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 The Starbucks Corporation has enjoyed continued success
since the doors first opened in 1971. The business was founded on the premises
that customer satisfaction comes first and this vision has stayed with the
company and served as the driving force behind its success over the years.
Moreover, Starbucks has achieved this customer satisfaction concept through
strength in its organizational development. By building strong relationships,
initializing corporate responsibility, ethical judgment and diversity, Starbucks is indeed one of the most competitive organizations worldwide today.
Starbuck’s
vision is to create an environment by embracing differences in people such as
age, race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, physical and mental
attributes, status, religion and culture. Starbucks coffee company stores are
located worldwide in North America, Latin
America, Europe, and in the Middle
East (Starbucks Corporation, 2007). Thus, making the demographic
range of people very diverse including high school children, professionals and
seniors. The company believes that regardless of a person’s demographic
background, Starbucks is a place for all walks of life.
Starbucks
typically hires more corporate women officers than many other Fortune 500
company. The company believes that less opportunity exists for women and
minorities in the professional world and therefore, maintains to give these
groups a special opportunity within the organization. Starbucks believes even
fewer opportunities are out there for women and minorities when it comes to
these groups owning businesses. For this reason, the
company’s United States supplier diversity program was formally established in
1998 which has spend around $95 million on women and minority-owned businesses
(WMBE) in 2004 which significantly went up going up from $38 million in 2000.
(Neal, 2004). Additionally, Starbucks tries to open up
doors for the African American and Hispanic American population. To accomplish
this, Starbucks has committed themselves to putting stores within these
communities and thereby, helping to enhance the livelihood of those particular
communities. People within these communities benefit from this because more job
opportunities are opened in the area. Additionally, Starbucks offers benefits
to the employees and is a welcome source for communities in which benefits are
unavailable. Approximately six years ago,Starucks launched a 50/50
partnership with the legendary basketball player Earvin "Magic"
Johnson and Johnson Development Corporation that has produced 74 stores in
traditionally Black and Hispanic communities such as Harlem, Compton and Southside of Chicago (Owens, 2004). Clearly, the
company embraces diversity and takes an initiative in helping these
underrepresented populations.
Starbucks
operates on a flat organizational structure by immersing the company in
diversity. The culture of Starbucks relies heavily upon
promoting cultural differences in the people as well as the product. Unlike
some companies, Starbucks purposely seeks out people from atypical backgrounds.
The company believes that new experiences add to the culture of the company and
having a diverse workforce is representative of that concept. Starbucks also
maintains its organizational structure through innovation. The company strives
to maintain its individuality by continually coming up with new products and
appealing to the changing needs of the customers. In 1983, Starbucks added
espresso to the menu. The idea originated from the Italian culture and added to
the total Starbucks experience (Starbucks Corporation, 2007). The espresso was
an absolute success and further spurred Starbucks accomplishment worldwide. Starbucks implies
team concept throughout the company. The company believes that the employees
are not just workers. Instead, they are part of the company and share in the
company’s success. Starbucks relies on a cooperative team atmosphere where
people help each other out and can express individuality without feeling
restrained.
Starbucks equates
customer convenience to customer satisfaction. The company has remained
advanced in the coffee industry by installing network capability in the stores
for their customer’s use. This gives Starbucks an edge over other shops in the
industry and offers customer’s another part of a unique experience. The company
has added the feature of purchasing products available through an online catalog
(Starbucks Corporation, 2007). Starbucks products could now be tracked through
a computer system and available to everyone. The name suddenly began appearing
in airports and bookstores and becoming a sizzling commodity worldwide. Starbucks
initialized these new capabilities for several reasons. Clearly, the company
was trying to create an overall atmosphere different from any other in the
industry. While other coffee shops were just offering coffee and doughnuts,
Starbucks was trying to figure out how to make life simpler and more relaxing
for consumers. The company wanted to find a way to complete the cultural
experience and carry on the community atmosphere each store presented. The
Internet gave people a feeling of staying connected and increased Starbucks
popularity even more. Another need for
networking capability was Starbucks global expansion. Starbucks was expanding
more in foreign countries. The company would now need networking capability
more than ever. A computer was installed in the home office to track inventory
and availability. This would make it inevitably necessary to hire more
information technologists. The 1990s
represented a colossal time for Starbucks with stores opening in Asia,
the United Kingdom,
and Switzerland
(Starbucks Corporation, 2007). Clearly, the company was successful in its
efforts to stay competitive and maintain customer satisfaction by using
technology.
