Starbucks

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Introduction

When Howard Schultz began to notice a decline in the Starbucks brand he built from a single coffee house into a multinational chain of over 15,000 locations employing over 172,000 people, he decided to begin 2008 with new direction. He reassumed the role as CEO and proposed a set of new initiatives to reenergize the company as a whole. These initiatives started at the front lines of Starbucks by changing some of the current machinery used to create espresso and coffee. Next he launched new roasted coffee blends that were set to revolutionize overall taste and perception of coffee. Additionally, due to perceived loss of customers, he introduced a revamped rewards program as well as an online forum to allow anyone from employees to patrons the opportunity to give feedback to Starbucks as a whole. Finally, he wanted to go back to the drawing board to find the correct balance of social and environmental goals that Starbucks pursued.

Technology vs Art

Starbucks received criticism on a regular basis about how its baristas were button pushers more than coffee artists as the term usually refers. Shultz saw this as a threat to Starbucks intended model which was to have each employee act like more than just a robot set only to accomplish a task. Employees were expected to accomplish their set duties as creators and servers but were also to generate conversation with customers. Creating this welcoming climate was the idea that originally implemented the larger automated espresso makers that the company was now trying to remove from its locations. It was originally believed that the less time used on creating an order could be more time spent with customers to make their experience as fulfilling as possible. While good...

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...undaries was also extraordinary and allowed Starbucks to be a staple of many people’s day the world over. Starbucks is a company that “defies standard retailing” (Koehn et al., 2008, p.5) by complementing basic corporate initiatives with corporate citizenship.

Works Cited

Buchanan, M. (2008). Starbucks' New "High Performance" Mastrena Espresso Machine. Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://gizmodo.com/383417/starbucks-new-high-performance-mastrena-espresso-machine

Koehn, N.F., Besharov, M.A., & Miller, K. (2008). Starbucks Coffee Company in the 21st Century. [Case study]. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

My Starbuck Rewards. (2011). Starbucks Coffee Company. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://www.starbucks.com/card/rewards

Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. K. (2011). Management (11th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.

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