Starbucks : A Large Transnational Corporation

As a worldwide leader in coffee and coffeehouse chains, Starbucks has been faced with both scrutiny and praise for their practices in regards to community engagement and corporate social responsibility. With locations across the globe from the United States to Saudi Arabia to Guatemala, Starbucks has seventy-two locations spread across 26 countries. With such a large footprint, this paper will be address employees and local communities within the United States operations and the suppliers in the Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E) Practices program. Starbucks has broadcasted and built a platform upon their ethical sourcing, employee relations, and community engagement with an impressive transparency not often seen by global corporations today.

Starbucks Corporation which is known worldwide for their coffee company from Seattle Washington. It is the largest coffee company in the world, with Costa Coffee as their highest competition. Everyone knows what Starbucks is and the quality of their product. (Loxel 2015) When you walk into Starbucks you expect nothing but a good cup of coffee or whatever else your getting

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                Starbucks is a major American company that was founded in 1971 by three college friends in Seattle, Washington.  Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker at one time were all of different paths until they learned coffee roasting techniques from coffee entrepreneur, Alfred Peet (Starbucks Timeline, 2016).  Alfred taught the three friends his particular style of roasting which ignited a spark in the trio and they were inspired to sell high quality coffee beans and roasting equipment. They soon started brainstorming names, and finally settled on Starbucks

Starbucks is a major American company that was founded in 1971 by three college friends in Seattle, Washington. Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker at one time were all of different paths until they learned coffee roasting techniques from coffee entrepreneur, Alfred Peet (Starbucks Timeline, 2016). Alfred taught the three friends his particular style of roasting which ignited a spark in the trio and they were inspired to sell high quality coffee beans and roasting equipment. They soon started brainstorming names, and finally settled on Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation (Starbucks) is a specialty coffee retailer of hot and cold beverages, coffee-related accessories, complementary food items, teas, and other non-food related products. Starbucks has retail stores in 39 countries and about 146,000 employees. The company operates primarily in the United States (U.S.) with headquarters in Seattle, Washington (Starbucks, 2007).

Starbucks has evolved and itself become an icon of globalisation, symbolising the role of corporations in combatting the consumerist society that is the West and exploiting the rest of the world, particularly the vulnerable and poverty stricken Global South. Thus, the contention of this essay is to highlight that the new globalised world has resulted in the exploitation of the Global South, in order to fulfil the consumerist society that is the Global North. This exploitation is exemplified by Starbucks, one of the largest corporations in

The organization that I have chosen to analyze in this paper is Starbucks. Starting as just a single coffeehouse in Seattle in 1971, Starbucks has now grown into a multinational corporation with over 23,000 stores worldwide. (Smith) With a vision that stemmed from Italian coffeehouse tradition, Starbucks set out to become more than just an average coffeehouse, they wanted to provide their customers with excellent coffee but also a personable connection. Their mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit-one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks). At the top of their priority list is quality however Starbucks is also passionate about ethically sourcing only the finest of coffee beans, roasting them perfectly and the most important part being improving the lives of the people who grow the beans.

Starbucks Corporation, an American coffeehouse and coffee company, was founded in Seattle, WA in 1971. Starbucks has become an industry leader in the roasting, marketing of specialty coffees, and retailing of their various coffee and tea products and accessories around world. Starbucks employs approximately 182,000 people of all walks of life across 21,366 company operated & licensed stores in 65 countries worldwide. Their unique product lines include high quality, hand roasted moderately priced coffees, teas, and numerous fresh food options throughout their stores and other retail outlets, such as grocery stores and specialty shops.

Starbucks completely dominates the competition in market share within the traditionally defined coffeehouse industry with a market share of almost 33% and the closest single competitor being Dunkin’ Donuts with 16%. In such a specifically defined industry, it is fairly easy to overlook the niche market that Starbucks serves. As a firm, they have a very distinct reputation in the market with not only their name, but also the specialty products they serve such as their coffee, foods, and starting in August of 2015, beer and wine. It is this sort of product offering that makes it possible to also categorize them in a “niche consumable” industry, however, doing so would have ironically placed them within a niche industry where the competitors have much less in common than in other industries. A common trend that could become a future occurrence is that the socio-cultural and competitive forces will call for products to be more ethically procured, better quality and lower priced. Another recession or increased social awareness of how coffee beans are procured could slow the growth of the current coffeehouse industry and allow for these new entrants to enter the market.

Enthusiast coffee drinker or not, people of all generations have heard of the popular franchise Starbucks Coffee Company. Opened in 1971, Starbucks started off as a single store located in Seattle. Today the well-known coffee chain has spread their name almost all over the globe. With over 21,000 locations in 64 countries, Starbucks is by far the largest leading coffee company in the world. Starbucks Coffee has different values compared to other coffee corporations that do not see the importance in giving back to communities around them and treating their employees as equals, all while striving to provide their customers with high quality products that are ethically sourced.

This drives the demand of the product , shifting the demand curve to right. Buyers expectation strongly affects the consumption . Expectation of technology for a consumer , wifi, card, mobile , e-commerce adds up to the demand. With increase in technology by the company the demand increases leading the demand curve to move to right. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/rahimkanani/2012/05/24/chief-digital-officer-for-starbucks-on-technology-change-and-community/)

Starbucks entered the coffee market in 1971 as a single store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market as a retailer and roaster of whole beans, ground coffee, tea, and spices. In 1982, Howard Schultz was appointed the director of retail operations and marketing. After visiting Italy in 1983, Schultz fascination with the Italian coffee bars inspired him to bring a similar type of coffeehouses to the Seattle area. Schultz idea was to offer a place where customers can relax, enjoy coffee, and engage in conversations. After several years, Schultz decided to leave Starbucks and open his own coffee company called II Giornale that offered brewed coffee and espresso beverages made from Starbucks Arabica coffee beans. In 1987, Schultz acquired

This case assignment discusses the history of Starbuck’s accomplishments as they entered the American coffee culture heritage. In 1983, The chairman and CEO Howard Schultz traveled to Italy and had a dream to carry the Italy coffeehouse ritual back to the United States. Schultz was focused on creating an environment meeting company that makes good coffee but also be a social experiment. Starbucks today opened more than 19,000 stores functioning in 62 countries. Starbucks has numerous rewards that globalization has offered and they have significantly benefited from it, while in the coffee industry. Starbucks has a wide-range in marketing strategies to benefit the customers. During the different obstacles that Starbucks has encountered, they must stay reliable in quality and uphold to adjust to different customer values.

1. What factors in the global environment provide opportunities or threats for Starbucks? How do Starbuck’s strengths and weaknesses match up to its opportunities and threats?