Case Study: Starbucks’ Structure Essay

To continue off of the centralizing of decision making, the company should also consider a more mechanistic organizational structure. This is a setup that is used effectively by companies such as McDonald’s as the company has a process in place to generate just the right amount of burger patties, fries and soda syrup for each branch to run smoothly. With Starbucks implementing a structure such as this, it would allow for each manager to have a centralized oint of contact for all goods. This, in turn, will lessen the burden for each branch to find their own product vendor. It will

starbucks Corp., an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington, has expanded rapidly since its opening in 1971. These outrageous success was due to its well-developed strategy vision which lay out the company's strategic course in developing and strengthening its business. Starbucks is a global corporation that sells authentic coffee in 30 countries, reporting revenues of nearly $5.1 billion in 2006. The main goal of Starbucks is to embrace diversity by applying the highest standards of excellence. Starbucks strives to perfect the relationship with the working class by making the service as fast as possible because they believe that every customer has their own personal rate. One

Starbucks has always had a strong history of demonstrating some of the strongest instinct of organizational design; that's no surprise as much of the success of the company has been built on this practice. However, Starbucks needs to continue to adapt with the changing times and environment and can do this more readily by applying the four lessons that Nadler and Tushman specify in regards to organization design. As Nadler and Tushman point out, "The environment drives the strategic architecture of the enterprise, either through

I can see an up in the personal experience for customers. Social connection is key to staff interaction with customers as these services to products and merchandise just adds to the Starbucks experience. Now changing things in the structure of selling coffee is what Starbucks does best. The easy going stages of the processes are streamlined. Culturally they are very good at fitting in to provide employees with training that allows not only greater knowledge, but a chance to be a part of not just a company, but a family of teams that work very close together. The only thought that if I could influence the change would be that some of the locations selected are very hard to get access to, and cause traffic issues. Over-all Starbucks has a strong leadership team and is very focused on keeping the flow of coffee going for years to come.

1. In the beginning, how was Starbucks different from other coffee options for coffee drinkers in the United States? What activities and assets did Starbucks leverage to differentiate itself from competitors?

Coffee has played a major role in the lives of many people around the world. “Yet, poetic as its taste may be, coffee’s history is rife with controversy and politics…[becoming a] creator of revolutionary sedition in Arab countries and in Europe” (Pendergrast xvi). After reading Uncommon Grounds, it is apparent that the history of coffee is intertwined with the aspects of the globalization process, the role of Multi-National Corporations, and global economic issues.

The original idea for the Starbucks format came from the 1980´s when the company´s director if marketing, Howard Schultz, came back from a trip to Italy enchanted with the Italian coffeehouse experience, the idea was to sell the company´s own premium roasted coffee and freshly brewed espresso-style coffee beverages, along with a variety of pastries, coffee accessories, teas, and other products in a tastefully designed coffeehouse setting. The focus was to sell a “third place experience”.

This is why, Starbucks places a great deal of effort into seeking the thoughts and opinions of its employees, and they value what the Baristas have to say, because they are the ones in direct contact with the company's customers. By regarding employees as communicators of its brand, Starbucks is manifestly taking a different path toward brand management than those normally followed by other marketers. Employees at Starbucks share a common goals and have common belief in the product they sell.

As seen in the figure, functional structure comprising top level management is embedded in levels 1-3. The geographical divisions are embedded in level 4. Product divisions are embedded in levels 5-7 and the frontline teams, the teams at level 8.

They generally chose exceedingly obvious areas and opened stores as groups. As interest developed, these store bunches made them ready to deal with the expanded movement and to keep their focused position. In the same way, they took think about the administrations gave in the stores. Howard Schultz expected to open the sentiment and secret of coffee in coffee bars, and he knew how vital the part of baristas in attaining

Starbucks structuring uses functional, geographical, process departmentalisations. Functional departmentalization achieves grouping jobs by functions preformed. Starbucks has senior vice presidents of coffee, social responsibilities, finance ect. Functional structure develops a lean corporate structure because they bring efficiency through similar specialties, common skill, knowledge, and coordination. Geographical departmentalization is grouping jobs based on territory and geography. Starbucks uses a geographical departmentalization through the president of Starbucks Coffee US and the president of Starbucks Coffee International and district mangers effectively and efficiently handle specific regions (typically 8-10 stores). District managers offer a bridge to the zone offices helping better service the needs of individual geographic markets. Starbucks uses process departmentalization distribution team controls the inventory and distributions of roasting plant, so the plant can focus on quality assurance. Process departmentalization is grouping jobs based on process and customer flow, in turn increasing efficiency. This helped Starbucks have more efficiency by having roasting plants specialization on quality.

The corporate level strategy is roughly the same as the business level strategy since Starbucks only has one primary business. I believe that fact that Starbucks only focuses on one primary business makes the organization stronger. For example, there is no chance for conflict between the business level strategy and the corporate level strategy and the entire organization can focus on a single mission. Furthermore, this strategy has allowed them to reproduce their model all over the globe. As is the case with the Japanese, Chinese

The context change in form that Starbucks found itself competing with smaller chains that resembled its former pre-expansion model with competitors focusing in creating symbolic-expressive value and fast food restaurants that had started to offer specialty coffee with more aggressive advertisement at a lower cost. The competitive context changed for Starbucks because it’s focus in mass distribution channels and its retail footprint strategy stated its product within a standard performance product value; this affected the value perception of the product.

Starbuck’s strategy focused on three components; high-quality coffee, intimate service, and ambient atmosphere. Starbucks worked closely with growers in Africa, South and Central America, and Asia-Pacific regions to insure the quality of its product. Starbucks called all employees' "partners" and worked hard to train them with the skills necessary to best serve the customer. The atmosphere at Starbucks was crafted after the European-style espresso bar. The company goal was to create ambience through the Starbucks "experience" and by making the area comfortable, yet upscale.

In 1981, Howard Schultz, the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, walked into a Starbucks store for the first time. Highly impressed of the great coffee and the company’s concept, he joined Starbucks a year later. In 1983 he traveled to Italy, where he became fascinated with the coffee culture in