Assignment: Starbucks (Ivey Version Page 1-21)

Q1. Is Starbucks successful because of its brand image? Examine in detail Starbucks' upstream value chain along Sourcing, Roasting and Blending, and Distribution. Assess its resources and capabilities.

Q2. Examine in detail Starbucks' downstream value chain along Retail Sales, and Consumer. Assess its resources and capabilities. Do these resources and capabilities contribute to Starbucks brand image?

Q3. What are people buying when they buy Starbucks' coffee, a cup of coffee, or an experience? How do the supportive activities contribute to Starbucks' competitive advantage? Be sure to cover leadership, structure, staffing, systems, and organizational culture.

Starbucks Coffee Company:

Transformation & Renewal (Page 3-27, 36-40)

Q4. To what degree was Starbucks decline attributable to the company itself? To the way in which it was doing business in 2007 and the strategies that got it there? Analyze both Starbucks' practices and culture.

Q5. To what degree was Starbucks decline attributable to the external marketplace? Why didn't Starbucks leadership to recognize the growing competitive threats (McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts) earlier? How did the decline of US economy beginning in 2008 contribute to the deterioration of Starbucks' position?

Q6. What were the most important components of Starbucks' transformation? Abstracting from the formalized Agenda itself, what would you say were the fundamental objectives of the transformation? How generalizable are such initiatives in the broader context of business turnarounds?

Q7. Apart from the initiatives themselves, consider Schultz's leadership through the transformation. How much of the transformation's success would you say should be attribute to Schultz himself? What do you take to be lessons on leadership we can take from his navigation of Starbucks through the transformation?

Q8. What do you think Schultz means when he says that Starbucks is "redefining the role of a for-profit company?" What do you make of Schultz's take on corporate responsibility, and its impact on the bottom line?