There were praises, cheers, and stories at the last Starbucks annual shareholders meeting. This was the last meeting for one of Starbucks’ most successful executives, Orin Smith. As the 62-year old Smith retires this month as Starbuck’s CEO, he will be remembered for his leadership in the company by turning the inspiration and vision behind Starbucks into a reality. When previous CEO Howard Shultz approached Smith to join the Starbucks team in 1990, there were only approximately 45 stores in the U.S. and Canada combined (Starbucks). Today, there are around 9,000 stores occupied over 39 countries in addition to the 1,500 planned to open this year (Ouchi A1).
Executive Background
While studying at the University of Washington, Smith decided to take time off to work as an engineer for Boeing Enterprises. During his tenure, he recalls rows and rows of engineers sitting at their desks, reminding him of the assembly line. Seeing this unattractive future, he decided to switch to a Business orientation and eventually enrolled into Harvard Business School in pursuant of an M.B.A. (Smith).
In 1987, Howard Shultz purchased the Starbucks name and assets and presided as the new CEO. Three years later, he approached Smith, who was then working at Danzas (a freight shipping company) to enlist him as the company’s CFO. Smith was able to see the vision and future potential of Starbucks. It was then, that Smith began driving Starbucks through its delicate years of raising capital, becoming a public company, and developing goals for future growth (Moix 1).
Management Style
“Before you can have an emotional connection with your customers, you have to have an emotional connection with your people.” (Ouchi A1).
The success of Starbucks is partly due to Smith’s strong emphasis on relationships between management and lower ranked employees (also called partners). Similar to JetBlue’s CEO David Neeleman, Smith believes that a good relationship between management and employees will translate into a good relationship between the employees and the customers. In the past, both CEOs have been known to practice a ‘hands-on’ approach by stepping onto the ‘front lines’ of the business. Every quarter, Smith spends at least a couple of days behind the counter as part of their ‘Adopt a Store’ program for the senior executives. ...
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...for 30,000 stores total) (Flanigan C1).
While some believe the company is growing too rapidly and repeat the mistake McDonald’s made by opening too many stores of offsetting its own profits, Starbucks still continues to remain strong. It has also been able to achieve growth in other ways by developing new products, such as the much-anticipated Starbucks Liqueur.
The future of Starbucks now presides with new a CEO, James Donald.
Works Cited
ElBoghdady, Dina. “Pouring It On? The Starbucks Strategy? Locations, locations, locations.” The Washington Post 25 Aug. 2002: H.01.
Flanigan, James. “Starbucks Sees Cup as Not Yet Full.” Business 24 Oct. 2004: C1.
Moix, Laura. “Starbucks Coffee Company announces the promotion of two top executives.” PR Newswire June 1994: 1.
Ouchi, Monica Soto. “Shareholders meeting raises cup to retiring Starbucks CEO who led spectacular growth.” Seattle Times 10 Feb 2005, A1+.
Smith, Orin. Personal Interview. 16 October 2001.
“Starbucks Honors Chief Executive Orin Smith.” Business Wire 9 Feb. 2005: 1.
“Starbucks’ CEO Serves Up Tales of Global Frappuccino: Green, Tea, or Strawberries?” Wall Street Journal 15 Dec. 2003: B1+.
For one of my selections for buying stock, I invested into Starbucks, this company has attracted me with their wonders of different coffees, and I knew many others were interested in the very popular coffee company. Starbucks all started 1971 in Seattle Washington. With three men which were Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegel and Gordon Bowker each of them put in one thousand three hundred and fifty dollars along with a barrowed five thousand from the bank to start up there small coffee shop in pick place market, witch is located in down town Seattle. The name for this company was inspired from the character Starbuck from Moby Dick; this character was a coffee lover. There close friend designed there well known logo. These men never thought of this small company to get large they just thought of it as a small coffee shop. Out of all three men Siegel was the only one that work at it full time. The men depened on a man named Alfred Peet for there coffee beans but soon then started there own blends of coffee beans. With in a year opening the first store they were able to open a second store. When the 1980’s rolled around, it was a thriving company, in the Seattle area. However, the co-founders began to have other interests and were involved in other careers simultaneously. Despite that, the company was about to undergo a major turning point. A man by the name of Howard Schultz started to pursue an interest in the company. He noticed that the coffee shop had a wonderful environment. He started asking a questions and becoming more and more interested by every moment. He loved how the founders had so much knowledge on the coffee and each blend. In 1982, Schultz became director of retail operation. This was just the start to a new phase with the company.
Shah, A. J., Hawk, T. F., & A, T. A. (2011). Starbucks' Global Quest in 2006: Is the Best Yet to Come. In A. A. Marcus, Management Strategy: Achieving Sustained Competitive Advantage (pp. c468-c495). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Schultz, H. (2011). Onward: How Starbucks fought for its life without losing its soul. New York: Rodale.
In addition to being best-known supplier of the finest coffee and promising only the highest quality products, Starbucks emphasizes firm values, provides guidelines to enhance employee self-esteem. This is to ensure continued customer satisfaction. Moreover, diversity has become a priority to providing an inviting environment to all consumers. Starbucks continues to abide by a strict, slow growth policy in which they set out to dominate a market before moving on to expand, thus history has shown this strategy to be successful for Starbucks, making them one the fastest growing companies nationwide.
