Analyzing Corporate Strategy and Governance at Starbucks: A Project

This project delves into the corporate strategy and governance policies of Starbucks, examining their influence on the company's financial success. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, utilizing both primary research, including surveys, and secondary sources such as books, journals, and articles to build a comprehensive understanding of the topic. The research explores the fundamental concepts of corporate strategy and governance, identifying the specific policies implemented by Starbucks to enhance its financial performance. Furthermore, the analysis articulates the impact of these policies on the company's monetary success. The project culminates in a set of recommendations and an action plan designed to optimize Starbucks' operations and strategic decision-making. The project aims to provide an in-depth evaluation of Starbucks' corporate policies and their effects on the organization's financial outcomes, offering valuable insights for business development.

Corporate Strategy and
Governance

Abstract
The project mainly aims to determine the potential impact of corporate strategy or
governance policies and their implementations over the monetary success of the largest business.
Therefore, it is a wide area of investigation which helps in enhancing individual skills and ability
in relation to the aspect of corporate strategy and the policies that are effective for the business in
developing business performance. In this present project, the analysis is based on the study of
Starbucks, therefore, it is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves
headquartered in Seattle, Washington. The company is operating at wider level and for this
analysis Starbucks is suitable as the company is implementing corporate strategy and governance
at a wider extent. In this present study, quantitative research method is being implemented as it is
suitable in aiding the project in right manner as this helps in providing descriptive statistical
analysis to aid the project in right manner. In addition to this, both primary and secondary
sources are implemented to gathering suitable data. Primary research is mainly implemented by
the support of conducting survey where questionnaire is developed to assist the project. On the
contrary side, secondary sources like books, journals, articles and so on are valuable in
developing theoretical framework. Furthermore, recommendations are provided to make suitable
changes in the business operations and action plan is created to analyzing the issue and making
suitable corporate polices and strategies to enhance the monetary performance of the business.

Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................3
Title of the Research........................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................1
Background of the Research...................................................................................................1
Review of the Problem faced.................................................................................................2
Rationale of the Research.......................................................................................................2
Research Aim.........................................................................................................................2
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................3
Research Questions................................................................................................................3
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................4
Chapter 3: Discussion of the Primary and Secondary Research......................................................8
Research philosophy...............................................................................................................8
Research Approach.................................................................................................................8
Research strategy....................................................................................................................9
Research choice......................................................................................................................9
Data collection methods.........................................................................................................9
Sampling...............................................................................................................................10
Chapter 4: Results of the Research................................................................................................10
Primary Basis........................................................................................................................11
Secondary basis....................................................................................................................24
Chapter 5: Recommendations and Action plan.............................................................................26
Action Plan...........................................................................................................................26
References......................................................................................................................................28

Title of the Research
The influence of corporate strategy or governance policies and their implementations over
the monetary success of the largest business.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Background of the Research
The existing study aim to determine the impact of corporate strategy and governance
policies and their implementation over the monetary success of the largest business. However,
the financial growth of a business is not only relay over the efficiency, quality and innovation
assessment but also on the compliances of corporate governance principles. In the today’s market
with increasing competition, the key motive of each small as well as large business enterprises is
to attaining higher growth and success (Rugman and Verbeke, 2017). For this, businesses are
seeking for implementing corporate strategies and government policies as the standard of
corporate governance develops the monetary performance of the business and also create a
positive influence over the internal efficiency of the business. An effective corporate governance
mainly ensures that the organisations environment is fair and transparent and the business can be
held accountable for their actions. Conversely, an ineffective corporate governance aids to waste,
mismanagement, and corruption. It is also essential to remember that although corporate
governance has emerged as a way to assist modern joint stock corporations it is equally
significant in state-owned enterprises, cooperatives, and family businesses. For better
understanding regarding the subject Starbucks is select, therefore it is a large American
multinational corporation which has wide chain of coffeehouses and roaster reserves. The
company was badly hit by the different trade barriers and fair trade issues due to inappropriate
assessment of governance policies and this affects the operations of Starbucks widely
(Broadstock and et. Al., 2020). The headquarter of the business is in Seattle, Washington.
Therefore, the company is founded in the year of 1971 by the collective efforts of Jerry Baldwin,
Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker. It is a large public limited company which works with the
workforce strength of around 346000 employees, who are putting their significant efforts in the
growth and success of the business. The company is operating in around 31256 locations all
around the globe with the overall revenue of 26.50 billion. For gaining the superior position
within market, the company is widely concern over implementing effective corporate governance
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policies and practices in their movements and actions for the intention to enhancing the financial
performance and increasing the sustainability within market.
