Starbucks Company Paper - Essay Example

As a company, Starbucks has various strengths that have seen it make such great achievements. Starbucks is a large international company, which has expanded its operations in 58 countries globally. This expansion on the global arena has allowed the company become one of the most profitable, generating a revenue in excess of $5000 million in 2004 (Goldman, 2007). The other strength associated with the company is the well and already build brand name, which is well known globally. The company’s brand name is well recognized and is associated with quality products, allowing the company to be very competitive in the market segment that it serves.

Another strength associated with the company is that it is one of those companies that respects and greatly values their employees. In the year 2005, the company was ranked among the top 100 companies most coveted by employees (Eicher, 2006). The company is recognized for its culture of rewarding its employees, while providing them with a very conducive working environment, rating as one of the most respected employer. More to the strengths of the company is its ethical values, mostly focused towards environmental preservation and conservation, as it undertakes its business.

Lastly, the company has diversified its range of products offer, including within its offers hot and cold drinks, snacks and entertainment such as music, films, and books (Sull, 2007). However, there are some weaknesses associated with the company. Though it is well known for its innovation in product range offers, the innovation of the company is in doubt, regarding its sustainability (Goldman, 2007). The expansion strategy of the company is the other of its weakness. The company is known to be the most expanding companies, more so in the 1990s, having an average of a new branch open every single day.

Such expansion strategy poses a threat in the management of the company. Lack of portfolio risk spreading is yet another weakness associated with the company. Over a third of the company’s stores are located in the USA. This dependence on the home market is not in the very best interest of the company’s future, which needs to seek a number of other portfolio countries, to make it possible for the company to spread its business risks (Charles, 2006). The comoany is mostly dependent on a single product range, coffee.

It only engages in the sale of other products at minimal levels, specializing in coffee products as its main product offering. This reduces the economies of scale of the company, while at the same time increasing the business risks involved with a single line of product offer for a business (Sull, 2007). The company has been able to capitalize on opportunities that come its way, such as diversifying to the entertainment sector, where the customers can access music, films and books, while at the same time enjoying the coffee and snacks offered by the company (Eicher, 2006).

The company has other opportunities, which it can take advantage of, such as the diversification to fair trade products, which will integrate well with its entertainment and beverage offering, owing to its wide customer base and the well-built company’s brand name (Goldman, 2007). The company has another great opportunity, of collaborating and co-branding with other manufacturers, to increase its sources of revenues, through taking the advantage of its well-known brand name to