卖一杯杯的咖啡饮品,而只是卖咖啡豆的。那个年代,说到喝咖啡,大家都是买咖啡豆回家自己磨来喝。我的意思是……
霍华德:没错。
主持人:……可以毫不夸张地说,你引领了喝咖啡的一场潮流变革。
霍华德:我1983年第一次去意大利,看到了那里的咖啡吧。这成了催化剂,让我根生了这是个变换的好商机的念头。然后,我们在1985年把拿铁咖啡引入美国,之后的种种不用多说大家也知道了。
主持人:是的。在美国,那是大家第一次喝上那种咖啡……
霍华德:对。
主持人:是由星巴克始创的。
霍华德:对。
主持人:讲讲你是怎样想到把品牌命名为“星巴克”的,因为我听过很多不同版本的说法。一种认为是小说《白鲸记》里船长亚哈的那位大副的名字,但我也在网上看过另一个传言,挺怪异的,说是用一个叫“Starbo”的矿场命的名……