The Structure of Starbuck’s from an Employee
Marcella D. Smith
MGT330: Management for Organizations
Instructor Kirk Douglas
September 29, 2014

Starbucks is a global coffee company that was established back in the 1970’s under the different name of Seattle Best in Seattle, Washington. Their original mission statement was “to inspire and nurture the human spirit-one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time” (Starbucks online profile 2012). The structure of the Starbucks Corporation is very common one as it is a customer based organization. To be in an interesting career within Starbucks, would be that of a research analyst. Its entire sales base is to sell its magnificent blends of coffee to diverse customers globally. At each store, the store manager is called the chief. The line –up under the chief is as follow: shift supervisors who act as managers on duty and employees which are called baristas. To be a research analyst and provide each of these stores with a unique blend of customer satisfaction to sell would be an awesome experience.
Most coffee shops are independently run as small businesses just like the neighborhood donut shop. However, Starbucks is a chain of structured coffee shops that make up a corporation. The structure of the Starbucks Company differs greatly from how mom and pop coffee shops are ran mainly due to the complications associated with creating and maintaining such as sizable brand. Because of the variety of quality Starbucks strives to promote there is a continuous effort put into the research of blends and manufacturing of their products.
Starbucks does not operate under a franchise system, but they do maintain license storefronts such as being located inside of Barnes and Nobles bookstores. Even though it is a departmentalized structured company, it still has to maintain the flexibility to sell to the different markets. Social responsibility is one of the keystone principles Starbucks promotes. Their positive impact that they have on the different communities is what makes Starbucks want to cater to the customer even more. With the type of environment Starbucks has created, the customer is comfortable and able to relax, hold a small meeting, do homework etc. in most 90% of their establishments. I believe this is what caused them to expand their menu to small breakfast and lunch sandwiches and other freshly made treats. While Starbucks makes every effort to stay above quality with the customer, every business has some sort of temporary downfall.
In 2009 Starbucks announced that they would be making some layoffs and closing some stores in order to preserve the future of Starbucks. The cuts were meant to help with projected savings (NYTIMES Publ Jan 28, 2009 Carolyn Cain). Starbucks was a fast growing company that simply couldn’t slow down when the recession begin to hit. So therefore it was save money