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Balancing Culture and Growth at Starbucks

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Balancing Culture and Growth at Starbucks
MGMT 301 | Case Study 2 | Balancing Culture and Growth at Starbucks | | Ahmed Younis S00016900Qusai Al-Attar S00013310 | 4/27/2011 |

For Dr. Penny Mcdonald |

1. Starbucks ' culture is mainly to be the "third place" for an individual after home and work. This kind of mind set explains a lot about what Starbucks wishes to represent for a customer. Starbucks wants to be part of a customer 's life, immersed in his/her everyday routine. Part of Starbucks ' culture as well is building a common vision for its employees so that they would share the vision and purpose of self-esteem and self-respect. These kinds of values all contribute to well-known Starbucks culture that is familiar to any Starbucks customer worldwide.
These help and motivate Starbucks ' growth strategy as employees are driven to maintain the organizational culture in the face of rapid growth.
Rapid growth is what Starbucks ' strategy is all about but it is also important for them to maintain their culture. "I want to grow big and stay small at the same time" said Donald, CEO of Starbucks.
Many companies struggle to keep their core values against changing and growing and not many succeed in doing so. The reason Schultz was attracted to this industry was the cozy feeling he had when he first visited the espresso bar in Milan. What his company was able to do is emulate that feeling across all branches worldwide. A customer walking into a Starbucks in Kuwait would get the same feeling and service as walking in a Starbucks in France.
Even in his memo Schultz finishes it with "Onward…" as a motivation for his employees to put in that great amount of effort that got them where they are and motivate them to keep the culture that has held it steady during all this rapid growth.

2. Normally rapid growth inevitably undermines a company 's culture and I believe that it did so in Starbucks. Schultz 's memo was written with a fear of losing



References: - Quenqua, D. (2010). Starbuck’s own good idea. Marketing News, 44(3), 23-25. Retrieved from Business Source Complete database. -Spector, B. (2010). Chapter 7.Implementing organizational change: theory into practice(2nd ed., pp. 180-183). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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