Starbucks and Corporate Responsibility

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 celebrates 40 years with 17,000 stores in more than 50 countries (Goals & Progress, 2010). Starbucks thrive on their values as a company to improve the lives of people who grow their coffee, neighborhoods where the company does business, and they care for the environment (Goals & Progress, 2010). Starbucks strives to incorporate good business practices and ethics across the globe not only for the enhancement of the company but also for the enhancement of the stakeholders and the communities the company impacts. Starbuck’s mission statement is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit. As said by Howard Schultz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, in the 2010

Starbucks awards grants through the Starbucks Youth Leadership program and has developed a barista training program to help invest in our employees for the long term. The Starbucks Community Stores program is one way our company works on collaborating and providing for the communities in which our stores are located. Volunteer service is another important concept to Starbucks with more than 520,000 hours of volunteer service recorded in 2014 around the world. The Starbucks Foundation works to provide grants to nonprofit organizations, leadership and community programs. Starbucks sees a necessity in having a diverse workforce and works to continue to evolve the diversity and inclusion strategy of our

The Starbucks foundation has programs designed to help provide opportunities for the youth, programs for community service, also to support coffee, tea and cocoa communities and provide clean water to those who do not have access. Also this year, Starbucks had opened stores in the Philippines and grew to 1,412 locations worldwide. The next three years of this decade were fairly successful for the company. In 1998, the Starbucks brand had extended into grocery channels across the Unites States. The company worked with former NBA player, Magic Johnson to open stores in underserved neighborhoods through a joint-venture partnership. The company launched its website, starbucks.com and established the Caring Unites Partners, or CUP fund. This is a financial assistance program founded by partners of Starbucks to help each other in times of need by providing monetary help when needed following a disaster or family emergency. In this year, Starbucks had opened locations in England, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan and

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 has been around for more than four decades, and from the very beginning it has worked hard to operate in an ethical manner. Starbucks ranked as Fortune Magazine’s fifth most socially responsible company in 2012. There are a number of good reasons for the high ranking. The company looks for better ways to develop sustainable production of its coffee. It has set in place some guidelines it calls C.A.F.E Practices, ensuring environmental leadership, economic accountability, and product quality. Starbucks also supports Ethos Water, which provides clean water to more than a billion people

As previously mentioned Starbucks has numerous initiatives in social responsibility. Examining each exposes the company’s values revealing why Starbucks is a leader in business ethics, and why it continues to thrive in an economic down-turn. First, is how Starbucks treats its partners; partners is the term used throughout Starbucks to refer to its employees. Each partner, full or part time is eligible for health care benefits. In 2008 when Schultz resumed his role as CEO, multiple institutional investors called asking Schultz to reduce partner healthcare coverage, which cost the company $250 million annually. Schultz refused the calls. He believed not paying the premiums would be inconsistent with the goal of turning profit (Kaplan, 2011). In addition to health care, partners can participate in the company’s Bean Stock program. The program offers Starbucks stock at 85% of its fair market value, four times a year. Starbucks partners also enjoy a 401(k), where the company matches 25% of the partners’ contribution. These benefits lead to extremely loyal employees. Food industry turnover rates are about 400% per year, while Starbucks’ is only 50% (Reis, 2010).

Starbucks has certainly does a good job communicating their social responsibility to consumers. First and foremost, Starbucks establishes an annual public Global Responsibility Report on their website. This report is easily identifiable and available for everyone to view. Besides their website, Starbucks uses a variety of media to communicate their social responsibilities. The company is highly dependant on social media to communicate their messages. Their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all display tokens of giving. In most cases, Starbucks ads are call-to-action campaigns. This entices consumers to purchase the Starbucks products because it allows consumers to feel they are contributing to something good/meaningful. Besides, social media, Starbucks uses their cups and coffee sleeves to communicate their humanitarian and socially responsible activities. Recently, the company informed consumers about the number of Veterans and military spouses hired through coffee sleeves. In addition, these sleeves always state the percent of recycled materials used, which is another way of expressing Starbuck’s holistic marketing approach. Finally, Starbucks has released a podcast which communicates everyday stories of positive change. In general, marketing communication should take a mass marketing approach, several forms of media should be used, and the communication budget should be properly allocated. Starbucks accomplishes each of those tasks. Moreover, consumers certainly feel the

Starbucks wants to be an environmentally friendly company and to be sensitive to this. Starbucks wants its employees to join in their missions as a company and its social responsibilities.

Starbucks entered the coffee market in 1971 opening their first retail store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market as a roaster of ground coffee, tea, whole beans, and spices. In 1982, Howard Schultz was appointed operation and marketing retail director. After visiting Italy in 1983, Schultz fascination with 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 a variety of espresso drinks and brewed coffee made from Starbucks Arabica coffee beans. In 1987, Schultz merged II

Starbucks is an extremely popular chain coffeehouse that originally began in Seattle, Washington in 1971. Starbucks currently has over 17,000 stores and its mission is to “inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks 2017). Starbucks utilizes it mission statement through various CSR strategies. CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR is a method that businesses can utilize to benefit society. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) focuses on many types of stakeholders and outcomes, including stakeholders outside of the organization and outcomes that go beyond financial results (Aguinis 2017). According to the Starbucks website, Starbucks announced a set of ambitious goals,

Starbucks is a global household name known for its quality and consistency. The company was established in 1971 and has since been thriving focusing its efforts on their community and their employees. Starbucks brand involves its commitment to ethics, sustainability, and most importantly “people first, profit last”(Ferrell p.399). One social responsibility that sets Starbucks above the rest is their care for their employees. Starbucks offer one of the best health care programs in the coffee shop industry. Unlike most companies they consider their employees as business partners and provide all partners that work at least 20 hours a week with a fulltime comprehensive benefit plan. The company spent more in its employee insurance health benefits than on the raw materials for brewing the coffee. This gave the employees a sense of security and satisfaction to their job. Starbucks strives to keep their employees enthusiastic and active. This is created by providing a great encouraging work environment. They treat each other with respect & dignity.

From the very beginning Starbucks has been driven to higher standards and to be known for their commitment to the environment as well as their delicious coffee. They call it “corporate citizenship”. Since 2001 Starbucks has been assessing their environmental footprint and making the results known to the general public in the hopes of inspiring others in a report called the “Shared Planet” report. From the time they opened their first store in 1971 the company has developed and committed itself to programs in ethical sourcing, environmental stewardship, community involvement, coffee purchasing & farmer support,

Starbucks acted ethically after their financial scare by upgrading their coffee equipment for their customers. Also, Starbucks added a new menu item to offer customers a more dynamic selection in their stores. Starbucks began to think more along the lines of a small mom and pop coffee shop to fit in with the local stores. To continue, Starbucks plays a significant ethical role within the community. Starbucks donates too many charitable causes within the community. Also, Starbucks allows their customers to provide feedback about their local coffee shop. Due to this ethical behavior, Starbucks gains new customers by offering them a place to relax and give their input on their

Starbucks is known as a company that puts people before profits. They are a very culturally sensitive company, and it shows on how they conduct business. Commitment to social responsibility is taken into consideration in each of their decisions when planning their strategic management process. An example of Starbucks commitment is their support for CARE, a worldwide relief, and development foundation,