Organizational Culture Of Starbucks

Since Starbucks entered the coffee retail business, the company has made many trade-off business decisions. The first major trade-off was made when Howard Schultz wanted to acquire present day Starbucks from three entrepreneurs Baldwin, Siegel and Bowker. Therefore, Schultz prior to the acquisition made the trade-off to open his own coffee bar in 1986 instead of staying at Starbucks as the manager of retail sales and marketing. A bold feat, Schultz was able to replicate success and was offered to buy Starbucks for $4 million. At the time of the acquisition, many investors, including the former Starbucks owners, would not expect that the American consumer would pay a premium for coffee products. Schultz, after calculating the opportunity cost, was convinced that Starbucks would become a large coffee chain not only in the United States but internationally too. Reflecting this approach, Schultz’s trade-off worked. Starbucks, according to our book has revenue exceeding $13 billion and nearly 200,000 employees. The company has also expanded to 40 countries with 17,000 stores (Hill et al., 2015).

Starbucks was bought out by current CEO Howard Schultz in 1987. Since then, Andrew Harrer (2012) reports the company has grown to operate over “17,244 stores worldwide” (para. 1). Fortune (n.d.) reports in its yearly 100 Best Companies to Work for that Starbucks employs “some 95,000 employees”. From only a handful of stores in 1987 to a billion dollar franchise today, the success of Starbucks is due in great deal to their corporate culture, specifically how employees, or as Starbucks calls them, partners are treated. Joseph Michelli (2007) echoes this sentiment, “A great cup of coffee is only part of the Starbucks success equation” (p. 767).

Dear Diary, this is Howard Schultz writing to you today. I am sitting here reminiscing about my early years at Starbucks. I remember working at Hammarplast, when my curiosity got the better of me, and I wondered why this small coffee shop was ordering so many plastic cone filters. It is worth noting, that I had no ulterior motives when visiting Starbucks in 1981. Subsequently, I was impressed with their operation, and expressed my desire to work with the company. Consequently, it took me over a year to convince them, but eventually, I was awarded the marketing director position. Then, shortly after, during a trip to Milan I discovered the romance of coffee. Interestingly, I knew that there was a way to incorporate what I learned in Milan into the Starbucks brand, I just had to convince the owners. I remember the guys rejecting some of my ideas, thinking that my style was unsuited for the laid back atmosphere. Unfortunately, I was unable to convey my vision effectively, it was never the right time or the right path for those guys. Shortly afterwards, I left to pursue my dreams, of an espresso empire. Surprisingly, a few years later, I found out Starbucks was available to purchase. Somehow, I was able to raise the capital needed to purchase Starbucks, and this is when my dream began to blossom. Thus, I always felt that, I was the only one that was able to envision what the company could be. First, I started with the employees. Moreover, I wanted the employees to feel as if

The extraordinary success Starbucks experienced during the early 1990s resulted from Howard Schultz’s passion and vision to create a coffee culture in the United States similar to the coffee culture he experienced while traveling to Italy. Schultz’s vision of the Starbucks brand evolved around providing a quality product while delivering exceptional customer service in an inviting atmosphere. Starbucks’ success can be attributable to the following factors:

First of all, Howard Schultz had a clear vision about his company. It is important for a great leader to have a clear vision about what to achieve. The emphasis on importance of employees is the outstanding point in his vision. This is why Starbucks has been investing in their

Most know Starbucks, the ubiquitous retail chain that, in the 1990’s, turned coffee drinking into a national pastime. However few know Howard Schultz, the humble chairman, CEO and mastermind behind Starbucks’. Schultz is credited with bringing Italy’s “coffeehouse culture” to the United States and packaging it for mass consumption. This maverick marketer transformed a little-known four-chain store in the leading retailer of specialty coffee in North America.

Once he graduated from Northern Michigan University, Howard’s inconceivable career began as he became the sales manager for the technology famous company “Xerox Incorporation.” After several years of gaining experiences in sales, he moved on to the Swedish company “Hammarplast” where he sold household products, and most importantly coffee makers. The reason Hammarplast is so important to Howard 's career is because the Swedish company led to his success and involvement with “Starbucks.” As Howard was working at Hammarplast he had one unusual buyer who would purchase a huge amount of coffee makers, and this company was known as “Starbucks” which is one of the most successful companies today. Howard wanted to understand why Starbucks was buying so much of his products, which then led to Howard personally attending the Starbucks in Seattle, in which he admired the company for its innovation and creativity and suddenly wanted to become a part of it. The Howard Schultz era of Starbucks began, as he constantly begged the owner Jerry Baldwin for a job with the company, and after several disturbances, Howard became the marketing director of Starbucks. Howard felt that he could substantially use his creativity and ideas to enhance the growth of Starbucks, and that’s exactly what he did, as he brought in new recipes, new traditional values, and new energy to Starbucks, where he led the modern day prosperity of Starbucks and

