Strategic Management and Strategic Competitiveness – Starbucks Corporation

Starbucks Corporation is a coffee outlet in the United States of America several years ago when no one had ever thought of running such a business in such a developed nation. The organization has currently grown beyond the borders of America. It currently has its branches in Mexico and other nearby countries. In the beginning, people used to pass by for the sake of taking morning coffee so that they would consume caffeine to last them the whole day. Apparently, that mentality changed with time, and the current generation of coffee consumers does so for purposes of enjoying the drink. Young youths form the majority of the customers for the Starbucks Corporation. Most of the customers flock the outlets every hour of the day to have fun in taking the coffee (Hart, 2011). What starbucks has managed to do over the past years is to change the mentality from taking caffeine for official reasons to consuming the caffeine as part of the people’s lifestyle. The coffee provided at starbucks has been proved by the customers to be quite different from what the consumers get from other places. The customers say that they not only consume coffee at starbucks but they get to enjoy the experience that comes with it as well. For instance, the strong nature of the coffee smell keeps the customers coming back for more and more of it. Additionally, the customers enjoy the laid-back atmosphere that is normally present at starbucks. Furthermore, the most important thing that keeps bringing the customers to the corporation is the variety that they tend to get from the corporation. Such a variety is what normally lacks at other outlets and that is what the customers prefer to get. What the customers are offered is not just any ordinary coffee; it is ranked as an extra-ordinary coffee.

Any business, be it a small scale or a large scale business, must always think and work to go beyond the borders of its mother country. That is the same way that starbucks managers had to think about their strategies when it comes to the expansion of the company. Since the organization became successful in its own yard, it had to expand beyond its borders and capture new markets (Hart, 2011). As a result of globalization, the institution expanded beyond operating in a confined region. The leaders saw it wise for the corporation to move into international and foreign markets. The primary purpose for such a move was to enable the corporation achieves its maximum potential that it was not utilizing by then. The globalization effect first caught up with the corporation in the year 2013 when it made a move to new territories. The company made a quick evolution and turned into the world-wide company that is currently known all over. The countries where the organization made an entry started feeling the starbucks effect as soon as the organization started launching its operations. One effect that starbucks managed to bring with itself is the ripple effect where indigenous companies were forced to reconsider their strategies afresh. Companies had to reconsider what they were initially offering the ir customers. The kind of quality of coffee that starbucks brought with it was of a higher quality than those offered by the indigenous companies. Such high quality services forced the other providers to consider changing their strategies so that they could serve what matched the quality offered by starbucks. The kind of competition that was created by starbucks was one of a kind. The other companies knew that if they failed to match the new standards created by starbucks then they could easily run out of business.

Starbucks encountered difficulties when attempting to enter the European market.  What Americans find exotic doesn’t translate well to Europe.  Europe has been the trading center for some of the world’s most exotic goods from far-flung locales for centuries.  While beans from foreign locations were viewed as somewhat of a delicacy for Americans, Europeans thought differently.  Initially Starbucks in Europe started with the US approach, as a coffee shop/restaurant offering the Starbucks experience.  Over time however, Starbucks evolved to fit the demand of the European citizens.  Starbucks employees on the sidewalk would educate passersby on how to “create your own coffee,” attempting to appeal to a classically French sense of artistry and creativity.  The Starbucks strategy in Paris “promotes purchases of its coffees as an endorsement, and economic support, of the foreign producers of the coffee beans that capture the unique characteristics of the soil and light…which blends the classic French concept of pride in one’s skill as an artisan or professional, land-specific produce, with a green and sustainable brand promise.”

The industrial organization model is normally concerned with the manner in which markets tend to work in different ways within different industries. The model also takes a look at how firms create competition for one another and with each other. The competition strategies come in various forms. There are those compete in terms of their pricing strategies while others compete in terms of the quality of either goods or services that they offer their customers. For the case of starbucks, the corporation has constantly used quality as a weapon through which they win competition with their rival companies. The quality of the coffee that they offer cannot be matched by any of their closest rivals. Additionally, starbucks has over the years engaged the customers by educating them on the best methods that they can use to make their own coffee from the comfort of their kitchens. Such techniques and strategies are rarely offered by the rivals who fear that the customers will cease to get coffee from their outlets.

The mission and vision statement of the corporation has over the years played a role in the success of the organization. First, the mission statement has always been used to explain the reason of the existence of the company and the aims it has in serving its esteemed stakeholders (Bart and Baetz, 1998). The stakeholders in this case refer to the customers, the employees and the investors who fund the organization. All the stakeholders therefore remain intact and loyal to the organization because they know that the organization has something good for them in store. Since the statement echoes the values of the firm, the stakeholders find it relevant to stick by those values since they also share in the same.

The vision statement on the other hand relays the message of what the corporation expects to do and create in a future period. Such a statement keeps the stakeholders focused since they know what the future holds for them. When the future seems bright, then everyone involved will work extremely hard to achieve that success.

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