Introduction Current situation The current international situation for Starbucks seems to be an emerging part of their business and

the reorganization of this is proved by their aim to become a leading global company through making a difference in peoples lives all around the world. This goal is quite close to being achieved as proved the Starbucks current locations in international markets and the success of these ventures. The current countries in which Starbucks are located in are: Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, Peoples Republic of China, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, United Kingdom, and the United States. Current performance Overall, the aim of becoming a worldwide global brand seems to be working in favor of the company and is helping it to attract the attention of many major companies who would like to share a partnership. This is all positive news for the company because it provides a strong basis for future development of international markets, which further strengthens the mission to become one of the leading specialty coffee retailers in the world. However, the net revenues increased 3 percent to $2.5 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to $2.4 billion for the fourth quarter of ended September 28, 2007. For the 13-week period 2008, Starbucks reported net income of $5.4 million, which

included $105.1 million of restructuring charges and other transformation strategy costs. Net income was $158.5 million for the same period a year ago. The company actions announced in July of 2008 to close approximately 600 company-operated stores in the U.S. and 61 company-operated stores in Australia, and reduce approximately 1,000 open and filled positions within its leadership structure and non-store organization.

Strategic posture Mission To inspire and nurture the human spirit one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time The mission of Starbucks is to establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow None of this success would have been possible without a set of goals that the company aimed to achieve and a set of principles, which governed the decision making process. The six principles of Starbucks are stated as: 1- P r o v i d e a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity. 2- E m b r a c e diversity as an essential component in the way we do business. 3- A p p l y the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing. 4- R o a s t i n g and fresh delivery of our coffee. 5- D e v e l o p enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time. 6- C o n t r i b u t e positively to our communities and our environment, and recognize that profitability is essential to our future success. Application of these principles can be used as a guideline for all employees from managers to workers to aim to achieve the companys goals, while maintaining a certain type of standard. This mission statement along with the set of guidelines provides a focus for employees as they make strategic decisions. It not only supports the employees, but supports the customers as well, making a note that they should be satisfied all of the time. The mission shows alignment with the vision by stating how the company plans to reach the broad goals set by the vision statement. Another supporting sentence in the mission statement is that the company applies the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of its coffee. This statement supports the idea that Starbucks uses the best available resources to give it a recognized and respected name.

Financial Analysis The general financial performance for Starbucks in 2008 was declining from the previous years dramatically. The following analysis will show this fact.

Investment Returns % Return On Equity Return On Assets

Company 12.6 5.6

Industry 25.8 13.2

Both the ROE and ROA are lower than the industrys average, which means that the company is not using both the equity and their assets properly to increase their revenue.

Profit Margins % Gross Margin Pre-Tax Margin Net Profit Margin

Company 16 4.4 3.03

Industry 27 13.2 8.5

Starbucks margins are lower also that the industrys average, especially in 2008 where the net profit margin reduced to 3.03 from 6.3 in 2007.

Financial Condition Debt/Equity Ratio Current Ratio Quick Ratio

Company Industry 0.40 0.46 0.80 1 0.48 0.7

Starbucks generally manages their debs and liabilities wisely, and this considers a financial strength for the company.

Year Sales Net Income

2008 10,383,000 315,500

2007 9,411,497 672,638

2006 7,786,942 564,259

2005 6,369,300 494,467

Growth Rate
12,000,000 10,000,000 800,000 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 Sales Net Incom e

Value USD

8,000,000 6,000,000 4,000,000 2,000,000 0

Years

Although the total sales was increased in the last 4 years, the net income was reduced, especially in 2008 when it reached almost half 2007.

Management Efficiency Inventory Turnover Asset Turnover

Company 12.6 1.83

Industry 20.6 1.7

Corporate governance Board of directors As part of Starbucks mission they are committed to maintain their uncompromising principles while they grow. In this regard, their Board of Directors has adopted governance principles and committee charters to lead Starbucks governance practices. Currently, the board has 9 directors, a substantial majority of whom meet all of the independence requirements of NASDAQ and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Of the nine members of Starbucks board, one is Latino, two are African American (one of which is female), and one other female also serves on the board. Starbucks president and CEO Howard Schultz chair the board. In Starbucks there are well-defined criteria for the selection of new board members, foremost being a clear demonstration of their own personal integrity and ethics. Board diversity is sought in terms of members personal wider range ofopinions and perspectives to be considered. andprofessional This criterias of backgrounds, gender, race, ethnicity or other differentiating characteristics, enabling a selection affected the company in a very good way that gave it the opportunity to succeed in the international market. That the diversified background, education, culture and gender in the board was one of the greatest Starbucks strong points.