Coffee is a worldwide cash crop of which demand has exponentially increased over the years. “Coffee is (after oil) the world’s second most important traded commodity” (Cleaver 61). Competing coffee brewing companies wage war on offering the freshest, best tasting coffee the market has to offer. With such stiff competition there must be enough coffee beans deemed to be good enough in quality to supply the increasing demand. Starbucks can be considered one of today’s top competitors if not thee top coffee manufacturer presently in business. This successful company has had a huge impact on the coffee industry as well as the world. They have gone through great length to provide consumers with an excellent product as well as create a legacy that shows how to best go about running a massive corporation while keeping the environment clean and healthy.
As mention earlier Starbucks has many opportunities of which it can take advantage. These include a joint venture with McDonald’s, where the restaurant giant would supply its customers with Starbucks coffee. Another is the bottled Frappuccino product that Pepsi and Starbucks have created. This has had a very positive response in the test markets and posses to be a lucrative option. Starbucks could also look at the vertical integration possibility of producing its own beans. This could prove to be very successful if they can capture a significant amount of the production they could become a price setter in the coffee commodities. Also because small coffee retail outlets are so trendy it is possible for them to set ...
In 2000, Schultz promoted Orin Smith to the position of CEO. Schultz remained chairman for the corporation. This allowed Schultz to focus on Starbucks¡¦ global strategy. Starbucks operates and licenses more the 7,500 coffee shops in more than 30 countries.
Business was good, but it was not without its problems. There was the political upheaval in the Middle East, followed by further tension after then CEO Howard Schultz commented on growing anti-Semitism in the region. Their integrity came under fire when certain Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) accused them of purchasing coffee beans under questionable social and economic conditions. These situations, together with difficult economic times globally, meant that Starbucks was likely going to take a hit somewhere. Eventually, they shut down their Israeli operations altogether.
Founded in 1971 at Seattle’s Pike Place Market, Starbucks Coffee, Tea and Spices, as it was originally called, has been “brewing-up” its famous blends in over 43 countries, including the United States. Now called Starbucks Coffee Company, business isn’t just about the coffee and tea anymore. Starbucks has its own line of bottled water, handcrafted beverages, fresh food, entertainment, merchandise and a Starbucks Card. The company has received numerous awards for their outstanding business practices. Fortune Magazine has ranked them as one of “The Best 100 Companies to Work For” in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2008 (Starbucks, 2008). The Starbucks Experience provides consumers and the general public a direct line a of business communication. From friendly baristas to press releases from CEO Howard Schultz, Starbucks keeps its “partners” informed.
Bruss (2001) argues that the company hopes as well to make new investments in new coffee types. Starbucks has recently developed a new type of coffee called green-coffee. These strategies are created with the objective of support Starbucks’ commitment to buy coffee that has grown and processed by suppliers. They meet certain conditions of social, economic and quality standards. In addition to that, the company is paying additional premiums to those vendors who meet the specific requirements that the company wants.
Everything centers on the organizational culture within Starbucks. While being a customer service-based company and understanding that the customer satisfaction and loyalty are what will make the company profitable, Starbucks takes a different approach to customer service than other companies. By hiring employees that fit in the organizational culture (ICFAI, 2005) and treating their employees well (Lefevere, n.d.), Starbucks brings in and retains customers through their happy employees. The qualities that Starbucks hires for are "adaptability, dependability and the ability to work in a team" (ICFAI, 2005). The culture is supportive and laid back (Montana, 2005). Howard Shultz, Starbucks president and CEO, has the theory "that if you treat your employees well, they will treat your customers well" (Starbucks, 1997).
Starbucks is a worldwide company, known for is delicious brews of coffee and seasonal varieties of tasty drinks for any occasion. Starbucks opened with two main goals, sharing great coffee with friends and to help make the world a little better. It originated in the historic Pike Place Market of Seattle, Washington in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker. The creation of Starbucks’ name came from the seafaring tradition of early coffee traders and the romance evoked from Moby Dick. At the time, this individual shop specialized in the towering quality of coffee over competitors and other brewing services enabling its growth to becoming the largest coffee chain in Washington with numerous locations. In the early 1980s, the current CEO Schultz saw an opportunity for growth in the niche market. After a trip to Italy he brought back the idea of a café style environment of leisure and social meetings to the United States we now see in Starbucks locations today. Schultz ultimately left Starbucks to open his own coffee shop, Il Giornale which turned out to be a tremendous success. Fast forward a year later, Schultz got wind that Starbucks was going to sell all their components of Starbucks including their stores and factories, he immediately acquired the funds to buy Starbucks and linked both operations. Within five years he was able to open more than 125 stores starting in New England, Boston, Chicago, and gradually entered California. He wanted Starbucks to be a franchise system based on the mission of telling the truth and emphasize the quality,
Usually that revenue growth is in line with the growth of the economy”. I believe there are thousands of students contributing to Starbucks 's growth today. “As a result, mature companies tend to engage more in inorganic growth to fuel innovation. That means acquiring start-ups or middle-sized companies”. Not all products have been a home run for Starbucks. A lot of their flavored lattes, recipe process, technology endeavors have been part of the declining stage as well. However, Starbucks does have product extension for some items and they tend to return them ever so often due to holiday or
In 1982 when Starbucks only had four stores, Shultz joined Starbucks as director of operations and marketing. At that time, Starbucks was only