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Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates is riding off into the sunset today, at least he sort of is. The man who made nerds and geeks "cool" is shifting his focus away from the world's largest software company to his philanthropic work.

Gates contributions to modern society cannot be understated. When he gets older, my 20-month-old son will no doubt be surprised to learn that there was a time when computers were expensive, impersonal devices the size of several refrigerators. Gates helped make the computer personal. Of that there is no doubt. How he did it remains open to debate. The elite geeks despise Microsoft for developing expensive, inferior operating systems that are prone to crashes and computer viruses.

The shift by Gates, which has been expected for some time, comes as the Redmond, Washington-based company is at a crossroads. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Microsoft was the underdog that upended the tech establishment lead by International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM).

MSNBC reports on an earth-shattering scandal sure to make heads roll at Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX). Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have been ordering Grande nonfat lattes from their favorite New York City West Village Starbucks. However, a barista there has reportedly been serving the lattes with whole milk.

According to a source quoted by MSNBC, "the barista thought the Olsens were too thin, so whenever they ordered their usual drink, he would replace the skim milk with full-fat." The Olsen's representative commented: "This is ridiculous." But a so-called close friend blamed the Olsens for for their ignorance, noting: "It's also my worst nightmare -- that and getting a huge diet fountain soda that is mistakenly regular Coke -- but I can def(initely) taste the difference, so it's their own fault if they fell victim."

Did Howard Schultz, recently re-appointed Starbucks CEO make this latte swap? The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] reported that Schultz has been aggressively micro-managing Starbucks since he took over. The Journal notes that before Starbucks launched its new Pike Place Roast in April, Schultz selected which redesigned version of the old logo to use. As the promotional campaign neared completion, he decided it needed more warmth and called for revisions. He rewrote the press-release headline.

Neither MSNBC nor The Journal fingered Schultz as the barista who put the whole milk in the Olsen's lattes. So we await the nameless barista's fate.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in Starbucks securities.

The idea of serving customer needs and desires is rooted in the age-old notion of listening to the customer. One company taking consumer input to a whole new level is our favorite specialty coffee vendor, Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX).

How about ice cubes made from Starbucks' own coffee, so you can cool that java without diluting the savory stuff? That's what one customer suggested. What do you think? Another thoughtful consumer thinks that Starbucks customers might like shelves in the restrooms to rest their coffee on while "taking care of business." A nice idea perhaps, but I believe that the practice of taking consumables into restrooms is discouraged in most instances.

At least one Starbucks customer request has already had a major effect. Reusable "splash sticks" have been introduced by the company to reduce coffee splash through the sipping lid of its sturdy cups.

The entire focus of this new Starbucks business model is summed up by CEO Howard Schultz, who was quoted in BusinessWeek as saying that he wanted "to open up a dialogue with customers and build up this muscle inside our company." Mr. Schultz would like to make response to the consumer a cornerstone of company tradition.

So, what do you think? Should Starbucks initiate valet parking? Should it have barristas on roller skates cruising its parking lots? Maybe it should offer complimentary mocha caramel biscuits for the dogs that accompany its customers? What about individual caffeine packets so coffee addicts could personally customize their morning buzz?

One thing's for sure, Starbucks' says it's listening. Now is your chance to prove that you're a marketing genius. Howard Schultz wants to return the company to its former glory. Give him a piece of your mind, would ya?

Gary Sattler is a freelance blogger. He does not knowingly hold interest in the companies mentioned in this blog post.

When your business is struggling with the competition and your stock price down, it's time to focus on the fundamentals that got you the leg up when you first started. At least that's what Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) seems to be thinking these days. Click below for video.

Interested in maybe hearing your voice on the BloggingStockCast? Leave a comment for the show by calling 567-226-4583 and leaving a message!

(I apologize for the temporarily wrong number on the video, the phone number handling the video there died! I'll get it right with tomorrow's BloggingStockCast -Tobias)

When Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) brought back founder Howard Schultz to revitalize the company's image, product line and customer experience, the coffee chain's edge had disappeared. It had lost customers, revenue, the niche and most important -- the overall experience -- to newer competitors. That was not to say Starbucks still was not king, but it become diluted in the race for newer growth.

