starbucks
Thompson−Strickland−Gamble:
Crafting and Executing
Strategy: Concepts and
Cases, 15th Edition
Case
Starbucks’ Global Quest in
2006: Is the Best Yet to
Come?
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2007
Case
29
Starbucks’ Global Quest in
2006: Is the Best Yet to Come?
Amit J. Shah
Arthur A. Thompson
Frostburg State University
The University of Alabama
Thomas F. Hawk
Frostburg State University
I
n early 2006, Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ founder, chairman of the board, and global strategist, could look with satisfaction on the company’s phenomenal growth and market success. Since 1987,
Starbucks had transformed itself from a modest nine-store operation in the Pacific Northwest into a powerhouse multinational enterprise with 10,241 store locations, including some 2,900 stores in 30 foreign countries (see Exhibit 1). During Starbucks’ early years when coffee was a 50-cent morning habit at local diners and fast-food establishments, skeptics had ridiculed the notion of $3 coffee as a yuppie fad. But the popularity of Starbucks’ Italianstyle coffees, espresso beverages, teas, pastries, and confections had made Starbucks one of the great retailing stories of recent history and the world’s biggest specialty coffee chain. In 2003, Starbucks made the Fortune 500, prompting Schultz to remark,
“It would be arrogant to sit here and say that 10 years ago we thought we would be on the Fortune 500. But we dreamed from day one and we dreamed big.”1
Having positioned Starbucks as the dominant retailer, roaster, and brand of specialty coffees and coffee drinks in North America and spawned the creation of the specialty coffee industry, management’s long-term objective was now to establish Starbucks as the most recognized and respected brand in the world. New stores were being opened at the rate of roughly 32 per week in 2005, and management
Copyright © 2006 by Amit J. Shah, Arthur A. Thompson, and Thomas
F. Hawk.
C-468
Crafting and Executing
Strategy: Concepts and
Cases, 15th Edition
Case
Starbucks’ Global Quest in
2006: Is the Best Yet to
Come?
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2007
Case
29
Starbucks’ Global Quest in
2006: Is the Best Yet to Come?
Amit J. Shah
Arthur A. Thompson
Frostburg State University
The University of Alabama
Thomas F. Hawk
Frostburg State University
I
n early 2006, Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ founder, chairman of the board, and global strategist, could look with satisfaction on the company’s phenomenal growth and market success. Since 1987,
Starbucks had transformed itself from a modest nine-store operation in the Pacific Northwest into a powerhouse multinational enterprise with 10,241 store locations, including some 2,900 stores in 30 foreign countries (see Exhibit 1). During Starbucks’ early years when coffee was a 50-cent morning habit at local diners and fast-food establishments, skeptics had ridiculed the notion of $3 coffee as a yuppie fad. But the popularity of Starbucks’ Italianstyle coffees, espresso beverages, teas, pastries, and confections had made Starbucks one of the great retailing stories of recent history and the world’s biggest specialty coffee chain. In 2003, Starbucks made the Fortune 500, prompting Schultz to remark,
“It would be arrogant to sit here and say that 10 years ago we thought we would be on the Fortune 500. But we dreamed from day one and we dreamed big.”1
Having positioned Starbucks as the dominant retailer, roaster, and brand of specialty coffees and coffee drinks in North America and spawned the creation of the specialty coffee industry, management’s long-term objective was now to establish Starbucks as the most recognized and respected brand in the world. New stores were being opened at the rate of roughly 32 per week in 2005, and management
Copyright © 2006 by Amit J. Shah, Arthur A. Thompson, and Thomas
F. Hawk.
C-468