There are three committees of the board are comprised of independent directors and Nominating and Corporate Governance.

and have

specific charters: Audit and Compliance, Compensation and Management Development

In November 2007, the board amended the companys bylaws to include voting to allow shareholders to play a more meaningful role in the election of directors. Director nominees must receive more for than against votes to be elected in an uncontested election. Additionally, the term of a nominee who does not receive a majority of the votes cast will end on the earliest of either: (1) 90 days after the date election results are certified; (2) the date the director resigns; or (3) the date the board of directors fills the position. This change demonstrates Starbucks ongoing commitment to strong corporate governance practices.

Starbucks formed a Policy Governance Council in fiscal 2006 to oversee and approve governance tools at the global enterprise level, and to ensure they are welldefined, consistent with each other, current, stored for easy retrieval, and effectively communicated to partners. The Council is comprised of company leaders who represent multiple business units and functions, and is supported by Starbucks Policy Office and staff.

Functional strategies Marketing The main marketing strategy and position for Starbucks is for customers to consider it as their place after home and work, this will guarantee customers visiting the shops several times. However it also customizes its positioning for each store individually according to the specific location it is in. Another important part of Starbucks positioning over competition is that they are environmentally friendly. Starbucks does not generally offer promotional prices on its products. It has a reputation for having pricey drinks; furthermore, Starbucks brand is too expensive. The company mainly depends on the brand for their high revenues, which could be risky from competition. However it seems to be the market leader when it comes to new products and ideas. Starbucks has found more success advertising on a local level rather than to the nation as a whole. The Company advertises a lot through print mediums, as Starbucks target market tends to be educated people who do more reading than the average person. In 2005, Starbucks spent $87.7 million on advertising, or 1.4% of revenues. Starbucks also market itself as environmentally friendly and focus on its corporate social responsibility, one example is buying Ethos-Water Company and they also plan to donate $ 10 million to help countries under developed lacking clean water. R&D The R&D role in Starbucks is to make a R&D mix and mainly consists of the following activities: Coffee Science New Technology Equipment Technology Product Development

 Menu Development Coffee Quality Assurance Sensory Science The introduction of the Starbucks Card for example, Starbucks has created the opportunity to improve customer service, shorten lines and make a customers visit at Starbucks quicker and more convenient Starbucks is continuously searching for ways to better a customers experience. The company spent 7.2 Million in 2008 for new technologies related to food and equipment.

Operations and logistics The main operation for Starbucks divided into local operation in USA and international operation. Starbucks depended mainly on their employees to manage operation, thats why they focused on training employees as they are the main asset in the company. They are managing all stores in USA, however, they are in the international operation sometimes manage their store, or give licenses, or get into joint ventures with existing companies. But they focus on their operation on the quality of their coffee. Starbucks deals with international small suppliers. Starbucks made good deals with their suppliers to supply coffee with fixed prices rather than using the Fair Trade Coffee. They mainly use non-smoking restrictions in their stores, however in some countries because of culture conflicts they had to have either smoking rooms or smoke areas in the air. One of the main advantages Starbucks has is the accumulative experience of their employees in operation, this is due to the low turn over they have and their focus on employee satisfaction.

Human Resources Starbucks paid considerable attention to the kind of people it recruited. So the company hired people for qualities like adaptability, dependability and the ability to work in a team. Starbucks was one of the few retail companies to invest considerably in employee training and provide comprehensive training to all classes of employees, including part-timers Company depends on their personnel in their high revenue, which is very risky as if they lost some of the key persons. Early 2000s, the company began to show signs that

its generous policies and high human resource costs were reflecting on its financial strength. Although the company did not reveal the amount it spent on employees, it said that it spent more on them than it did on advertising While the industry turnover rate is about 200 percent, Starbucks maintains a turnover rate of only 60 percent. Due to this low turnover, Starbucks has lowered their training time and costs. Furthermore, 82% of the partners rated being very satisfied and 15% as satisfied with their jobs when asked by outside audit agencies.

Information System Starbucks is following this major trend of moving towards multimedia Direct Marketing Solutions and Web-based models. Customers visit its web site to buy coffee products and gifts, and to learn more about the art of roasting and brewing coffee. The site also offers services such as the Starbucks Taste Matcher tool, which interactively recommends specifics coffee roasts and blends bases on customers preferences. Moreover in late November 2001 Starbucks Debit card was introduced in US. Its introduction has increased customer loyalty as well as attracted new customers to Starbucks stores. Most if not all Starbucks locations have WI-FI for consumer needs. The MIS department affects Starbucks partners whenever they open a store cash register, use computer software or send voice mail messages. The IS department in Starbucks focuses mainly on:

Business Applications Development Production Services Retail Business Systems Strategic Architecture

