The company under consideration, Starbucks, is one of the leaders in the present-day business world, and it is included in the Fortune magazine’s list. Their success is significantly conditional upon the creation of competitive advantage through the particular attention to the staff, proper organizational structure, and management. Therefore, in order to reveal the impact of the mentioned components on the rapid development of the business, this paper aims to analyze them in detail.
The first aspect of Starbucks’ policies is related to the people working for the company since the management put much effort into the improvement of their situation. As can be seen from the company’s official website, they invest in employees by providing various benefits to them (“Starbucks announces new investments in paid leave, wage,” 2018). They include regular wage increases as an attempt to reflect economic changes and the growth plan allowing to create new jobs (“Starbucks announces new investments in paid leave, wage,” 2018).
Moreover, Starbucks strives to ensure the alignment of their policies in this regard with state initiatives such as the “Partner and Family Sick Time” program introduced by the government (“Starbucks announces new investments in paid leave, wage,” 2018). In this way, the company’s competitive advantage is directly connected to the increase in its attractiveness for potential and current workers.
The second circumstance contributing to Starbucks’ success is the organization’s efficient management structure enhancing the progress through the distribution of tasks between managers at different levels. Its most important characteristic is flexibility allowing to readjust the operations when purchasing other firms or in accordance with specific business needs (Meyer, 2019). The company’s activity is controlled by the Board of Directors in Seattle, Washington, whereas regional offices are run by district managers (“Organizational structure of Starbucks,” 2018).
Their efforts are complemented by the work of store managers supervising the staff at different locations (“Organizational structure of Starbucks,” 2018). Therefore, Starbucks can compete with both small coffee shops and other large businesses by employing such an unusual structure of managers, who are, in fact, partners.
In this case, the varying roles of leaders in the company aid in building competitive advantage by participating in different types of activities rather than controlling one another. As follows from Starbucks’ market position, the shift from the traditional models implying top, middle, and first-level management to the described approach proved to be beneficial (Meyer, 2019). Thus, the only control imposed by the Board of Directors encourages people to strive for positions of leadership, which improves the overall employee satisfaction (“Organizational structure of Starbucks,” 2018).
In this way, the principal management strategy driving advantage through people is the provision of such opportunities for professional growth. Under the conditions of the existence of a variety of geographic divisions, hiring district managers seems logical. When complemented by store managers supervising various locations, they can work efficiently for the company, which prefers flexibility in contrast to traditional values.
To summarize, the principal criteria used to judge Starbucks’ success are the benefits provided to employees, the management structure ensuring the correspondence of regular operations to the current business needs, and the concept of leadership. They allow concluding on the reasonability of the inclusion of the company in Fortune’s list since the created competitive advantage is connected to these components. In other words, the combination of effective organization and the creation of new jobs and career opportunities for employees is the key to Starbucks’ favorable position in the market.
References
Meyer, P. (2019). Starbucks Coffee’s organizational structure and its characteristics. Panmore Institute. Web.
Organizational structure of Starbucks. (2018). UK Essays. Web.
Starbucks announces new investments in paid leave, wage. (2018). Starbucks Stories & News. Web.