Starbucks
works closely with farmers and suppliers to maintain an outstanding quality of
production for Starbucks palatable coffee. Starbucks believes in supporting
farmers. Farmers are an indispensable part of quality coffee production.
Building mutually beneficial relationships means success for both Starbucks and
poor struggling farmers. Maintaining
mutually beneficial relationships provides a social responsibility to the
environment and to agricultural communities. Starbucks
focuses on building community actions. Part of Starbucks corporate
responsibility is to cultivate a culture that gives back to the community. The
employees are encouraged as well. This is a fundamental practice and principle
that has been incorporated into Starbucks corporate culture. Starbucks has a
program called “Make Your Mark.” Starbucks makes community
investments to literacy, environmental and coffee origin communities. Starbucks
supports organizations such as the African Wildlife Foundation, Save the
Children, and Mercy Corps. Magic Johnson and Starbucks have formed a
partnership to provide employment opportunities in urban areas. This is a
unique business partnership that supports underdeveloped communities and allows
business expansion in urban areas, which in return creates job opportunities
for underprivileged adults and youths. Starbucks
contributes to park programs as an environmental community activity.
Environmental protection is not only a huge concern with the farmers, who
practices using environmental friendly products, but Starbucks practices
environmental measures to reduce waste, energy, and water use in every store
location. Starbucks has an EarthWatch Institute where few selected partners
participate in an EarthWatch Expedition (Starbucks Corporation, 2007).
Starbucks
conducts in an ethical manner by preserving the environment with
environmentally safe cups. “In November 2004, Starbucks announced that the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted, the first-ever approval to use
recycled content in food packaging for Starbucks hot-beverage cups” (Starbucks
Corporation, 2007). These cups are made up of 10% post-consumer fiber content.
They have been performing as the non-recycled paper cups. With this
environmental change, Starbucks will lower the dependency on tree fiber. This
is an example of how Starbucks has remained committed to preserving the
environment. The owners of
Starbucks have succeeded in supplying a magnificent combination of hot and cold
coffee based beverages and an environment, which strives for customers of
all ages. The strong relationships, initializing corporate responsibility,
ethical judgment and diversity, are contributing factors to Starbucks success.
The culture shared among the organization is achieved through the diversity
among the customers and employees. Many of Starbucks accomplishments are due to
the organizational development learned and implemented throughout the
corporation. Since 1971, Starbucks
continually thrives to make the best, the most exotic and most delicious tasting
coffee, while providing extraordinary customer service in a comfortable
atmosphere.
Bibliography:
About Starbucks. (n.d.). Retrieved 9/13/2007 from http://company.monster.com/starbucks/about/culture.htm.
About Starbucks. (n.d.). Retrieved 9/13/2007 from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/businesses/M-Z/Starbucks-Corporation.html.
World Economic Forum. (2007, February 14). Corporate Citizenship. Retrieved 9/29/2007 from http://www.weforum.org.
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...though we have our 
I didn't by any stock but received gift cards frequently! Anyone would loose now as they are closing 600 stores, so don't worth it!
Well, Nirma powder and Starbucks arent same. Look at the infrastructure of Starbucks and then we may compare such huge retail achain corporation with some washing powder company. Harvard students might have the case studies of Nirma or other company namely and very widely known Exxon case studies, but Starbucks falls under a very different category. I ibelieve India will take another 10 years to come up with such diversity and ethical business codes. I have found most of the Indian organizationhas zero% ethical codes and conducts. 