Starbucks Environment Essay

Starbucks is one of the largest known coffee distributors within the United States. Their mission statement is “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time”. Their objective is to be one of the most well known and respected brands around the world. With 21,366 stores around the world, operating in 65 countries, they are a major company that has influence on the economy in the United States and around the world (Starbucks 2015).

Starbucks desire as the leader in the specialty coffee industry is to be acknowledged for its responsibility to coffee farmers and their families to improve their well-being. The corporation’s primary stakeholders are broad organizations such as, coffee trade associations, suppliers, and groups with interest in sustainable coffee production. Including non-profit groups focused on human rights, social justice, and environmental issues. Other stakeholders include governmental agencies such as, U. S. AID (Starbucks Corporation, 2010).

Starbucks has created a competitive advantage with their product quality by setting themselves apart from their competitors. “The Company has stayed with the upper-scale of the coffee market, competing on comfort rather than convenience, which is the case with its closest competitors, McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts” (Mourdoukoutas, Panos). Consumers believe they are receiving a better product and experience when they purchase from a Starbucks as opposed to another large food service company that may sell coffee.

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

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?

Competitors such as McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts not only have extensive menus, but also the financial resources and position to leverage their strengths to threaten Starbucks profitability.

Upon looking at whether or not they should, they must focus on the trends that are developing in these countries. Together with Sazaby (a company known for bringing goods to Japan), Starbucks was able to combine the lifestyles of the Japanese people with the Starbucks product. One important favorable trend that was key in the development of bringing Starbucks to Japan rather than Europe and South America was the fact that Japan has been the third largest coffee consumer in the world and the other regions were more of a risk for Schultz. There are, however, unfavorable trends in bringing Starbucks over such as the fact that the Japanese have not developed the taste for espresso or caffe latte drinks, but they rather prefer instant and ready-to-drink coffee that is offered in vending machines owned by Coca-Cola, which is a highly respected American company in Japan. Another unfavorable trend is the fact that since 1982 there has been a 30% decrease in coffee bars.

Starbucks needs to find another strategy, one that continues to encourage conservation and farmer education, but also a strategy that would affect the industry as a whole. With this in mind Starbucks and CI decided to create coffee sourcing guidelines that would affect the suppliers of coffee. “Under Starbucks new system, introduced as a two year pilot program, suppliers of any size or location could earn up to 100 points for performance in three sustainability categories…if the suppliers me all the criteria, that is ,scored 100 points, it would become a preferred supplier and its coffee would receive priority in Starbucks’

from a small local store to its current global enterprise. Starbucks has strategic partners all over

Approaching Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E) Practices, Starbucks pays for the farmers through the proof of total expenditure, which ensure that those farmers earn profits, providing them loans. Then, its labor force is facilitated in their works while improving safety, fairness and working conditions. Moreover, Starbucks tries to be a leader in terms of environment when reducing the water used in its supply process, saving energy, researching in renewable energy. Those are the best practices in ethical sourcing to ensure for an ethical supply chain (http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/sourcing/coffee)

In general the coffeehouse industry in the United States was experiencing an increase in coffee consumption per capita due to the “Starbucks effect”. At this time Starbucks was operating approximately 20,000 stores in the United States and was living a fast expansion strategy worldwide.

Starbucks opportunities are; entry into the health and wellness space, growing presence in certain Asian markets, growing their mobile commerce market, and growing their office coffee marketplace. Their threats are extreme competition and compliance costs associated with government regulations (MarketLine 27)

In terms of competition and the forces, which could limit the success of Starbucks it is important they stay ahead or even with other companies concerning innovative products. Many more micro companies are coming up with new products with a similar quality and a lower price/cost. It is important that Starbucks continues to search for innovative products to continually satisfy their customers. At the same time “rivalry” amongst Starbucks and smaller providers of coffee will continue to increase as the demand for coffee continues. The buyers bargaining power is significant as they can determine the cost, type of product, quantity and ultimately

Starbuck has entered into these other categories through partnerships and joint ventures. These relationships make sense, because every partnership is with a company in an industry related to Starbuck’s industry (e.g. Pepsi, Kraft, Unilever, Green Mountain etc.). Starbucks does not enter into partnerships with only one company; but collaborates with many companies, that are the respective leaders in their industry. The coffee company uses many of their partners as guides to learn from, and build relationships in a particular industry. Strategically this makes sense because Starbucks is gaining knowledge and not spending a major amount of money. Therefore, when the

Starbucks inbound logistics comprises of the firm’s quality control specialist in selecting top-quality Arabia coffee beans from suppliers that maintain a sustainable approach. Starbucks supports ethical sourcing by operating “responsible purchasing practices, farmer support…” (Starbucks, 2016) also corporate social responsibility (CSR). Additionally, their tactic is utilizing the “Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices” (Starbucks, 2016), wherein this approach is the first set of sustainability benchmarks in the coffee industry and is certified by third-party logistics professionals. The C.A.F.E. Practices has assisted Starbucks in relation to generating a “long-term supply of high-quality coffee” (Starbucks, 2016) and influencing the lives of the farmers and their communities. Furthermore, Starbucks utilizes economies of scales in their inbound logistics activities by developing outstanding supply chain procedures by using C.A.F.E. and also includes collaborating internationally with managers discussing strategic alliances through suppliers for their products. Starbucks have recently