INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE STRATEGY

International Corporate Strategy



International Corporate Strategy - Starbucks Corporations

Company Overview - Starbucks Cooperation

Starbucks Corporation is a company that deals in coffee retail with an approximate 16,850 coffee shops spread in 40 countries. Its stores specialize in offering drinks, food coffee, tea and roasted beans. In the US, the company runs shops that owned while other shops spread in airports and shopping centres owned as franchises constituting 8,000 of their units. In addition, the company controls the Torrefazione Italia and Seattle's Best coffee brands. The company was founded in 1971 by Gordon Bowker, Jerry Baldwin and Zev Siegel in Seattle. In 1982, Howard Schultz joined the company as the head of the market and retail with a vision of expanding to open more stores in the United States and Canada (Kim, 2008, pp. 41-49). The March of 1987 saw to the sale of Starbucks to Howard by Gordon Bowker and Jerry Baldwin. Over the years, the company has experienced phenomenal growth to become one of the best retail businesses dealing in coffee, roasted beans and coffee equipment for customers' own brewing. It has established itself as one of the major brands in the American market. Since its transfer to Howard Schultz, the company has implements various strategies aimed at improving the performance of the company. The company culture guided by various principles including quality and customer satisfaction. Moreover, the company guided by a mission statement that encompasses the goals and objectives of the company besides the strategies of attaining them. The mission statement entails a goal to become the best coffee stores in the world through observation of various guidelines including appreciating diversity, social responsibility and suitable work environment. The company also geared towards customer satisfaction profitability and excellence in service and product delivery (Purcell, 2011, pp. 110-121).

Global Expansion Strategy

The company also developed a strategy for expansion that saw it target various geographical regions that were suitable to their goals and infrastructure. The strategy involved choosing a city that served as the hub for each target region with the aim of establishing a minimum of 20 stores in the entire region in a period of two years. Furthermore, vice presidents selected to oversee the development of stores and in still the organisational culture. The presidents also facilitated the recruitment of operation and marketing staff equipped for chain store management. The expansion strategy in metropolitan regions entailed an approach aimed at setting up stores in the entire area. Through this, company was able to reduce costs of management, expand the customer base and facilitate faster service for customers. The strategy further enhanced by the ability to recognise potential retail sites for store development. The staff involved in real estate was skilled and worked to establish trust with communities in areas of expected development. At the international level, the company used two dimensions of strategy involving opening up stores or licensing other companies with a reputation to set up Starbucks stores. The criterion for licensing emphasized on qualities of retail experience ...