Continuing Case

1 Continuing Case: Starbucks-Introduction Answers to the questions 1. What management skills do you think would be most important for Howard Schultz to have? Why? What skills do you think would be most important for a Starbucks store manager to have? Why? As chairman and chief global strategist of Starbucks Corporation, Howard Schultz needs to have strong skills in each of the areas identified by Robert L. Katz: technical

skills, human skills, and conceptual skills. Among them, conceptual skills are especially important for Schultz to effectively lead his company These skills enable him to make strategic plans that guide the global growth of Starbucks, predict future product trends, and take advantage of opportunities in the external environment.

As to each Starbucks store manager, he or she also needs to have the skills identified by Katz in order to manage an individual Starbucks location successfully. The most important skills needed in this level of management would likely be related to human skills. This human skill make a store manager to effectively utilize his/her most valuable resource - the employees, or “partners” - to achieve the goals and objectives of the individual store as well as the corporation as a whole. 2. How might the

following management theories/approaches be useful to Starbucks: scientific management, organizational behavior, quantitative approach, systems approach? Scientific management theories might be useful to Starbucks in streamlining routine activities such as the processes as involved in preparing beverages for customers, taking inventory of merchandise, and placing orders for supplies and equipment. Organizational behavior theories and approaches would be not only useful, but necessary, to the successful management of Starbucks. By using organizational behavior approaches, managers can effectively utilize his/her most valuable resource - the employees, or “partners” - to achieve the company’s goals....