Starbucks Overview, History and Current Structure

Starbucks—Overview, History and Current Structure

The transformation of Starbucks, from a small and locally supported business, into a publicly held company and leader in coffee retail throughout the world, is a prime example of successful business policy, ethics, and strategy. The company has grown substantially throughout its 40 year history and has not only acquired other coffee-oriented businesses such as Seattle's Best Coffee, Torrefazione Italia, but it has branched out into non-coffee businesses such as Ethos Water and music record label Hear Music. These are just a few of the Starbucks subsidiaries, with a total of 16 companies, mostly holdings with the Starbucks name designed and international region to follow (SEC information, 2011). Such recent acquisitions however are far removed from the original plans of Starbucks' founders, as the early history of the company is the story of a simple idea, a rich and passionate love for quality coffee brew.

One would snicker and dismiss such a simple ideology as a corporate ploy to evoke a personal relationship with Starbucs, yet it is the real reason why Starbucks has been so successful, and has been able to maintain its great reputation throughout the decades. From its first inception, the owners' underlying principles have been maintained through their convictions in educating all Starbucks employees and customers, on the complexities and rewards of well brewed coffee.

The company's original inspiration came from a Dutch businessman who had a nose for good coffee, and a desire to share this love with others. Such a devotion to coffee today can only be compared to that of a wine connoisseur; where taste, texture and aroma are distilled into a science and art. This brand of passion for coffee attributes an aura that can still be found in all Starbucks cafes today. One need only be downwind of a Starbucks to immediately identify its trademark quality roasts (I speak from personal experience). It is confounded on principles of quality, care, and a need to connect with its customers on a very personal level. Alfred Peet was this Dutch importer whom the three original owners knew, a man whose love for coffee developed into a profitable importer of various international coffee beans. In all actuality, the idea for Starbucks was an idea borrowed by the three founders, English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegel, and writer Gordon Bowker who all knew Peet, saw the success he had with his coffee shop in Berkley California, and believed they could do the same in Seattle Washington. They were in fact dazzled by Peet and said to themselves that they reproduce his success by adopting his "expound on quality coffees and the importance of proper bean-roasting techniques". Sure enough their newly opened Starbucks' became an early success.

Contrary to what most people imagine, the original Starbucks