Starbucks is one of the most successful businesses in history, familiar both to coffee drinkers or not. As other companies, it has its business strategy that has brought Starbucks such a colossal success. This paper explores essential aspects of Starbucks ‘ business strategy, such as focusing on flexibility, productivity calculation specification, and actively employing information technology.
Competitive priorities are the standards that a particular company or business must meet to survive competitively in the marketplace. Thus, it is essential that operations managers are well versed in marketing and actively work with the latter (Reid et al., 2019). There are four main categories of marketing priorities: cost, quality, time, and flexibility. Competitive firms try to offer favorable prices to customers and save on operating costs. Quality-focused companies prioritize meeting customer expectations and delivering a product identical to the design. Time businesses focus on clients for whom time is a significant factor, as for businesses stressing flexibility, adapting to the ever-changing environment is a top priority (Reid & Sanders, 2019). Of the categories reviewed, the Starbucks company actively focuses on flexibility. Since Starbucks has branches in many countries worldwide, the company researches local cultures and adapts to them, which works well. For instance, in Malaysia, where coffee is associated with Western culture and rich lifestyle, Starbucks’ entry proved to be a successful move. Also, the company provides healthy easy-to-take products such as sliced packaged bananas for Malaysian groups prioritizing health (Swan et al., 2017). The latter approach is universal elsewhere in the Starbucks network.
Productivity is an output a particular business can produce against the background of the input workers and materials. There are three types of productivity: total, partial, and multifactorial. Total productivity directly includes all the inputs used in production, a partial one targets only specific information, and a multifactorial one combines different types of inputs, such as human, machine, or technological resources (Reid & Sanders, 2019). There is no one specific method of Starbucks productivity, and it combines different ways. Nevertheless, one should note that Starbucks productivity measurements are related to the area of operations, such as the weight of coffee beans processed over a specific period and other detailed profile indicators (Gregory, 2017). With all of this in mind, it is fair to conclude that Starbucks is actively using partial measurement methods. Given Starbucks’ vast and complex network, such an approach makes sense given that many small metrics make an enormous contribution to a company’s success.
In modern life, technology plays a significant role in all areas of human life, including business, where the latter is a vital tool for companies. Three types of technology have been identified: product, process, and information (Reid & Sanders, 2019). Starbucks was ranked fifth in the list of the most respected brands in the world in 2014 and 2019 by Fortune Magazine. Even in the face of the global recession, this American giant in the coffee world has continued to move forward, which has been actively attributed to the use of information technology by its former CEO, Howard Schultz. An example of this is the constant and influential activity of Starbucks on Twitter. The company actively uses visuals and emotional interactions with customers using social media, which gradually brings lasting good results (Taecharungroj, 2017). Starbucks’ social media strategy is very logical and profitable to increase the number of its users and the level of loyalty to it. Such a focus on information technology is particularly beneficial in terms of marketing and is an important part of Starbucks’ business strategy.
In conclusion, the success of Starbucks is a complex phenomenon that involves many details. From these, the emphasis on flexibility, narrow profiling of productivity, and information technologies play a significant role. As Starbucks has proven over the decades, this process is likely to continue that it can outperform its competitors better and faster and keep up with what is backed by a highly organized workforce and technology. Proper calculation contributes to the constant expansion of the Starbucks network worldwide.
References
Reid, R. D., & Sanders, N. R. (2019). Operations management: an integrated approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Taecharungroj, V. (2017). Starbucks’ marketing communications strategy on Twitter. Journal of Marketing Communications, 23(6), 552-571.
Swan, G. C. Y., Isa, M. B. M., Siddiq, M. S. B., & Razak, U. A (2017). The external environment and its effect on strategic marketing planning: A case of starbucks malaysia. International Journal of Marketing and Management Research, 8(1), 2229-6883.
Gregory, L. (2017). Starbucks coffee’s operations management: 10 decisions, productivity. Panmore Institute. Web.