Modern Management –Starbucks’ Strategy Case
In the recent past, the dispute of management has experienced the creation of many new management concepts such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Benchmarking and many more others (Lisiński, Sroka, Brzeziński, Jabłoński, & Stuglik, 2012). Similarly, Staliński (2012) advocates that the traditional management decision-making is no longer applicable currently as the management should consult all the key stakeholders for effective decision-making. This poses a challenge for the current managers to stay abreast with the new management concepts to effectively and competitively manage their organizations. For the broad and deep understanding of the modern management concepts, this paper uses the case study of Starbucks’ organization culture, key leadership and the management traits used to execute the business strategy. The paper elaborately discusses the effectiveness of the Starbucks’ management in the overall success of the company. It the extensive and comprehensive paper. This is a Student Sample ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
Key Elements of the Starbucks’ Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is very crucial for any organization and can determine the company’s success or failure (Ahmad, 2012). Starbucks’ seems to have understood the importance of the organizational culture and used it to demand its business’ success in the global economy. The management has set up the culture that influences both the employees and the business performance. First, is the creation of the third place for the customers apart from the home and work, where people can meet to share a cup of coffee and as well as create a community. Second, a great work environment where all are treated with dignity and respect. This does not only maintain existing customers but also attracts a large pool of new customers as well motivating the employees to deliver to their optimum. Third, the friendly and warm ambiance has enhanced the company competitive advantage not only in the home markets but also in the international arena. Fourth, the company demands that the employees be properly trained to have prior knowledge of the products the company offers to improve the customers’ experience. To ensure that the organization culture is maintained and sustainable, Starbucks’ management always ensure the company organization culture is in alignment with the company business strategies to facilitate successful global expansion and brand development.
Starbucks’ Management Decision Effectiveness on Innovative Offerings
According to The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (2007), effective decision making should create the basis for the competitive advantage as well as creating value for the company. The Starbucks management realized the importance of effective decision making and engaged in the programs of customer offerings to continue maintaining the present customers as well win more prospectus consumers. In support Vasilescu (2011) noted that effective decision-making requires the leaders to make decision basing on the current organization condition. The innovate tactics which have been applied by the management has been effective ensuring that the company has competitive and sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace as well staying ahead of its competitors. For example, the company outstanding customers experiences and high-quality coffee has rooted the company at the top of the industry. Therefore, it is indisputable that the management decision on the innovative customer offerings has been very effective in ensuring the company competitiveness in the market.
Key Management Competency for the Starbucks Manager
Organizational cultures play a major role in ensuring the organizational success and the employees’ satisfaction respectively (Kane-Urrabazo, 2006). However, to ensure that the role of the organizational culture is well played, the organization management competencies should line up with the company mission and vision as well as the culture of the organization. The alignment of the certain competencies with the core organization values such as culture ensures the growth of the company while maintaining its primary values (Kane-Urrabazo, 2006). For the Starbucks, the company has had a very robust and beneficial culture which has facilitated the company success both domestically and globally. The company culture is majorly rooted among the employees. It is important to note that, employees are the crucial resources of any organization and thus the company culture is majorly determined by the employees despite the management decision. In the Starbucks scenario, the management core competency is that the manager should possess employees’ talent management skills to ensure the maintenance of the current organization culture. Employees have the knowledge and skills of delivering the services to the company. Alternatively, employees can build or tarnish the organization culture through their actions if the knowledge is not properly managed. Organizational culture is largely built through talent management process, and thus the communication of the Starbucks’ culture to employees during this process will ensure the continuance preservation of the company culture. This is a Student Sample ORDER YOUR PAPER NOW
Starbucks Long-term Sustainability as the Global Leader in the absence of CEO Howard Shultz
For any organization to continue enjoying success and leadership in its industry, in the long run, it has to review its competitive strategies frequently to determine whether they are still viable (Srivastava, Franklin, & Martinette, 2013). In the Starbucks set up as much, the success is attributable to the company business strategies it is much higher associated with the leadership of the Howard Schultz than the strategies. Under the leadership of Howard, the company has maintained high ethical standards. Similarly, the company employees have expressed their satisfaction with the leadership of current Chief Executive Officer. Additionally, Howard has focused on establishing profitable and sustainable growth of the company. This has enabled Starbucks Coffee to take and maintain the leading position in the coffee industry globally. The question which looms in the minds of many is, “what will happen to the Starbucks in the absence of CEO Howard Shultz”. From this argument, it is clearly that Howard has been the core cornerstone of the success of the Starbucks.
The evaluation of the Starbucks Company without Howard as the CEO can be based on the performance of the company between the years 2000 and 2008. This was the period when Howard had retired as the CEO of the Starbucks Company. During this period Jim Donald assumed the responsibilities of the CEO while Howard was the director of the board. The company stock price started to decline which came as the shock to the Howard. On his argument, Jim Donald the then CEO blamed the decline of the company performance on the too many stores in the United States that reduced the quality of the coffee. As the founder of the company, Howard had to intervene by resuming the position of the CEO and rescue Starbucks from stagnating. From this evidence, it is non-argumentative that it will be difficult for Starbucks to maintain the global leadership in the coffee industry without the Howard. However, this is primarily determinable by the competence and leadership skills of the CEO, who will replace Howard Shultz.
Conclusion
Management and organizational culture are interdependent aspects. Management sets up the culture of the organization whereas the managers have to set business strategies and perform other managerial duties without compromising the company culture. Additionally, Management is the dynamic process which requires the managers to be fully equipped with the current management concepts and new opportunities in the market as well as in the industry. In the Starbucks case, Howard was able to acquire new management styles in Italy and implement them in his home country America. In the modern management, managers should network extensively to have a broad portfolio of ideas on how to improve the organization’s performance.
References
Ahmad, M. S. (2012). Impact Of Organizational Culture On Performance Management Practices In Pakistan. Business Intelligence Journal, 5(1), 50-55.
Kane-Urrabazo, C. (2006). Management’s role in shaping organizational culture. Journal of Nursing Management, 14, 188–194.
Lisiński, M., Sroka, W., Brzeziński, P., Jabłoński, A., & Stuglik, J. (2012). Application of Modern Management Concepts by Polish Companies – Analysis of Research Results. Organizacija Journal, 45(2), 41-49. doi: 10.2478/v10051-012-0005-5
Srivastava, M., Franklin, A., & Martinette, L. (2013). Building a Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, 8(2), 47- 60.
Staliński, P. (2012). Contemporary Management Concepts. Journal of Entrepreneurship, 8(2), 1-97.
The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (2007). Effective decision making. London: CIMA.
Vasilescu, C. (2011). Effective Strategic Decision Making. Journal of Defense Resources Management, 1(2), 102 -106.