Corporate Strategy The corporate strategy should continue in Retrenchment as they started in July 2008 close stores to reach 600 by the end of 2009. One more strategy should be added to Diversify in related business to secure the company, as they depend only on coffee products. Business strategy Domestic Business Unit: Should focus on more differentiation to face the hard local competition. International Business Unit: Should focus on reducing costs to reduce prices; this will help in entering new low cost markets and gain more profits. Also continue with alliances in countries to reduce management focus and concentrate more on the Domestic Market. Functional Strategies Marketing Starbuck should continue in their existing marketing strategy for promotion and advertising. Starbuck should make strategy of good price reduction strategy in order to enter new markets and maintain current customers. Research and Development Starbuck can continue in their R&D strategy by being the Technological leader in the coffee retail business. Operation Strategy Starbuck can continue in the current strategy for depending on employees in management and to make good deals with suppliers to reduce costs. Human Resources The company should continue in developing and motivating employees as they are their best assets. Information System The company should continue in developing their Information System to help the company increasing profitability

Implementation The company can implement the above strategies by: o Use the best of their Economies of scale to reduce costs. o Start new independent Business Unit for New products, with decentralization for products-group structure. o They should reduce cross functional tasks to reduce confusion between employees and increase efficiency. o Depend on the outsiders of their board to get potential new investments in new businesses.

External Environment: Opportunities and Threats Starbucks international operation was one of the major aspects of their success. In the mid- 1990s, with the market reaching saturation, Starbucks could no longer depend on the U.S. market for growth. To maintain its growth rates and to boost revenues, Starbucks had to venture abroad. Starbucks international presence is now in more than 25 countries and the United States of America. This presence is formed in three modes in entry that are Joint venture, licensing and wholly owned subsidiaries. This became a burden on the mother company in a later stage. That those types of entry moods need a lot of training, supervising, management assistance and technology transfer for the partner. This is along with inability to engage in global strategic coordination. However, the success of Starbucks is not only to its aggressive expansion but also to its product innovation. Starbucks came out with new products to attract customers on different periods. Also diversification was one of the factors that Starbucks started to apply even on a small initiated base. That along with serving coffee, Starbucks also sold merchandise. In 1995, it started selling CDs of its famous in-house music program. It also entered into alliances with various players such as Canadian Airlines, United Air Lines, Starwood Hotels, and Barnes & Noble, Inc., to serve Starbucks coffee.

However, it was found that the success of Starbucks was due to its profitable

domestic operations. It was reported that most of Starbucks' international operations were running into losses. In May 2003, Starbucks' Japanese operations reported a loss of $3.9 million (Japan constituted the largest market for the company outside the United States), and the company also performed badly in Europe and the Middle East. Analysis pointed out that Starbucks international operations were not as well planned as its U.S. operations. It was also observed that the volatile international business environment made it difficult for the company to effectively manage its international operations.

Internal Environment: Strengths and Weaknesses Corporate Structure Starbuck has no formal organization chart and does not work with hierarchy structure. It consists of two main departments, functional department consists of marketing, supply chain, operations, finance and human resources, and cross functional teams, consisting of local store marketing and marketing campaigns. The decision making process in Starbucks is bottom up process, where the employees are empowered even to take decisions without referring back to the management. There is a conflict in the corporate structure where some employees are reporting to two different divisions which in some cases causing confusion and over lapping. Corporate culture The Chairman of Starbucks, Schultz decided to treat employees as family, and called them partners. Both full time and part time employees could benefit from training and health insurance. Starbucks paid some more salaries than competitors to gain highly qualified employees. Starbucks relied on its baristas and other frontline staff to a great extent in creating the Starbucks Experience' which differentiated it from competitors. Employees had option to stock charge according to their base salaries. Also Starbucks had shared values with their employees who made them proud to work in such successful company, and this created good culture. Schultz decided also to be open and honest with his employees, and let them share in the decision making process. He gave extensive training to employees especially barista employees to give careful attention to customers. Environment was important to Starbucks. Using this concept Starbucks gave good

attention to their suppliers by helping them technically and financially as part of their corporate social responsibility. Also it encouraged all partners to share in the companys mission. Starbucks has deep tacit knowledge, which is difficult to be imitated by competition.

SWOT ANALYSIS. Internal factors Strengths S1 High Brand Equity S2 Satisfied employees External Factors S4 Economies of scale in purchasing Weaknesses W1 High prices W2 Over dependency on coffee and coffee related products W3 Lack of internal focus (too much Opportunities O1 New market with low investment O2 Coffee Market growing worldwide O3 Product range diversification to food and non food items 1- Differentiate using the high brand to prevent domestic competition. 2- Make backward vertical integration using the economies of scale to avoid volatile of coffee and dairy 1- Grow vertically to include other low cost countries using the good brand. 2- Use the experienced employees to diversify in other related businesses. focus on expansion) 1- Diversification to related businesses to overcome the dependency on the coffee and increase product range. 2- Reduce costs to reduce prices in low investment markets and get benefits from the growing markets. Threats T2 Financial Crises and Recession T3 Increase in Domestic competition T4 Volatile coffee and dairy products 1- Reduce costs to reduce price in order to survive in the current financial crises. 2- Depend on international alliances in the international stores to focus on the domestic market to avoid competition, as the domestic market is the main source of revenue.