Review of the Problem faced
The study is executed to discusses about the issue of corporate strategy and governance
and how this affects the operations of the business, therefore, Starbucks has been damaged via a
large number of different public relation issues (Tricker and Tricker, 2015). The company was
hit by a number of fair trade issues, that aid the business to start their campaigns in showing and
proving that they get most of their coffee from free trade dealers now. Due to inappropriate
policy implementation Starbucks has faces the issue in decreasing in the net income by 15
percent in the year of 2008. The fallen amount of the net income from the year of 2003 to 2008
was an indication that are organization was not at good state and the stakeholders of the business
are also not receiving a good return. In the fiscal year of 2006, the company has committed to
develop an effective ECR executive committee which strengthen the business in the better
execution of the business (Latan and et. Al., 2018).
Rationale of the Research
The project into consideration is based on evaluating the impact of corporate strategy or
governance policies and their implementations over the monetary success of the largest business,
therefore, the study is imperative in providing in-depth evaluation about the corporate policies
and how these influences the operations in right manner. The major intention of conducting the
analysis is that, businesses are facing issues in attaining financial success and the study helps in
providing detailed knowledge to Starbucks to effectively implement the corporate policies and
enhancing the monetary performance (Grover and et. Al., 2018). There is an another reason of
executing an analysis over such a big topic is the personal interest of the researcher as the
investigator wants to explore own idea and recognition in relation to the specific subject and
enhance personal as well as professional skills.
Research Aim
The potential aim of this study is “To investigate the influence of corporate strategy or
governance policies and their implementations over the monetary success of the largest
business”. A study on Starbucks.
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Research Objectives
The effective objectives of the study that are interconnected with the aim of the study are
associated as under:
 To effectively understand the concept of corporate strategy and governance in the context
to business.
 To determine the corporate policies which are implemented by Starbucks in enhancing
the financial performance of the business.
 To articulate the impact of corporate governance policies over the increasing monetary
performance of the business. To recommend the ways which can be opted by Starbucks Corporation to enhance the
operations of business within broad level.
Research Questions
The suitable investigation questions that are connected with the aim and objectives are
defined as below;
 What is the concept of corporate strategy and governance in the context to business?
 What are the corporate policies that are implemented by Starbucks in enhancing the
financial performance of the business?
 What is the impact of corporate governance policies over the increasing monetary
performance of the business?
 What ways which can be opted by Starbucks Corporation to enhance the operations of
business within broad level?
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Chapter 2: Literature Review
The concept of corporate strategy and governance in the context to business.
According to Bradley (2021), Corporate strategy refers to the plan of the organisation which
defines the goals and the ways to achieve these pre-determined goals with the proper strategic
management. It is the overall vision of the company or organisation to have a clear picture of
goals or objectives that has to achieve and to mention all the ways to achieve these goals without
any delay (Jacoby, 2018). It gives the proper direction to the actions of the human resource of the
company. It is a continuous process because the situations and surroundings is not constant, so
company has to adapt changes in their strategies also. It helps in determining the value of the
organization and help the employees to work according to the need of the organization. Basically
it gives out the plan what has to be done to achieve the targets and in what time limit (Brean and
Kobrak, 2016). Corporate strategy includes and affects all the aspects and factors of the
company. There are some components which are included in this strategy are-
 Vision- It helps in setting directions for the company or organisation.
 Setting of objectives- It involves the development of the vision and converting them to
long term objectives for the company (Wang and Sarkis, 2017).
 Reaching out resources- It involves those decisions which are related to the allocation of
efficient human and other important resources for the achievement of pre-determined
goals.
 Strategy for trade-offs- It is the most important component in corporate strategy because
for the companies it is not possible to take advantages of all the opportunities. There is
always some level of degree is present (Tejedo-Romero and Araujo, 2020).
Corporate governance is the responsibility of the board of directors. They are the people
who are responsible for carrying out operations effectively and efficiently. They make sure that
financial reporting is reliable and check whether the rules, regulations and laws are compiled or
not. Management is responsible for the day to day operations of the company, it is the board of
directors who govern the management and they are the people who represent and safeguard the
interest of the stakeholders (Pargendler, 2016). There are some duties of directors to the
shareholders, they are the owners of the company and these directors are liable to these
shareholders if they failed to meet their assigned duties. Basically corporate governance is
formed to protect the interest of the investors, protects the right of shareholders, helps to increase
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accountability, helps in increasing transparency in the operations, helps in maintaining healthy
relationship with the stockholders.
