Starbucks Corporation: Regional Director of Operations, Licensed Stores - Research Paper Example

Starbucks Corporation: Regional Director of Operations, Licensed Stores Introduction This paper will evaluate Regional Director of Operations, Licensed Stores (Starbucks Corporation) job profile. Starbucks Corporation, established in 1971, is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington, and is the largest coffeehouse company in the world operating in 55 countries (Starbucks, 2011). The business model operates in four key units: restaurants, retail coffee and tea, retail beverages, and entertainment. The company is governed by a Board of Directors who formulates and enforces governance principles, committee charters and policies that determine how the company is governed. The company is lead by a team of 11 directors who meet the independence requirements of NASDAD and U.S. SEC (Starbucks, 2011). The company highly values diversity in it relations, thus it supports and invests in local and global communities in various culturally significant ways. Under Starbucks Corporation management structure, regional directors of operations are charged with the responsibility of managing a portfolio of stores within their dockets. Their primary role is to coach and develop district managers, set direction, drive financial and sales goals, and hold their area’s partners accountable to the company standards (Starbucks, 2011). The Regional Director of Operations is therefore expected to play a crucial role in the company’s success by leading store operations in a given region and managing a team of district mangers to create and maintain the Starbucks reputation for the customers and partners. This position is built upon the company’s guiding principles and is a senior management slot. Responsibilities According to the company’s job description, the key responsibilities for Regional Director of operations include first, providing exemplary leadership in setting of goals for the team, modeling organizational capability, and orienting how the team will work collaboratively. Secondly, to identify and communicate key responsibilities and practices to facilitate a reporting culture that enhances a success attitude, confidence in leadership, and teamwork to achieve business results. The third role is to support implementation of company programs, procedures, methods, and practices to promote company’s reputation and improve competitive edge. They fourth role is to oversee regional planning and execution of plans, through developing of strategic and operational plans for the team, managing execution, and evaluation of results. Filth role involves directing and constantly improving stores operations within the region to meet company objectives for operational excellence. This involves identifying, strategizing, and executing various areas to promote customer satisfaction. Sixth role involves planning and rolling out strategies that are aimed at increasing sales within fair operational costs for a given region, by studying trends and forecasting of store budgets. Seventh role involves planning and implementing regional and zonal initiatives to support company’s business objectives. Eighth role involves planning and controlling unit processes and practices to ensure that they are streamlined to company’s objectives and goals. The ninth role is to formulate programs that communicates and educates the stakeholders and team on changes in policies and practices within the company. Other roles include overseeing sustenance of business requirements, by providing functional expertise and executing functional responsibilities; forming strong collaborative working relationships with regional distributors and working teams to support store operations and execute regional and unit initiatives; and creating cross functional teams that can greatly improve company’s customer service experience and profitability. This should be compounded with identifying, capacity building, and executing opportunities for growth and expansion within the region. Additionally, the regional director is tasked with facilitating partner development and team building objectives by providing partners with coaching, feedback, and developmental opportunities, and building effective teams. These objectives are achieved through challenging and inspiring partners to achieve business results; conducting and ensuring the completion of performance reviews; overseeing training and development of partners by making effective staff decisions; and ensuring that partners adhere to legal and operational compliance requirements. More so, participating in succession planning activities to support regional and unit growth is another role. Lastly, the director is tasked with the role of utilizing different performance and talent development methods to meet the needs of individual partners, and objectives of the company. The director may be required to perform other responsibilities and tasks as they arise during their work or when they arise due to company policy changes. Qualifications For a person to be considered for a position of Regional Director of Operations at Starbucks, he/she should meet the following qualification: first, a five-year progressive experience in managing multi-unit retail, restaurant or service organizations. Secondly, he should have prior experience in product development for at least three years. Thirdly, he should have served in capacity requiring financial analysis and profit and loss responsibility. Fourthly, he should have experience in marketing and progressive retail exposure. Fifthly, he should have high degree of interpersonal and communication skills, planning and organizational project management