Starbucks is a multinational firm that mainly sells roasted specialty coffee in its established retail stores. With headquarters in United States, Starbucks also operates in more than 50 countries across the world. The company was established in 1971 and has expanded its operations within the US borders consistently since then (Seaford & Brooks, 2012). One of the most significant drivers for the good performance of the entity prior to 21st century was good reputation as an organization that was socially responsible and willingness to cater for the interest of its stakeholders. Remarkably, the current status of Starbucks has been attained mainly through the support of its hardworking and committed employees. For the first three decades,

The company’s founder and CEO, Howard Schultz, has been successful in creating Starbucks into something that we didn’t really know we needed until we had it. He has meticulously crafted a brand for the company that adds a psychological value to its offerings. Thereby, when you buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you buy an experience. The somewhat quiet, not-so-rushed atmosphere along with dimmed ambience and friendly

For a short period, Howard left Starbucks to start up his own II Giornale coffeehouse. In 1987, he eventually returned to Starbucks with help from local investors to purchase Starbucks, he then became chief executive officer. Howard’s leadership skills led Starbucks to be the finest coffee in the world, providing coffee to consumers in 23,000 stores and 68 countries. Part of what makes Howard a good leader is that from the beginning; he set out to build a different kind of company, one that demonstrated respect and dignity. Through Starbucks, Howard created two programs that embraced the culture that he always wanted. The first program offers health coverage for eligible part-time and full-time employees, which is not something many retailers do. The second program known as the Bean Stock empowers partners (employees) to know that they can invest in a profitable business as well as share its success. These two programs are incentives for motivation as well as benefits for employees.

To realize this ideal, Schultz needed to attract the right employees and engage his staff to behave so that “customers (had) a very positive experience in its stores.” (Thompson & Shah, 2010) He did this by a variety of methods, sourced from the six guiding principles the employee team came up with. He was able to achieve the 4th principle –“develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time” – by having happy employees (1st principle), commitment to sourcing the best beans and standards to make the ‘perfect cup’ (3rd principle), and creating an emotional connection to his customers. “Schultz firmly believed that Starbucks had to be a great place to work in order to provide the atmosphere and service that he envisioned.” (Brown, 2011) He realized that in order for his employees to be happy, he needed them to trust and feel they could communicate without retribution, and to feel valued. One of the ways he demonstrated their value to the company was to provide health care to even his part time baristas. Employees, now called ‘partners,’ were supported by extensive training in coffee knowledge, brewing, and how to “go out of their way … to make sure customers were fully satisfied.” (Thompson & Shah, 2010) Furthermore, they were rewarded by a recognition program which acknowledged excellence in brewing, customer service, leadership,

Howard Schultz stated that he always wanted to do something to make a difference for the society therefore he started to do that. The values that I admire from Schultz was his belief in employee satisfaction driving them to create customer’s satisfied and pleasant about their coffee, having his employees satisfied by having communication and training in the workplace, making high quality beverages quickly and make it how the customer would like it to be e.g. with one sugar, skim milk or caramel sauce

This paper looks at Starbucks history and evaluates its current financial situation. Their sense of community, responsibility and social awareness has made Starbucks the company that it is today. Starbucks has adopted a unique culture that is hard to duplicate by other organizations. As stated on their website, the company’s vision is to establish Starbucks as the most recognized and respected brand in the world. The ideals, along with the leadership of Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, has helped position the company where it is today, which in turn has positively affected the financials of the organization. This paper examines the financials and makes recommendations for new

When people think of the most popular coffee house in the country and world, they immediately think of Starbucks. That's because it's true, but what most people don't know is that Starbucks is also ranked #1 on the Most Admired Food Services Companies to work for (America's most admired companies 2007, 2007), and # 16 Best Companies to work for (Best companies to work for 2007, 2007). It also ranked # 2 Most Admired Companies to work for over all, # 6 for Best People management, # 7 for Best Social responsibility, and # 10 for Best Innovation (America's most admired companies 2007, 2007). These are incredible numbers, which is why I choose Starbuck's as the most culturally appealing company that I would

The CEO (Chief Executive Officer), Howard Schultz pointed that the main reason from the decline of “Starbucks Experience” was that the number of Starbucks shops increased sharply from only 1,000 to 13,000 within ten years. Other people considered their brand has been commercialized, and the customers hadn’t had enough enthusiasms to appreciate every moment of their coffee any longer. He suggested that Starbucks should re-find its origin. Nevertheless, his advice apparently was opposite to the