Starbucks Case

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).

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

In 1982 Howard Schultz joined the company as the Director of Marketing and Retail Operations. He tried to convince the coffee shop partners to expand the business by

To reach its current status as the largest coffee-house company in the world, Starbucks went through many changes, starting in 1982, when Howard Schultz joined the Starbucks team, setting the whole process in motion. Yet the coffee-house that we have come to know today is actually the result of an experiment carried out after Schultz took a trip to Milan, Italy, where he witnessed the potential of the local cafés culture and thought to introduce it in Seattle.

3. When Schultz returned to Starbucks as CEO in 2008, how had the competitive context changed since his first tenure running the firm? What had caused or facilitated the changes?

Howard Schultz took a small three-store coffee shop and grew it into the largest specialty coffee retailer in the world. With twenty-five thousand locations, 105 million customers a week, and 191 thousand employees. Let’s start with the beginning.

The success of Starbucks in the early days of the company’s existence can be attributed to the goals, which Howard Schultz was able to achieve. His goal was to create a place, which people could gather as a “third place.” This place was to be in line with consumer schedules as the place of gathering and community. Home, Work, Starbucks was his idea. Everything he did was to be in line with this mantra. In addition to the atmosphere, which sets the brand apart, they produce a quality product. The brand started as a coffee bean distributer and it is this distinction, which allows

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:

“In 1981, Howard Schultz, vice president and general manager of US operations for a Swedish maker of stylish kitchen equipment and coffeemakers, decided to pay Starbucks a visit” (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, Strickland III, & McGraw-Hill, 2013). Schultz’s trip was out of curiosity to see why Starbucks was selling so many of his company’s products. However, during his stay in Seattle, Schultz fell in love with Starbucks and shortly after returning to New York, sought a way to become more involved in the company. It took almost a year for Schultz to convince the Jerry Baldwin and Gordon Bowker that he would be a good addition to their company, but in the fall of 1982,

The Starbucks story began in 1971 in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, selling high-quality dark-roasted coffee in small batches. The bean roaster and retail store was originally started by three partners, Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bowker. The three later sold the company to Howard Schultz in 1987. Howard Schultz had a strategy and a vision for the company that established its as one of the major corporate success stories of the late 20th century. The vision of founder Howard Schultz was inspired by Italian coffee bars/beverage retailer. Having experienced the espresso and coffeehouse

When Howard Schultz launched Starbucks, its main targets were the competitors and the customers. Schultz’s brand aimed at gaining dominance in the coffee industry in addition creating a Italian coffee shop feel in the United States (Buchanan & Simmons, 2009). The strategy of Starbucks was based on new products, listening to customers wants and ensure future expansion (Buchanan & Simmons, 2009). In creating convenience for customers, Starbucks created stores almost on top of eachother. They hinged on the idea that, they did not want to lose out on a sale if a line was too long. This action, of placing stores in heavy populated areas, basing need on projected growth of an area caused some decline in sales during economic trouble with the economy. The 2007 recession, failure of subprime mortgages, increased competition from McDonald 's McCafe brand, and Dunkin Doughnuts all led to a decline in sales for Starbucks in the fourth quarter of 2007 (Buchanan & Simmons, 2009). To attempt to regain market share and recover after the

The ambiances at each bar were different and the energy was electrifying. It was in this setting that he realized that creating an atmosphere and bonding with customers around a cup of coffee was monumental in improving his business. Coffee would be only the automobile for a place where people want to stay for a while, a place-like-home, and office. These variables will become the differentiating factor for Starbucks.

“We are not in the coffee business, serving people. We are in the people business, serving coffee”, Howard Schultz’s philosophy has shaped and continues shape Starbucks, the world’s number one specialty coffee retailer with over 21,000 outlets in more than 65 countries nowadays (Starbucks, 2011). Starbucks was founded in 1971 and Howard Schultz joined Starbucks in 1982. In 1987, Howard acquired Starbucks and changed the name to Starbucks Corporation.

In March of 1987, the two owners of Starbucks decided to sell their operations and name, and Howard Shultz jumped all over it. He bought out Starbucks for $3.8 Million and from then on, the Starbucks we now know was created. The Starbucks stores quickly became the soothing café with aspects of both “third home” and the take home coffee. From then on, Shultz expanded like crazy setting lucrative goals for the amount of stores to be opened by the end of the year. They expanded to every state and began to expand overseas. Shultz saw a void and attacked where he knew customers would attract. Starbucks expanded to incorporate drive thru windows, free Wi-Fi, packaged beans and drinks found in stores nationwide, and stores on nearly every corner. Shultz relied on the overabundance of locations to act as its own marketing as well as the word of mouth from a satisfied customer. He believed in and loved his company and it was directly expressed in how accomplished Starbucks turned out.

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