Michael Porters five forces Michael Porter defines five forces impacting a firm's competitiveness threat of substitutes, threat of new entrants in the industry, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, and the intensity of competition within the industry. A firms strategic decisions to respond to these five forces are a source of risk also. The company is facing a real threat of substitution from many other companies that producing the same product that is satisfying the same need. This is in its domestic market and even in the international market specially Europe and Middle East. Also Starbucks is facing a real problem of rival competition due to its uncompetitive price all over the world and even in its domestic market. Also the taste of Coffee had been judged by customers as an artificial taste especially in Japan. Suppliers bargaining power is really represent a threat for Starbucks. That they decided to deal with a 51% women or minority owned suppliers. Also they are not dealing with suppliers who dont follow the same environmental ethics that are for Starbucks. This may lead them to lose a good opportunity or deal with a supplier that they will not deal with him. Also dealing with small suppliers instead of dealing with limited number of big power full suppliers is not giving them real good deals for facilities and prices.

PESTEL ANALYSIS Economics Economic factors are an important aspects that concern the nature and direction of the economy in which a firm operates. Starbucks also faced criticism from Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that urged the company to acquire certified coffee beans, ensuring that those coffee beans were grown and marketed under certain economic and social conditions. Furthermore, Starbucks faced problems due to economic recession in countries such as Switzerland, Germany, and Japan in the early 2000s, where it experienced declining sales and revenues. Moreover, a real expectation of huge recession during the next year due to the worldwide financial crisis may affect the companys results badly.

Technological Starbucks is continuously searching for ways to better a customers experience. With the introduction of the Starbucks Card for example, the Company has created the opportunity to improve customer service, shorten lines and make a customers visit at Starbucks quicker and more convenient. Most if not all Starbucks location has WI-FI for consumer needs. Political/Legal 1- Increasing tensions between the United States and the rest of the world, the business environment, especially in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, was becoming increasingly volatile. After U.S. declaration of war on Iraq in early 2003 matters became worse for the company. This created serious problems for Starbucks. In July 2002, Arab students called for a boycott of American goods and services, due to the alleged close relationship between the United States and Israel. The boycott targeted U.S. companies including Starbucks, Burger King, Coca-Cola and Estee Lauder 2- In addition to these incidents, Starbucks topped the list of companies to be boycotted due to Schultz's alleged closeness to the Jewish community. Till now in the Arab countries & Middle East a lot of rumors that Starbucks is sponsoring the Jewish community against Palestinian crises. Due to increasing security threats, Starbucks closed down its six stores in Israel. 3- Starbucks had two class action suits pending since 2001. The lawsuits entitled Carr vs. Starbucks and Sheilds vs. Starbucks are challenging the status of Starbucks California store managers and assistant managers as exempt employees under California wage and hour laws. Starbucks is denying all liabilities in these cases, however; the company has agreed to the settlement in order to take care of all of the plaintiffs claims without having to get involved in any protracted litigation. 4- Starbucks only imports all their coffee beans, so possible threats could include a change in import laws. A change in the status quo as far as imports go could greatly affect numerous areas of production for the company. For example, if it costs more to import or the process is made more difficult the result could ultimately be a change in price, which would affect the level of consumption for Starbucks coffees. Social/Cultural Environmental Mission Statement (Starbucks is committed to a role of environmental leadership in all facets of our

business) As a result of Starbucks closely following their objectives, the company has installed a list of principles that further outline the companys willingness to make sure that its affect on the environment is as positive as possible. These principles are stated as: 1- Understanding of environmental issues. 2- Sharing information with our partners. 3- Developing innovative and flexible solutions to bring about change. 4- Striving to buy, sell and use environmentally friendly products. 5- Recognizing that fiscal responsibility is essential to our environmental future. 6- Instilling environmental responsibility as a corporate value. 7- Measuring and monitoring our progress for each project, and encouraging all partners to share in our mission. Those can only be seen as a positive for the image of the company and shows that they are willing to utilize their resources in order to more than satisfy requirements. Task Environment Not only this but also, Starbucks organizing activities such as neighborhood clean-ups and walk-a-thons. Many examples are available on the web site of the company. Policies that also have been implemented are the buying policies, which only allow the company to purchase from those other businesses (suppliers) who follow the same environmental strategy as Starbucks. This may push the company to lose an opportunity of good deal, because the supplier doesnt follow the company environmental policies. Finally, to integrate these policies to new employees, Starbucks has employed the services of a few partners which congregate together to create a Green Team, which installs the environmental views into trainees as well as coming up with inventive ways of helping the environment.