P1-4.

Give examples of how Howard Schultz might perform the interpersonal roles, the
informational roles, and the decisional roles:
- Interpersonal roles: Howard Schultz wrote the memo “espresso shot heard round the
world”, which help him to reached out top managers and effectively expressed his
concerns. This action performed the interpersonal roles.

- Informational role: Howard Schultz also performed his informational role by using
the memo “espresso shot heard round the world”. Since informational role contains
collecting, receiving and disseminating information, Howard Schultz performed all
these aspect with the memo.

- Decisional role: When Howard Schultz decided to return to Starbucks as an CEO

after seeing crisis happened to the company and rectify the situation, he performed
decisional roles.

P1-5. Look at Howard Schultz’s philosophy of Starbucks. How will this affect the way the
company is managed?
Howard’s philosophy is “We aren’t in the coffee business, serving people. We’re in the people
business, serving coffee.” This will affect positively the way the company is managed. He focus
more on human, generally customer services and experiences than coffee. Which mean the goal
is to sastify customer by good service, then great coffee.
P1-7. Look up the company’s mission statement and guiding principles at the company’s Web
site. What do you think of the mission and guiding values? Describe how the company's
guiding principles would influence how a barista (a coffee-house employee who prepares and
serves specialty coffee and other drinks) at a local Starbucks store does his or her job. Describe
how these principles would influence how one of the company's top executives does his or her
job:
Our Mission: To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one
neighborhood at a time.”

“Our Values: 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 best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results.
We are performance driven, through the lens of humanity.”

I think that the mission statement and the company’s core values are what sets them apart from
other coffee shops. They make it clear that the customer is their number one priority. These core
values would influence a barista at a local Starbucks store to do his or her job with the customer
in mind. They must be possess the proper interpersonal skills to ensure that the customer leaves
the store happy. The mission statement and core values would influence the CEO to be aware of
what happens on all levels of the organization, keeping these values in mind. When Howard saw
that these values had slowly faded, he decided to return as CEO.

P1-9. Give examples of decisions that Starbucks managers might make under conditions of
certainty. Under conditions of risk. Under conditions of uncertainty:

Conditions of certainty: A manager realizes that the supply of pumpkin flavored coffee is
running low. This flavor is popular during this time of year. The manager decides to order more
of this product. In this situation, all possible outcomes are known.

Conditions of risk: The Starbucks establishment is located in a predominately Jewish

neighborhood. The customers have requested a line of kosher cake pops. The manager, based off
of this knowledge, is fairly certain a line of kosher products would sell in this store. He or she
decides to order three flavors of kosher cake pops.

Conditions of uncertainty: Opening a new Starbucks location in an uncertain, uncharted area may
be an example of decisions made under conditions of uncertainty. If they do not know how
economical stable the neighborhood is, whether or not the neighborhood can/would purchase
Starbucks products makes for an uncertain decision.

P1-11. How might biases and errors affect the decision-making done by Starbucks’ executives?
By Starbucks’ store managers? By Starbucks’ partners?

Biases and errors might affect the decision making done by Starbucks executives, managers, and
partners in a negative way. For example, an overconfident executive may want to implement a
program on the store level that they feel is beneficial to the company. When they implement this
program, confident in their decision, and the program turns out to be unsuccessful, the store
managers are left to deal with the consequences of the executives actions. Moreover, the partners
of Starbucks may suffer when their profits decrease.
P2-1. Do you think Howard Schultz views his role more from the omnipotent or from the
symbolic perspective? Explain:
The sound leadership of Howard Schultz as the Chairman of Starbucks has turned a once store in
Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market district into a global company with revenues over $6 billion.
As he championed a unique relationship with its employees (calling them as partners), his role is
viewed more from a symbolic perspective. One thing that’s been important to him from day one
is the relationship that he has with his employees. He takes excellent care of both his internal and
external customers. With Starbucks high regard to its employees, it probably shouldn’t come as a
surprise that Starbucks has the lowest level of employee attrition of any national retailer in the
world.

P2-5. How would you classify the uncertainty of the environment in which Starbucks operates?
Explain:

Much of the company’s future growth is likely to be global. In recent years, Starbucks had
already targeted four markets for major global expansion namely China, Brazil, India and Russia.
Based on the experiences it had when it entered the Chinese market in 1999, the uncertainty of
the environment in which it operates proved to be tough and too challenging. Aside from the fact
that people in China are tea drinkers, it didn’t go away with the experience of having been copied
or imitated by a local business which is so rampant in China. The trademark protection victory in
a Chinese court was an important one for Starbucks, an environmental uncertainty that has been
conquered.

P2-6. What stakeholders do you think Starbucks might be most concerned with? Why? What
issue(s) might each of these stakeholders want Starbucks to address?

