Essay The Rise of Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee originated in 1971 as a coffee and tea café opening in a small neighborhood of Seattle, Washington (Starbucks Corporation, 2010). Starbucks continued its service for Seattle residents for a decade when the new director of retail operations and marketing, Howard Shultz, decided to make some beneficial changes to the company. After two years of employment Howard Shultz decided to expand Starbucks outside of the Seattle area. In 1987 Starbucks was entering in the coffee market and the few numbers of Starbucks were now becoming a corporation (Starbucks Corporation, 2010). Fast forwarding to current times, Starbucks is

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).

With over 20,000 locations worldwide, people are willing to pay over five dollars per cup for the bit of luxury (Horovitz, 2014). Not to mention the fact that Starbucks prides itself in using ingredients from exotic locations, produced by farmers, rather than corporations. Additionally, Starbucks takes a personal sense of pride in the personal and professional growth of their employees. First of all, Starbucks changed the title of their employees from Counter Help to Barista (Horovitz, 2014). Secondly, Starbucks offers a fully paid tuition assistance program to Arizona State University to all of its employees (Rooney, 2015). With this program, Starbucks is acknowledging the benefit of a well-educated workforce, while helping to improve the individual quality of life for all

Starbucks has an advantage over its competitors because of their strong, distinctive competencies. According to the article on NASDAQ "Starbucks targets a more affluent demographic of coffee drinkers that typically exhibit strong brand loyalty (Trifis Team, 2014)." This distinctive competency derives from the company 's philosophy to have a "commitment to the highest quality coffee in the world, to the way we engage with our customers and communities to do business responsibly (Starbucks, 2016)." The organization is committed to an excellent training program that reinforces staff competencies and engagement to the company culture. Starbucks CEO Howards Schultz, states in his book, Onward, "[Employees] are the true

Due to the fact that employees are regarded as partners, they need to go through ‘Starbucks New Partner Training’ which includes training on ethics, safety, legal aspects of the company, as well as outstanding customer service and showing the customer that they are what has made the business what it is today. Education is not just found in the businesses within the coffee industry.

The employees of Starbucks--Howard Schultz refers to them as the most important asset--are trained to open a new world of coffee for customers. Howard Schultz wants customers to perceive Starbucks as a friendly environment. He treats his employees exceptionally well too. Starbucks offers full health benefits and stock options to its workforce (Bollier 167). The employees are treated with great appreciation; they have no other reason why they shouldn’t treat the customers with respect in a Starbucks restaurant.

Starbucks takes great pride and recognition in their diverse organization that aligns with their core values.

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

Howard Schultz is an American business leader who was once a former owner of a basketball company called Seattle SuperSonics and a member of a financial service at Square, Inc. He was ranked 354th richest person in the United States. He started his coffee adventure in 1981 where he travelled from New York to Seattle to look at coffee beans and what made him love the aroma and taste of it and the owners of Starbucks carefully roasting and choosing their coffee beans made him interested in working with the team, Starbucks (MyPrimeTime, 2001, para. 1). However, he resigned his position as a CEO at Starbucks in 2000 then returned back to the company in 2008 as a CEO (Biography, 2015, para. 1).

Today, Starbucks Corporation is one of the most successful and admired companies in the world. Since the company opened its first coffee shop in Seattle, Washington in 1971, it has expanded into a billon-dollar international brand. From its tasty

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.

Please answer all the following questions as they relate to the case. Please utilize as much outside resources as you deem necessary to reinforce your answers—especially the last question. Remember that this case is over 10 years old and Starbucks has changed since then.

At Starbucks, talented employees are groomed with outstanding training and development programmes. The commitment of its employees is a main fact why Starbucks is well-known as the leading specialty coffee company and the industry benchmark in Malaysia.

Starbucks was originated in Seattle, Washington in 1971 in which the first shop was opened in Pike’s Place Market. Since then Starbucks has rapidly expanded to over 17,000 stores across the globe with shops in over 50 countries. In doing so Starbucks has become the leading retailer and roaster of specialty coffee. While expanding, Starbucks has encountered new markets and cultures which all have different kinds of customers. These diverse customers demand distinctive and alluring products. Starbucks

Starbucks believes that its clients’ needs, or rather preferences, are diverse and if it has to make a difference from the standard products their competitors are offering, then it has to diverse the products and the services offered. In ensuring that this is happening, Starbucks offer diverse products and ensures too that the methods it uses to distribute these different products is also diverse. Note it has successively served airlines, hotels learning institutions, select retailers and many more diverse customers. Much focus is given on how every customer is served as this keeps them coming back. This is something Howard Schultz himself had to get down into it and thus he taught his employees on how to be friendly to the customers. The employees’ friendliness established an emotional attachment with the clients; something that was achieved through employee trainings.