One of the most recent changes in the Starbucks infrastructure may give us some insight into their present plans for intense global marketing. Underlying the recent appointment in July 17, 2007 of Mr. Martin Coles as CEO for is Global and Foreign market operations, Starbucks said that it sees an “unparalleled demand for Starbucks around the world “ (Borrman Starbucks).
This new strategy of selecting Mr. Martin Coles as CEO of Global operations indicates the concern for Starbucks to set an intense program towards developing their coffee stores around the globe. At the time of the same news story broadcasted to the world, via stock market analyst and presses across the globe, Borrman also indicated a “rapid global expansion” (Borrman Starbucks). Does this communication from the Starbucks press office indicate a new phase of rapid development or is Starbucks poising itself in rapid transit to international waters?
Mr. Coles will be reporting directly to Mr. Jim Donald, president and CEO, which indicates the importance of such a position of such a decision. The July 17 newswire reported that Mr. Coles would take responsibility “for the United States and International store operations and store development, the global Consumer Group and Supply Chain Operations” (Borrman Starbucks). Further in the newswire Borrman tells the importance of this strategy for Starbucks, since Starbucks “continues on its pace to double in size in the next four to five years” (Borrman Starbucks). What is the goal of such an enterprise of Starbucks? Bormann reports Mr. Coles as saying that the goal is “to ensure that the Starbucks Experience consistently exceeds expectations for every one of our customers, in every one of our stores anywhere in the world” (Borrman Starbucks).
Mr. Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks, mentioned, “this new infrastructure is aligned to support our continued rapid growth and is a natural evolution of the business.” (Borrman Starbucks). This indicates that the strategy of Mr. Donald and the Board of Directors is to prevent crisis in the future rather than to wait for one to occur (Coombs 5). Given the role that organizational communication plays, while seeing that Coles, Alling and Skinner were all chosen because of their previous performance as strong team players in the Starbucks corporate store, then it is easy to infer that each of them, correlating to their past successes, have strong organizational communication strategies already at work. In what ways will the “centrality, pervasiveness, and complexity of organizational communication” be displayed in this current scenario of Starbucks natural development (Coombs 5)? How will this effect the already established Starbucks Experience”
for global customers?
In a recent visit to the Starbucks website and browsing thru their online documents, there were several bits of information which indicated the Starbucks Experience that will be continued. I say continued because as Mr. Howard Schultz indicated that this is a “natural evolution of the business” (Borrman Starbucks).
Social Responsibility Indicators
In a recent report called “Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility” there were indicated the key factors which Starbucks test itself yearly for fiscal accountability. The main sections are Coffee, Society, Environment, Workplace and Diversity. Actually this is a mini-scope of their corporate report. The main indicators can be seen as the major channels which corporate communication is channeled thru its stores. In other words, this communication is “Central, pervasive, and complex” (Coombs 5). In order for Starbucks to produce the very best product on the global market, under this new leadership, Mr. Coles must communicate to those he manages towards this international market, both the goals of sales goals while keeping a balance with the environment. In other words, all of the systems must “interact” with one another (Coombs 7). For example, though this is not indicated in the above chart, Starbucks is very interested in what “rumors” are surrounding Starbucks. Not only is it interested, but also it has part of its website dedicated to listening to what others may want to share about “rumors” (rumor response).
There is a search engine on the page, which allows anyone to access this information 24/7 to check whether a rumor is actually recorded and responded to by Starbucks. The Starbucks managers seem indicate that they follow a classical management style where everyone communicates openly and democratically (Coombes 74). In other words, not only does Starbucks open to hear what U.S. citizens have to say, but now that they have become very serious about opening up international relations they must also rally forth into deeper waters. They must become adepts at the local cultures and taboos, so that they will not become offensive or unacceptable.
This seems to be a very great preventive tool from things exploding. Crisis management seeks to use a “set of factors designated to combat crises and lessen the actual damage inflicted by the crisis” (Coombes 4). Presently Starbucks is represented in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Middle East. These various cultures have their own native tongue. When visiting an international Starbucks webpage it is written in the native language. For example the webpage to the Starbucks Turkey is in Turkish. Each page is designed to give the Starbuck Experience, where you have the choice of store locators, recipes, and response form. All of these elements combine to make or reproduce the same original Starbuck Experience as in its original stores in the USA.