While it is amazing how the internal forces of the company works for the success of the business
as it continued to expand globally, Starbucks should focus and be most concerned with the
external forces that are often alarming and unpredictable. As it continues its global push, it will
need more inputs for the production of their products to match the growing demand and the
competition for market share becomes tougher at the global level. Access for reliable sources of
inputs is crucial especially when competing against the hyper competition effects brought by
globalization. And this posed a major challenge for Starbucks as it continues to accomplish and
fulfill its mission of establishing the business as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the
world while maintaining its uncompromising principles that guide the decisions and actions of
company partners from top to bottom

P2-7. Why do you think Howard Schultz is uncomfortable with the idea of legislative lobbying?
Do you think his discomfort is appropriate? Why or why not?

The success story of Starbucks can be traced back from the original founder’s philosophies and
Howard Schultz’s unique beliefs about how a company should be run. Their business philosophy
was simple, “Every company must stand for something; don’t just give customers what they ask
for or what they think they want; and assume that your customers are intelligent and seekers of
knowledge.” The original Starbucks was a company passionately committed to world-class
coffee and dedicated to educating its customers about what great coffee can be. Great coffee is
important to Starbucks, but equally important is doing good as Schultz “unconventional”
business approach, beliefs and philosophies took the management and operations of this business
in a highly different and outstanding level. Its superb organizational culture promulgated by
Schultz served as the company’s blueprint of success. When Starbuck began lobbying legislators
on issues including lowering trade barriers, health care and tax break, Schultz seemed to be
uncomfortable and didn’t really want to do or engage with it probably because he believed a lot
on achieving success out of a fair and honest competition saying “we can be extremely profitable
and competitive, with a highly regarded brand, and also be respected for treating our people
well”. He must have considered the integrity, values and uncompromising principles that
Starbucks have believed in over the years, the very foundation of their superb culture which
propelled them to achieve greater heights.
P2-10. Using information from the case and information you pull from Starbucks’ Web site,
what global attitude do you think Starbucks exhibits? Defend your choice.

The global attitude that Starbucks exhibit is the diversity including all the aspect such as gender,
ethnic, religion…
P2-11. Pick one of the countries mentioned as an important target for Starbucks. Make a
bulleted list of economic, political-legal, and cultural characteristics of this country:

The US still be the most important target of Starbucks with more than 8,500 stores. And here are
some of its characteristics:

 Economic: it is highly developed and the world’s largest economy.

 Cultural characteristic: is primarily of Western origin, but is influenced by a multicultural
ethos such as African, Native American, Asian, Pacific Island, and Latin American
P2-14. With more than 235,000 partners worldwide, what challenges would Starbucks face in
making sure its diversity values are practiced and adhered to?

There are some of the challenges that Starbucks might face in managing with all of the partners
worldwide that include the cultural differences. Each community and nation share the different
conception, therefore it is hard for Starbucks to balance between its own value and its partners’
value.
P2-15. Starbucks defines diversity on its Web site in the form of an equation:

Diversity = Inclusion + Equity + Accessibility.

Explain what you think this means. What do you think of this definition of diversity?

In my opinion, diversity is like an opportunity to a community or company because when

cultures come together in collaboration and understanding, we can be able to share different
culture and knowledge in each community for the better consequences in making decision.
P2-17. Go to the company’s Website [www.starbucks.com] and find the latest corporate social
responsibility report. Choose one of the key areas in the report (or your professor may assign
one of these areas). Describe and evaluate what the company has done in this key area.

P2-21. What do you think the company’s use of the term partners instead of employees implies?
What’s your reaction to this? Do you think it matters what companies call their employees? (For
instance, Walmart calls its employees associates.) Why or why not?

I think it’s a good business strategy that Starbucks have called its employees their partners but
beyond that I admired them for their exemplary work of giving their partners bean stock or
options to buy the company’s stock. A superb strategy that sets them apart and gives them
higher-quality employee, an employee that cares more. This in reality makes their employees as
true business partners of the company. Calling them as partners gives the employees an extra
boost of self-respect and dignity and a positive mind-set that propels them to consistently be
motivated to accomplish their jobs with excellent results. I think it really matters when a
company calls their employees with partners or associates for it uplifts their morale and
determination to work hard for the company and I see it as a necessary ingredient in earning the
commitment and loyalty of the employees.
P2-22. Howard Schultz is adamant about providing the best “Starbucks experience” to each and
every customer. As a store manager, how would you keep your employees from experiencing
high levels of stress when lines are out the door and customers want their Starbucks now?
As a store manager, I would always remind my employees about the company’s culture. Every
success requires trade-offs, they are working in a professional working environment so you have
to be professional too.

P2-23. Would you classify Starbucks’ environment as more calm waters or white-water rapids?
Explain. How does the company manage change in this type of environment?

I would classify Starbucks’ environment as more white-water rapids rather than calm waters.
Because whenever the company expand its branch in a new environment, it has to deal with
bunch of challenges and the possible situations to access to the new market. However, this type
of environment might be useful for the company, when the employees used to a turbulent
working environment, they will have no difficulties facing with all of the changes.