9-504-016
REV: JULY 10, 2006
YOUNGME MOON
JOHN QUELCH
Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service
In late 2002, Christine Day, Starbucks’ senior vice president of administration in North America, sat in the seventh-floor conference room of Starbucks’ Seattle headquarters and reached for her second cup of toffee-nut latte. The handcrafted beverage—a buttery, toffee-nut flavored espresso concoction topped with whipped cream and toffee sprinkles—had become a regular afternoon indulgence for Day ever since its introduction earlier that year.
As she waited for her colleagues to join her, Day reflected on the company’s recent performance.
While other retailers were still reeling from the post-9/11 recession, Starbucks was enjoying its
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But I believed that people needed another place, a place where they could go to relax and enjoy others, or just be by themselves. I envisioned a place that would be separate from home or work, a place that would mean different things to different people.
A few years later, Schultz got his chance when Starbucks’ founders agreed to sell him the company. As soon as Schultz took over, he immediately began opening new stores. The stores sold whole beans and premium-priced coffee beverages by the cup and catered primarily to affluent, welleducated, white-collar patrons (skewed female) between the ages of 25 and 44. By 1992, the company had 140 such stores in the Northwest and Chicago and was successfully competing against other small-scale coffee chains such as Gloria Jean’s Coffee Bean and Barnie’s Coffee & Tea.
That same year, Schultz decided to take the company public. As he recalled, many Wall Street types were dubious about the idea: “They’d say, ‘You mean, you’re going to sell coffee for a dollar in a paper cup, with Italian names that no one in America can say? At a time in America when no one’s drinking coffee? And I can get coffee at the local coffee shop or doughnut shop for 50 cents? Are you kidding me?’”2
Ignoring the skeptics, Schultz forged ahead with the
In 1971, Starbucks started as a small coffee shop which targeted a specialized market of coffee purists. Howard Schultz, who later owned the company and initiated the high growth period, joined Starbucks’ marketing team in 1982. Main concept of Schultz marketing strategy was too make Starbucks “America’s third place” considering home and work the two other places where Americans spend most of their time. In 1992, Schultz acquired Starbucks and made an initial public offering. Despite Wall Street’s doubts about the IPO, $25 million was raised by Starbucks.
Starbucks is a restaurant with delicious treats and goods and it has the best cappuccino and coffee. And that brought mr. Schultz out of a struggle to the riches cause he went viral with he way he made his coffee and other goods. Schultz started off by selling coffee from his home and rose to Starbucks which is a big come up for someone who couldn’t afford a cup of coffee at first.
In 1971, three young entrepreneurs began the Starbucks Corporation in Seattle Washington. Their key goal was to sell whole coffee beans. Soon after, Starbucks began experiencing huge growth, opening five stores all of which had roasting facilities, sold coffee beans and room for local restaurants. In 1987, Howard Schultz bought Starbucks from its original owners for $4 million after expanding Starbucks by opening three coffee bars.
In 1971, Seattle Washington, three men joined together and founded the Starbucks Coffee Company. The three men responsible are Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel, and Gordon Bower. Starbucks was launched with the idea that coffee was brewed at home. Therefore, Starbucks only sold gourmet coffee beans and brewing/roasting necessities. Ten years later, Howard Shultz became interested in the company and in 1982 he was hired. Howard Shultz is responsible for bringing the idea of coffeehouse café to Starbucks. What began as one small coffee shop in Seattle has grown to over “8,000 stores in over 30 countries and annual revenues in excess of $7.5 billion” (Wilson, 2005).
2. By 1987, Schultz bought Starbucks from its original founders. It has grown from six stores to over 3300 locations. What were the critical drivers of Starbucks success?
