Vision Statement
The core vision of Starbucks is to continuously use its competency and experience in building an innovative brand of products in the service sector. The company also strives to continuously offer unique as their main product, pastries, confectionary, items, music and the Starbucks experience. As it is a value driven company, everyone needs to know the ethics involved in serving coffee and growing of the company.
Corporate and Marketing strategy
The company aims to maximize its market penetration and continuously provide an attractive relaxing social environment. It also aims to at all time offer high quality products to its customers besides creating a superb working environment that eventually makes it realize higher profitability.
Business strategy
The company has continued to use focused differentiation as it business strategy. It strives to serve the niche market or buyers at all times than its industry rivals. It also strives to put in place unique capabilities that that enables it to better serve buyers’ needs. Equally, being profitable, recording excellent growth and effective use of resources to serve the market niche are its business strategy.
Mission Statement
The company’s mission is to nurture and to inspire human spirit- one cup, one person and one neighborhood every time. Its coffee will always be of highest quality. It has passion for ethically sourcing finest beans; have them roasted with greatest care and to constantly improve the lives of its customers. Starbucks strives to offer classic products with unique taste and aroma to its clients through the years. It also gives value to its employees, whom they call partners, to create a friendly and satisfying environment. It uses strategies that would exhibit the good name, great taste and the Starbucks experience. Benefits are given to the employees. Even the part time workers are benefited as they constitute a big percent of the employees. The skilled baristas are working students who works part time in their stores.
Objectives
Financial objectives
Being the fastest growing food chain in the world, Starbucks aims to boost its earnings from 20% to 25% every year for the next three years. It aims to increase its return on investments as well as its market share significantly.
Strategic objectives
The company aims to rapidly expand its stores both globally and domestically through provision of distinctive service to its niche buyers. It also strives to increase its storefronts to 40,000 worldwide.
Assumptions
The company’s strategic plan is based on Sun Tzu principle that one should be a character based leader. Starbucks believes on the philosophy that one needs not to be reckless, quick tempered and not too compassionate and overly focused on one’s honor. It assumes that its success is dependent on leaders who provide endless support to the subordinates. It as well assumes that every employee knows the core values that should be followed because they have been taught.
SWOT analysis
The company has an established niche in the market as a provider of high-end coffee brand, offering exotic, rich coffee blends. Similarly, it has well educated employees who have the passion and ability to communicate the message of the company’s product. Equally, it has developed cool atmosphere in the coffee bars that make customers have a feeling of sophistication, sense of knowledge and style. These strengths have enabled the company to constantly meet the needs of its customers since it allows customers to experience an exotic, rich blend of coffee. The allow customers to taste and distinguish the difference by focusing on the quality of the products. These differentiate it from the competitors since it has established a niche in the industry as a high-end exotic brand of coffee.
Weaknesses
Despite the fact that Starbucks has excellent customer service derived from its dedicated and loyal employees, the company incurs too much cost. Their industry peers comparatively pay lower amounts.
Opportunities
The company is presented with an opportunity of emerging global or international markets. It also has an opportunity to maximally make use of technology that results from technological advancements.
Threats
The world economy is experiencing recession. This relates to serving customers’ needs because it impacts the consumers’ purchasing power. There is also a threat from emerging competitors and the sharp increase in cost of dairy products and coffee. These make the company to lower its prices whilst that of coffee beans is rising.
Strategic alternative
According to Hitt et al (2011), one of the keys to sustainable success is innovation wherein it is not just about process but also of people. This was also the idea of Schultz, thus creating a working environment that is innovative and also friendly for workers is the best alternative for Starbucks. This is advantageous in the sense that it will enable the company to remain as “Distinctive Starbucks experience.” It will also enable the company make use of highest standards of fresh delivery and roasting of coffee and satisfy ever changing customer needs through the years. However, its disadvantage is that the company must incur extra costs while carrying out research and development and for it to continuously be innovative. This is likely to reduce the company’s profitability.
Making choices becomes difficult especially if there are areas which must be sacrificed for the benefit of other areas. Thus, choices must include generation of options, evaluation of options and selection of strategy. That is in a service company, the manager should think of different choices or strategies to make their sales boost.
References
Hitt, M., Ireland, D. and Hoskisson, R. (2008). Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization-Concepts & Cases. UK: Cengage Learning.