Well, to heck with that. Schultz slowed down growth after re-emerging as the company's CEO early this year, deleted breakfast sandwiches from the menu, retrained the company's baristas and ensured that fresh-ground coffee smells were the number one priority for every customer coming in the door to experience. But Schultz isn't stopping there. He also wants customers to push back to the company using MyStarbucksIdea.com. In other words, the coffeehouse's own social networking site. Schultz wants to empower his customers to help shape the future direction of the coffeehouse he founded.

This is more than a blog or a forum -- customers can discuss ideas, argue about them, post new ideas, vote on ideas and form more opinions on improving the Starbucks experience. Well, I though this was exactly what Schultz was busy doing these days? Is he really interested in what every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks?

Will customers really give him all this feedback? I'm skeptical. I agree that balancing the customer's needs and the business's needs is critical -- one can't overpower the other. Still, will this even have an effect on Starbucks at all? If it really is this interested, it needs to market the MyStarbucksIdea website just as much as its mocha lattes. Give every customer notice that they can have a voice in this.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), the epitome of high-priced coffee and latte beverages, saw a drop-off in customer traffic in 2007. Founder Howard Schultz even returned to the CEO helm to try and figure out why customers stopped coming in its stores. He even announced some store closures and the banishing of breakfast sandwiches that were competing with its trademark coffee smell.

This year may see much of the same customer traffic patterns though it may be due to different reasons. With many people predicting gas prices of $3.75 to $4.00 per gallon by this summer, will customers simply stop buying $4 cups of macchiato? They already are in droves. Add that to the rising cost of coffee, and Starbucks may be in for a world of hurt in 2008.

In the meantime, Schultz is making changes at the top of the ranks, starting with the "retirement" of Launi Skinner as head of U.S. operations. Skinner's performance could be seen as semi-disastrous, so she'll be "spending more time with her family" while Cliff Burrows steps in to take over. Burrows formerly was president of Starbucks Europe, Middle East and Africa stores, but he'll have a much larger challenge in the U.S.

After Starbucks saw a share price decline of 43% last year in addition to a 13% drop this year, Shultz has to do something to stem the bleeding. Shoring up that trademark smell inside stores, limiting growth and decreasing store/brand dilution and stuffing in some new blood may do the trick, but 2008 won't be easy for the coffee retailer in way, shape or form.

Howard Schultz's effort to shake up ailing Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) took an unpleasant turn today, at least if you're an employee at the company's headquarters. The coffee giant announced that it will cut 600 jobs at its headquarters in Seattle as part of Schultz's "transformation agenda." About 220 of the job cuts will involve layoffs, while the remaining positions will simply go unfilled.

If you're an investor, this may be a bit of good news. Investors typically love layoffs, since they reduce costs and, perhaps more importantly, send a signal that management is serious and in control. However, investor reaction has been muted so far, with the stock trading flat at $17.84 on Friday morning. It may be that 600 jobs is not a significant number given the company's total of over 170,000 workers.

Apparently the news of the layoffs arrived via email. Schulz has been sending a series of messages titled "Howard Schultz Transformation Agenda Communication," and the job cuts were announced in part seven in the series. Previous installments included plans to eliminate breakfast sandwiches, close some stores, and hold a company-wide training session for all baristas.

Somehow, I doubt that Starbucks employees are looking forward to the next email.

Howard Schultz is back in charge of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), and as expected lowered expectations for the current fiscal year. He took the opportunity with the mediocre December quarterly results to tamp down expectations and won't even issue guidance. A very smart and predictable move by the founder and visionary of Starbucks. This is a tough environment for Starbucks as well as many other retail concepts. Let's face it, theme concepts are competing for the consumers' shrinking wallet and need to stick to their core values and competitive advantages. Well, Howard, please read this and I think it may help your efforts.