In early 1980 the management change took place while one of the founding members left Starbucks and Jerry Baldwin became a CEO. When Howard Schultz joined the company and took charge of marketing and overseeing the retail stores in two years Starbucks reached a milestone by acquiring five stores in San Francisco’s Peet’s Coffee and Tea chain. Although Schultz succeeded in acquiring still his proposal to start selling beverages were not
Two CEOs followed Schultz’s tenure and Jim Donald, the second one, put increasing the number of stores and store efficiencies as his strategy above customer service driving the business. “Complaints surfaced that Starbucks felt more like a fast-food restaurant than a coffeehouse.” (New York Times ~ Business Day, 2012) This pursuit, along with the Great Recession, created havoc in Starbucks finances, driving stock price “from a high of $40 (5/1/2006) to $8 (11/17/2008).” (Living Economics) At that point, the Board ousted Jim Donald and asked Schultz to come back as CEO and “lead a major restructuring and revitalization initiative.” (Thompson & Shah, 2010)
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
Starbucks was initially opened at 2000 Western Avenue, Seattle, Washington on 30th March 1971 (Wach, 2011). Starbucks continued to stay located here until 1976, it was then moved to 1912 Pike Place Market (Brewer, Brissenden and Carmin, 2003). Starbucks was a product of the merger of Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker (Pendergrast, 1999). Starbucks originally started off to sell whole roasted coffee beans to the public, initially no brewed coffee was sold it was used as samples for the buyers (Dono Reeves, 1992). Howard Schultz the Chairman and CEO of Starbucks experienced Starbucks in 1981 with his first cup of Sumatra and joined the company a year later. Howard then traveled to Italy in 1983 and was completely mesmerized by the Italian coffee bars, he then brought the coffeehouse vision back with him (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2014). In 1998 Starbucks entered the European market (Starbucks Coffee Company, 2014), Starbucks paid a whopping $83 million to start the chain in Britain with 56 coffee shops (McDonald's Corp., 1999). Starbucks
Starbucks opened its first location in Seattle 's Pike Place Market in 1971. Now Chairman Howard Schultz joined Starbucks in 1982 as Director of Marketing. Schultz visited Italy and noticed the
Starbucks had is beginning in Seattle, Washington in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Gordon Bower and Zev Siegl. These three friends just had a love for dark roast, European styled coffee. They sat out to make sure that they offered better tasting coffee than Folgers and Maxwell House. These owners had a vision that show customers about fine coffees and wines. They made sure they had the best of the best coffee beans only importing from Sumatra, Kenya, Ethiopia and Costa Rica. The owners even made sure that they used the correct coffee pots and equipment that wouldn’t alter the flavor of the coffee. Howard Schultz joined in the company in 1982. He was just a customer at first but something far greater in the company and decided that he had to act on it. When Schultz originally requested to join the company he was rejected. After more than a year of wanting to join Schultz came on board as the marketing director for Starbucks. After going on a trip to Milan, Italy Schultz vision for the Starbucks company had become clear. He wanted to give the people something more than just fine tasting coffee. Schultz loved the idea of coffee bars baristas and customers interacting together. The connection to the people who love coffee did not have to take place only in their homes, where they ground and brew whole-bean coffee. He wanted to turn the Starbucks name into an official coffee bar. His bosses were not too fond of this idea. It just would be too much of a risk for them. They were too
Starbucks was founded in 1971 and opened their first location in Seattle’s Pike Place Market (“Company Information,” 2015). Although the company’s website did not give any information on the founders, further research provided the names of three young businessmen. Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker opened the store where they only sold coffee beans and coffee making machines (“History of Starbucks,” 2014). In 1981, Howard Schultz became the director of operations. Howard was fascinated by the coffee industry, and a year later took a trip to Italy to gain further insight on the operations of coffee shops. When Howard returned he had acquired new ideas and wanted to serve drinks, not just make the beans. When he could not convince the owners to agree with his ideas, he set out on his own in 1985 and founded Il Giornale. Just two short years later in 1987, Howard Schultz acquired Starbucks with the help of local investors and took over the business (“Starbucks Company Timeline,” 2014). From there, Howard expanded the company and made it into what it is today. The biggest factor overall that has contributed to the company’s growth was when Howard Schultz first started working for the company. From the beginning, he wanted to make the company into so much more than what it was. A specific way that Howard contributed to the growth was when he traveled to Italy. This experience gave him insight on the operations of coffee
Howard Schultz joined Starbucks as a director of retailing operations and marketing in 1982, which was the starting
Schultz had bought the company in 1987, when it was still a small Seattle retailer, mainly selling
Starbucks was bought over in 1987 by now existing Chairman and Chief Executive, Howard Schultz, who had a dream to bring the Italian coffee house style back to United States when he visited Italy in 1983. It was there that he was captivated by the Italian style of coffee stores and the aroma smell of the coffee experience and so, he set a mission, to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.