Starbucks Swot

Starbucks SWOT Analysis

November 19, 2012

A SWOT analysis involves looking into the internal and external factors of a business and collecting data to use for the bettering of that business. In this paper, I will be doing a SWOT analysis on the internationally known company of Starbucks. After that, I will discuss a little how they all work together and how they should be used to build a successful company. “S” meaning strengths; I will discuss the strengths of the company. “W” meaning weaknesses; I will cover what the weaknesses of the company are. “O” meaning opportunities; I will discuss some opportunities that the company has had and capitalized on as well as some that I think they have now and could capitalize on. And “T” meaning threats; I will talk about threats that the company has (ie. competitors).

The strengths of this company start with the owners. Baldwin, Siegel, and Bowker were three very smart men who started an empire from scratch. And an ingenious idea of using dark, whole coffee beans to brew a rich coffee blend unlike any other to eventually attract many customers. Another eventual strength of the company was the addition of Shultz. This man was full of ideas that ultimately brought Starbucks into the realm of success that we see today. Also among the current strengths of Starbucks are the employees (baristas), investors, the idea of having a place to sit down and socialize while enjoying your morning coffee, and the Italian theme of the stores.

Weaknesses of the company in the beginning included the close-mindedness of the original owners. They were very closed off to the idea of hiring Shultz because they considered him an outsider and he was from New York, whereas they were from Seattle where they had their company. After they eventually decided to hire him, he made a visit to Italy and presented them with what he considered to be a fantastic idea to start selling cups of coffee and lattes in the stores directly to the...