Sartbucks Structure

The first Starbucks opened its doors in 1971 in Seattle’s Pike Place Market (see the timeline in Appendix A). In 1982, eventual Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz joined the company as the director of retail operations and marketing. In just five years, he facilitated Starbucks’ expansion outside of Seattle opened stores in Chicago and Vancouver. After five more years, he decided to take the company public and in 1992 Starbucks completed its Initial Public Offering (IPO). On its way to becoming internationally renowned as an ethically conscious company, Starbucks partnered with Conservation International in 1999 to promote environmentally friendly growing methods and Starbucks began selling Fair Trade certified coffee in 2000.37 Recently, the company was voted the ‘Most Ethical Company’ in the European industry for the second consecutive year.38 2010 also marked the fourth straight year in which Starbucks was recognized on Ethisphere Magazine’s list of the globe’s most ethical companies.3

Source: Reconstructed through interviews with Starbucks

In recent news, Starbucks has rearranged their organizational structure to better accommodate customer satisfaction. The CEO of Starbucks announced expansion of their matrix organizational structure last month. They will operate under four U.S. divisions including Western/Pacific, Northwest/Mountain, Southeast/Plains and Northeast/Atlantic (Shultz, 2008). Some of the major advantages to having this kind of organizational structure include maximized communication channels (George & Jones, 2005, pg. 515). Howard Shultz believes Starbucks will be able to develop products specified to market appeal more rapidly after the appropriate adjustments have been made. The second portion of Starbucks organizational structure is the continuation of support functions operating as their own department and supporting the shared goals and visions of each of the