Starbucks Quality Audit

Mission & Value Statement:
Mission Statement: “To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”(Starbucks)
Value Statement: “With our partners, our coffee and our customers at our core, we live these values: Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome.
Acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding new ways to grow our company and each other. Being present, connecting with transparency, dignity and respect. Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results.
We are performance driven, through the lens of humanity.”(Starbucks)
Background
Founded in Seattle, Washington Starbucks has become the world’s most recognized coffee chain. The coffee giant started as a business venture taken by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker, in 1987. Originally an exclusive coffee bean and coffee accessory retailer, the company’s early days were modest with only a few stores around the Seattle area. But within 10 years Starbucks became one of the major sellers of coffee making appliances despite retail size, even out selling large retailers like Sears, Their demand for coffee makers caught the attention one of their supplier’s director of sales, Howard Schultz, who was compelled to visit this small roaster. From his first visit in 1981, Schultz knew he was at home “When I walked in this store for the first time—I know this sounds really hokey—I knew I was home”, and from that day, started the transformation from tiny coffee roaster to the largest coffee retailer today.

Leadership from the Top According to Good-to-Great Starbucks’ CEO would be described as a level-5 leader. One year after his first visit to Seattle Howard Schultz was hired as the director of retail operations and marketing. He was in enamored with the company, always looking for new ways to increase sales with new products and services. After a prophetic trip to Italy he “saw something. Not only the romance of coffee, but ... a sense of community. And the connection that people had to coffee—the place and one another”(Schultz) that would deviate from the Starbucks the original owners envisioned. After a brief departure from the company, Schultz returned with intent to purchase and personally lead Starbucks. Every aspect about the company is modeled with a sense community at its core. The company follows a traditional organizational structure, but the interaction between levels of management and employees is where “leadership from the top” is instantly observable. The CEO and other executives are located in Seattle where all strategic level decisions are made, but the regional and store managers are annually invited to leadership events recognizing superb performance and update on the near future for the company. Trust is also high among the top executives and lower level management. When the company was close to insolence in 2008 Schultz returned to the CEO position after retiring in 2000. He called an emergency meeting where he personally spent $33 million dollars to bring 11 thousand store managers from restaurants across the globe. Schultz had a decision to make, pretend business is rosy and motivate without out being fully transparent, or tell the whole truth about how dire Starbucks’ situation. He chose to be completely transparent trusting his mangers were capable of handling the challenge with all the cards on the table.
Everyone is Involved Starbucks is one of the few places I’ve worked where I felt like a real part of the entire company not just the restaurant. For one all employees refer to each other as “partners” not something like barista, it seems trivial but it creates a sense of equality between the different barista levels and managers which are only formal titles. There were team meetings at least once a month, where the store manager discussed sales, initiatives, and most importantly,