“Want a Yogurt with that Venti Late? Starbucks and Danone to Join Forces” article, written by Stephanie Strom and published at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/business/starbucks-and-danone-joining-forces-to-sell-yogurt.html?ref=global&_r=1& on July 23rd, 2013 discusses about an organizational strategy for increasing two companies’ visibility, market share and profits and this is the reason why I chose it, for elaborating on an organizational behavior concept.
This business strategy comes out of Starbucks’ need of diversifying its line – up of products and services and developing its food offering. With this organizational strategy, the company looks into the future, as it anticipates the market’s trends. The company’s profits are no longer dependable on the morning cup of coffees, as customers find other reasons (other products) for going to Starbucks in any moment of the day. Observing that the U.S. yogurt market consumption has increased, Starbucks naturally pursued this direction, into proposing collaboration to Danone. Like this, Danone yogurts will have a new marketplace, besides the supermarkets’ shields: the Starbucks stores, visited by lots of customers, benefiting like this of Starbucks’ brand awareness for increasing its sells and its visibility as well.
The article is relevant for the organizational decision making concept, reflecting an effective strategy for settling a new business statement, which talks about a new positioning. According to what Strom relates, the decision making was planned, as Howard Schultz, chief executive of Starbucks met with Frank Riboud, chief executive of Danone Group for discussing the possibility of collaboration, indicating that Starbucks was already studying the commercialization of Danone yogurts within its stores.
The article taught me that for sustaining a successful business one must apply original approaches, new strategies, and make bold decisions. The consumer is at the heart of any business and companies should keep up with the development of their needs, developing organizational strategies for answering the identified needs before competitors do so.
References
Strom, S. (2013) Want a yogurt with that Venti Late? Starbucks and Danone to join forces. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/business/starbucks-and-danone-joining-forces-to-sell-yogurt.html?ref=global&_r=1&.