The corporate policies which are implemented by Starbucks in enhancing the financial
performance of the business.
According to the views of Thompson (2017), Corporate policy is the set of broad
guidelines and protocols, they are formed after the analysis of all the internal and external factors
which can affect the goals and objectives and plans of the company. They are formed in such a
way that it helps in implementation of actions of the company to achieve the targets and
objectives. The guidelines of the corporate policy help the management to do activities
effectively and efficiently (Schönborn and et. Al., 2019). Some of the policies that are
implemented by Starbucks to enhance its financial performance are:
Starbucks has expanded its stores in the US as well as internationally, they have opened
the company there and also opened the store locations or by giving the franchise of store
locations. When company increases its location size in different countries with different stores
and outlets it will earn more revenue and profit which will increase the financial performance
drastically. It has also adopted the method of designing their brand image or character in such a
way which includes usage of different local materials and local craftsman (Azriuddin and et. al,
2020). When more of local artists are involved in their productions people will get attracted
emotionally and will buy more from the company. It is also working on increasing their quality
of the product they are giving to the customers when quality increases people attracts more
towards the company. It has also made the policy of entering into new market segment beyond
its retail stores (Hirunyawipada and Xiong, 2018). The company has made the policy of
providing customized offerings to the customers, when customers get the products according to
their taste they will buy more from the brand which will generate more revenue for the company
and their financial performance gets better as compared to other companies in the market. These
all policies of the Starbucks enhanced the financial performance because it has increased the
customer base and which increase the revenue of the company. The human right policy of the
Starbucks is the core component in increasing financial performance, the company gives support
and provides direction to the employees which motivate them to work effectively and efficiently
for the company which ultimately increases the productivity of the Starbucks. The code of
conduct of the Starbucks demonstrates commitment to the welfare and provides sustainability of
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the people that produce products and services, it gives proper safety at workplace and
implementation of the laws which make the company to earn brand image in the market and gain
financial advantages (Kim, 2015). Starbucks is continuously focusing on formulating more
policies to make new innovations in their company to generate more and more revenue for the
company because for any company the financial performance is what matters the most (Shin,
2017).
The impact of corporate governance policies over the increasing monetary performance of the
business.
According to Igor Todorovic (2013), Corporate governance is the process which is
carried out by different people and in this everyone is assigned with some responsibilities and
duties which shows trust, honest and open corporate behaviour (Rodrigues and Franco, 2019).
Some of these individuals are board of directors, chief executive officers, shareholders,
stakeholders, committee of audit, governance and compensation. It shows the commitment of the
company to be accountable to customers, shareholders etc. by doing activities like brand
management, stakeholder communications, environmental affairs etc (Babafemi, 2015).
Therefore, corporate strategy and governance mainly has direct positive impact over the
operations and progression of the business and the primary motive of each small as well as large
business enterprises is to attaining higher growth and success at market place. Thus, for this
businesses are concern over implementing effective CSR activities within business to enhancing
the operational ability of the business and also increasing the brand awareness of the business
(Aguilera and Crespi-Cladera, 2016). Corporate strategy and governance helps a business in
developing the profitability and returns also develops its competitiveness, credibility and the
reputation of the business, in addition to this, it also improves the interconnection among the key
stakeholders likewise investors, business partners, employees, customers and so on. The
businesses which insist over the highest standards of governance helps in reducing many risks
that arise from daily operations. Therefore, the businesses are able, by better performance and
returns, to attract investors whose investments could help finance further growth and
development (Westermann-Behaylo, Rehbein and Fort, 2015). This has clearly been stated that,
corporate strategy and governance mainly has direct positive impact over the performance of the
business.
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The ways which can be opted by Starbucks Corporation to enhance the operations of business
within broad level.
According to the opinion of Kanta (2017), Ethic and corporate governance are recognized
as the most important area for the business and society, therefore, ethical issues are mainly relay
over the morality of the existing situation. Starbucks is the most considered large coffee shop
which works for the motive of inspire and nurture the human spirit, needs not just serving
excellent coffee but also engaging customers at an emotional level. After Orin C.Smith in the
year of 2005, Howard Schultz gave the CEO potion to the Jim Donald. Since Jim Donald took
the CEO position within business, Starbucks faced the most serious situation in the year of 2008.