skills. Additionally, the director should have ability to apply sound business principles and practices to project management and change management processes. Lastly, he should possess proficiency in various computer skills such as Ms Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint. Motivation, performance evaluation, and reward system Motivation is a necessary ingredient for many employees to perform well. Therefore, it is important for the managers to strive to effectively motivate employees. Motivation improves the performance of the employees and leads to overall increase in the performance of the company (Madura, 2007). Starbucks develops strategies to achieve the strategic goals, and then it relies on its managers to utilize employees and other resources to make the strategies work. Given the responsibilities and expectations from regional director of operations position, the holders of this position is expected to cultivate a sense of intrinsic motivation due to the fact he or she is the coach, mentor, training and development facilitator for unit managers and employees under his or her portfolio. By regional directors of operations being motivational leaders, the company stands to gain in the following ways: first, motivated employees work better accomplishing more tasks, thus as the company expands, it requires fewer additional employees. In addition, motivated workers provide high quality service, increase sales volume, and Increase Company’s revenue. Lastly, motivated employees are more satisfied with their jobs, a factor that facilitates retention of employees for longer period and reduces the expenses associated with training new employees. At Starbuck, to achieve motivation for new management employees including the regional directors, the following activities are in place at workplace. First, there is an orientation session for new employees so that they can interact with other new employees. More over, all new employees meet with their respective bosses at least once per week for the first year. In these meeting employee’s performance are reviewed and the employee have the opportunity to share any concerns the job with the boss. Lastly, the new employees are assigned different duties, hence there are able to interact with different managers and each other. Good performance appraisal is a process of structuring employer’s relationship with his employees through observation, documentation, and communication (DelPo, 2009, P.9). At Starbucks, performance evaluation is always aimed at improving employees’ performance and making adjustments where the employees veer off the expected track. By undertaking performance evaluations, Regional directors of operations provide valuable continuity in a system where employees can change departments and managers during the course of a year. Thus, they are able to know what obstacles get in the way of their employees’ and eliminate them as they arise. Regional directors of operations carry out unit managers and employees’ performance appraisals, thereby helping the organization in the following ways: first, determining how the job of each employee can further the overall goals of the organization. Secondly, they examine each employee’s personal strengths and weaknesses. Thirdly, they identify and reward good employees leading to loyalty and motivation to perform better. Fourthly, they determine the needs of the team to improve employee retention and increase productivity and innovation. Additionally, they reduce chances of complaints and litigation by ensuring that employees feel well treated. Lastly, they identify and deal with the problems, thereby transforming them into productive workers or lay groundwork for discipline and termination if necessary. These aspects of performance evaluation lead to better employee performance and unit performance. Upon evaluation, better employees are rewarded through bonuses, promotion, and salary increment and holiday packages. Goal setting Regional directors are expected to engage in goal setting as a positive, powerful practice that motivates and defines a clear direction for the company. By engaging in goal setting process, the performance of various employees is transformed in various positive ways, especially when the goals are both relevant and realistic to the company, and achievable by the employee. Therefore, the directors should provide employees with a clear direction that is shaped by goal setting so that the objectives of top management are met. Clear goal setting empowers employees to know how their roles are crucial to the success of the company. Conclusion Regional director of operations’ position at Starbucks is a pivotal management post that organizes and manages various portfolio units in a way that it enhances strategic growth of the company. Proper hiring ensures that employees have the right background for the type of the job they may be assigned. In addition, proper training enables employees to apply specific skills to specific tasks. Proper performance evaluations ensure that employees are rewarded when they perform well and learn of their mistakes so that they may rectify them in future. In goal setting strategies, it is always important to work with gradual changes rather than seeking rapid small gains, since gradual changes are likely to sustain progress and increase possibility of reaching the goal. References DelPo, A. (2007). The performance appraisal handbook: legal & practical rules for managers, second edition. NY: Nolo. Madura, J. (2007). Introduction to business. Fourth edition. Mason, OH: Thomas Learning, Inc. Starbucks, (2011). Company overview. Starbucks Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.starbucks.com. Read More