Starbucks

Starbucks Corporation

MMPBL/590

Strategies for Competitive Advantage

Louise Twining

June 4, 2011

Thomas Bell

Mission, vision and values

Mission, vision, and values

According to the Starbucks website, the company’s mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks Corporation, 2011, p. 2). Starbucks presents itself as an ethical corporation, and stresses its commitment to quality, the community, and also to improving the lives of its employees. The company began as an independent coffee shop in Pikes Place Market of Seattle. The company specialized in a strong, rich roast with a distinctive flavor that was unusual in the relatively monochromatic flavor profile of the coffee market at the time (Starbucks Case Study 1999, p. 1). The company encouraged consumers who had never given much thought to their daily beverage to give new reverence to coffee.

Businessman Howard Schultz soon joined the nascent Starbucks Company and began to focus upon expanding Starbucks beyond its founding location, and bringing it to the rest of America. “Early on, Schultz noticed that first-time customers sometimes felt uneasy in the stores because of their lack of knowledge about fine coffees and because store employees sometimes came across as a little arrogant. Schultz is working with store employees on developing customer-friendly sales skills and produced brochures that made it easy for customers to learn about fine coffees” (Starbucks Case Study, 1999, p. 3). Training became a point of company pride, along with its generous benefits program for even part-time employees at Starbucks are eligible for health insurance, in contrast to other major employers who make obtaining benefits nearly impossible for entry-level workers.

Starbucks began as an independent coffee shop and today stands proud as an international franchise. It retains its commitment to quality, and when Schultz thought that the level of...