In the year 2000, Starbucks was at the height of success. Business was booming, profits were rising, and the company was opening seven new cafes a day. Yet eight years later -- as Howard Schultz was returning to his role as Starbucks CEO after stepping down in April 2000 -- the recession hit. For the first time in the company's history, sales were down and the stock price dropped. Starbucks was in trouble.
Schultz discussed this challenging time with Oprah on a recent episode of "Super Soul Sunday." At the root of the trouble, says Schultz, was that Starbucks had stepped away from its core values.
"Would you say that Starbucks was in a spiritual crisis?" Oprah asks.
"Yes, I would," Schultz answers matter-of-factly. "I would also say that most of the problems we had were self-induced mistakes."
Standing in front of his employees and partners back then, Schultz had apologized on behalf of the leadership. "We had let them and their families down, but we were going to return the company back to its glory days," he tells Oprah.
In the video above, Schultz also says that he had never planned to return to Starbucks as CEO after his departure in 2000 and reveals exactly why he had "no second thought whatsoever" about taking on the role once again.
"Super Soul Sunday" airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET on OWN.