Dear Howard,

I personally love Starbucks as a consumer of fine coffee and have bought its products from probably 250 different Starbucks stores around the world. To this day Howard, your Minnetonka, Minnesota, store should serve as your model for the other 11,000+ store. The manager of the Minnetonka store is Mario Macaruso and if enthusiasm and commitment could be bottled--Mario's is worth a billion.. His partners at the store are fabulous. Andrea Breen, a single mother of 3 growing and time-consuming kids, has an attitude that makes every customer feel special. Patty McGarrigle superbly handles every complicated drink order like a pro and always with a smile. When they are not busy with customers, they are looking for ways to make the store cleaner or more organized. They represent the type of partners every Starbucks store should strive for.

One of the key features of any Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) location is the pungent aroma that emanates from its stores. That smell, the trademark scent of coffee beans being roasted, is a main reason customers flock to Starbucks locations instead of the competition. Okay, make that the only reason; well, in my opinion.

In the last year, Starbucks began serving breakfast sandwiches and other non-coffee fare in its U.S. stores under former (and short-lived) CEO Jim Donald. Founder Howard Schultz has made it a point that opening a plethora of new stores and offering a bunch of new items was a reason for falling sales and disappointing performance for the company last year.

As such, Donald was pushed out and Schultz returned to the CEO spot just recently. His main reason: Starbucks was not the company he founded. The "experience" had been lost and the coffee retailer was in contention to become yet another ordinary coffee shop. Donald was following short-term Wall Street greed; Schultz could care less about that and said he will return focus to the consumer experience (which will bring its own returns).

Schultz, over and over, makes the point that Starbucks needs ambiance, including that trademark roasting smell, if it is to become successful again. He's right -- the smell and the quiet, homely atmosphere are its largest marketing pitches, more than store openings and new product offerings. Schultz plainly said it, "In short, the scent of the warm sandwiches interferes with the coffee aroma in our stores." He then then announced that breakfast sandwiches are going away permanently and that the chain will also close 100 under-performing U.S. locations in order to slow down what he calls the "dilution" of the Starbuck's brand. Again, he is correct. The chain should be exclusive to each area it serves, not plowing down the landscape with so many locations that the brand itself loses its luster.

I believe it was 1993, probably right after the Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) IPO. At the time, I worked in downtown Vancouver B.C. and one day a tourist from Toronto asked me to take a picture of her in front of a Starbucks. This picture, she said after thanking me, will make all her friends back east really jealous. I thought she was nuts.

Vancouver had Starbucks stores as early as 1987, but the hype really started in the early 90s. Personally, I never liked Starbucks coffee. The strong roasted flavor wasn't to my taste, not to mention I felt Starbucks promoted a stuck-up atmosphere to allow it to charge outrageous prices for a cup of coffee I didn't even want. Seems I was in the minority, and Starbucks went on to become a true success story. People liked the coffee and the upscale atmosphere.

Starbucks grew fast, opening more and more locations, until the growth affected the business. From an upscale atmosphere where baristas prepared espressos and other specialty coffees, machines were brought in and no doubt the coffee lost some of its taste, not to mention value in the eye of the consumer. A corporate atmosphere replaced the intimate coffee-shop one, especially with the introduction of sandwiches and breakfast. Locations were cannibalizing each others' profits, and lately, to pour salt on the loyal customers wounds who stuck with the company and paid $3+ for coffee, it started experimenting with $1 coffees -- Star ... buck?

With the announcement that Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) chairman and founder Howard Schultz is re-assuming the role of chief executive officer, it gets real interesting. Why?

Founders know the vision and the dream better than anyone; after all, it was their idea. The landscape is littered with founders returning to the CEO role. Larry Ellison has done so with Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), Michael Dell has come back to Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), and perhaps the most successful, Steve Jobs of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). The founder of an enterprise typically has the passion and the vision to where the enterprise should be. The problem with founders is that they normally are not great managers.

Steve Jobs of Apple had to actually get fired from Apple, found Pixar, develop it and eventually sell it to Disney (NYSE: DIS) before he learned the necessary lessons to bring Apple back. His record of accomplishment will be the subject of MBA course studies, and maybe even psychology books!

With Dell, the jury is out, both on him and the company. I don't like Dell, the company, and could not understand Wall Street's enthusiasm in 2007. Dell's business is characterized by depressing margins -- never a good sign -- and Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ) controlling both margins and the market share. Dell may never come back, at least not the way it is structured now.

