The theme of internationalization/globalization strategy - Essay Example

Starbucks’ domestic and international business is conducted within and across a competitive environment. This has necessitated the need to adopt effective and efficient domestic and international strategies that best suit its business interests. Thompson and Shah’s case, Starbucks’ Strategy and International Initiatives to Return to Profitable Growth (2010), offers insights into Starbucks’ coffee business since its foundation to the late 2000s. This case highlights Starbucks’ business expansion within and across the United States and the globe at large.

In so doing, the theme of globalization comes to light. The company has undergone a critical internationalization process that has allowed it to stand strong market grounds in both the local and international business environment. Strategic positioning of Starbucks in the global arena is realized from the manner in which the management has handled the enterprise’s operations. Howard Schultz approached the firm’s management from a global perspective. In his early years in the company, he drew his strategic decisions from relative events that he could associate with at an international level.

The case outlines that Howard Schultz made critical changes at Starbucks based on his trip to Italy (Thompson & Shah, 2010, p.337). What this shows is that Italy held a vital entrepreneurial aspect that was essentially set to favour Starbucks’ operations in one way or another. In other words, the management noted operational gaps in the firm’s business, some of which could be filled by a global approach relative to the underlying needs, interests, or concerns. The progressive internationalization or globalization of Starbucks has been realized out of the need to diversify and expand its business.

From the Seattle store at the time of its founding, Starbucks operated in more than 50 countries by the end of the year 2010 (Thompson & Shah, 2010, p.333). The strategic expansion of