Ellison at Oracle has acquired growth through depressed, but smart acquisitions, to build the applications business around its core database business.

And Howard Schultz at Starbucks?

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is recently up $1.72 to $20.10 in pre-open trading.

Howard Schultz, current chairman and formerly CEO of SBUX from 1987 to 2000, has returned as CEO. SBUX is expected to report EPS on January 30.

Goldman Sachs says: "We expect shares to react favorably but recognize enthusiasm could be tempered by a lack of tangible details and a vague timeline for change."

SBUX over all option implied volatility of 48 is above its 26-week average of 34 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.

Options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) shares have left a taste in the mouth of shareholders almost as bitter as some of its brews as investors fretted about looming competition with McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD) for the caffeinated consumer. Finally, the coffee chain, whose shares have plunged 48% over the past year, has woken up and smelled the over-priced Java.

The Seattle-based company ousted Chief Executive Jim Donald and replaced him with Chairman Howard Schultz, really the company's heart and soul.

In a letter released by the company, Schultz uses business school buzzwords such as "customer-facing" "customer-focused" and my favorite "re-igniting our emotional attachment with our customers" to discuss the mess in which Starbucks has found itself.

I first heard the news that Starbucks legend Howard Schultz would once again become CEO of the company via Twitter, and the tidings are accompanied by a generous measure of skepticism: Rick Turoczy asks, "I wonder if this means I'll still get crap coffee 90% of the time?" Baristas and buzz-mongers on Starbucks Gossip seem giddy ("Uncle Howie to the rescue!!!"), although even in the land of the faithful there is some suspicion, calling the decision "smoke and mirrors" and calling exiting CEO Jim Donald a "scapegoat." I call it a classic move for a company whose stock is tumbling: bring back whatever charisma we can yank from the back of the closet.

As Chairman, Howard Schultz was certainly still involved with company and its strategy. But the stock had been plunging throughout 2007 -- and has only tumbled further in 2008 with a downgrade from Bear Stearns. As I wrote in that post, the company's coffee quality was a predictor of its stock price, tumbling from its peak under Schultz previous reign. At one point, the baristas were pulling shots in high-quality, old-fashioned manual machines that coffee connoisseurs agree make far-superior espresso to that made in the newer, idiot-proof automatic models. Drip coffee was routinely thrown away if it was burnt. Now? I have to sweeten my lattes to disguise the taste of inferiority.

Bringing back an old chief executive -- and making a scapegoat (whether expressly in the press release, or just between the lines as is the usual way) of the Jimmy-come-lately CEO -- is a well-worn trick for a once-popular company whose stock is spinning every downward. It only rarely works, and Schultz will have to do a lot more than close stores to bring me back. To get me? You'll have to not only liven up the management team, but also your core product. I want good coffee back.

Investors, other than me, seem as pleased as the baristas -- they have given the stock a nearly-9% boost from its close at $18.38, up $1.65 to $20.03 as of 8 p.m. EST.

Major news from struggling coffee seller Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) this afternoon: CEO Jim Donald is being replaced by Chairman and visionary Howard Schultz, who will lead a major restructuring of the company.

The company said it will close underperforming US stores and slow its pace of expansion. Shares of Starbucks are up more than 8% after-hours, as investors apparently believe the company's problems can be fixed by a strong and highly-respected leader. Donald's resignation and Schulz's decision to return signal that the company's management is aware of its problems and determined to right the ship.

In a PR announcing the shake-up, Schultz said that "I am enthusiastic about returning to the role of chief executive officer for the long term and excited to lead Starbucks and its dedicated partners (employees) to even greater heights of achievement on a global basis. We must address the challenges we face and we know what has to be done. Put simply, we are recommitting ourselves to what has made Starbucks and the Starbucks Experience so unique: ethically sourcing and roasting the highest quality coffee in the world; the relentless focus on the customer; the trust we have built with our people, and the entrepreneurial risk-taking, innovation and creativity that are the hallmarks of our success."

Whether these initiatives will be enough to combat the company's problems and a big push by McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) into Starbucks' territory remains to be seen. But for now, investors are lovin' it.