Therefore, at the time of this duration the stock of the business is dropped in around 40 percent
and the profit fells around 28 percent with the same time (Wagana and Nzulwa, 2017). However,
for resolving the issues of corporate strategy and government there are assorted measure that can
be implement by Starbucks to enhance the operations of the business within large level, thus
some are associated as under:
Suitable implementation of CSR activities: This defined as the most effective way which needs
to be implement by each business to enhance the operational ability via developing the brand
recognition in the manner. The suitable execution of CSR activities helps the business in
attracting and retaining customers for longer run of the operations (Kang and Namkung, 2018).
Efficient corporate employee training: This is an another important way which also needs to be
opt by Starbucks in the manner to enhancing the operations of the business, therefore, an
appropriate corporate training helps the employees in better understanding of the business culture
and operations and also aid positive outcome via developing the operational efficiency (Su and
Tsang, 2015).
Appropriate execution of corporate policies: A business is work for a specific purpose and the
major motive behind a business is to increasing the profitability and gaining growth and success.
Therefore, it is important for the businesses to execute suitable policies and legislations to
reducing the risk of inefficiency, growth, and low production (Tikson, 2018). The effective
policy implementation helps a business to grow.
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Chapter 3: Discussion of the Primary and Secondary Research
The research methodology is the procedure that is mainly used to determine, choose and
examine the information regarding topic. There are primary and secondary two different method
of data collection. In the methodology, there has been research onion used that was developed
through Saunders et. Al. (2007). The different layers consist in research onion mention below:
Research philosophy
Research philosophy refers to belief regarding way under which the data should be
collected and analyzed effectively. Choice of the particular research philosophy is mainly
impacted through practical implications (Hongdiyanto, 2016). Interpretivism and positivism are
two different types of research philosophies. The interpretivism research philosophy is related
with philosophical idealism positions and used to group the diverse approaches. Other than this,
positivism philosophy is based on the quantifiable observations which lead to the statistical
analysis. This philosophy is related to viewpoint that an investigator requires to concentrate on
the facts.
Justification: In conducting the present investigation, there has been positivism research
philosophy used as it is based on quantitative method. The main reason of using this research
philosophy is that it provides the factual knowledge gained by the observation (Lin, 2019)
(Francis, Hasan and Wu, 2015). The positivism research philosophy is uses only the research
data is verifiable and enabling the objective outcomes.
Research Approach
It is related to plans and procedure for investigation that span steps from the wider
assumptions to the detailed data collection methods and analysis. Overall decision mainly
consists which kind of the approach should be used to study topic. Inductive and deductive are
two different research approaches (Abbadi, Hijazi and Al-Rahahleh, 2016). The inductive
research approach is based on the quantitative method and provide the detailed analysis. On the
other hand, deductive research is one that people are related with the scientific investigation and
test hypothesis (Honoré, Munari and de La Potterie, 2015).
Justification: In this, deductive research approach has been used as it starting with theory
and developing the hypothesis. Its main purpose is to provide the relevant information and also
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getting the positive outcomes effectively. There is a possibility to generalize the research
findings to specific subject area.
Research strategy
This layer of research onion mainly gives the direction to efforts and thought to conduct an
investigation in systematic manner (AREAS, 2018). There has been survey chosen as research
strategy that provides the different questions regarding the particular area. It is one of the useful
research strategy that help in explain as well as explore the variables of interest. The benefit of
using survey strategy is that it consists having large population and ability to collect more
information. However, in this questionnaire will be provided to the employees with the support
of email due to the pandemic of COVID 19 as personal interaction will be avoided. Therefore,
this is the best and easy way to gather information from the participants (Filatotchev and Stahl,
2015).
Research choice
This defined as the most imperative area of an investigation methodology as it is relay over
two aspects i.e. qualitative and quantitative research method. Therefore, in the choice of
methodology is relay over the information accumulated to overcome the research issue (Barnes,
2018). The qualitative research method mainly encompasses over information which are
obtained via an investigator from first hand observation, focus groups, and others. The
quantitative tool is related to accumulating numerical information and analysed by applying the
statistical methods.
Justification: For assisting the present research in right manner, quantitative research is
implemented by the researcher as it is effective in executing the in-depth study over the aspect of
analyzing the influence of corporate strategy or governance policies and their implementations
over the monetary success of the largest business (Kang and Namkung, 2018). However, in this
information can be gather within actual facts and figures which are effective in measuring
outcome effectively.
Data collection methods
Information accumulation is mainly defined as the procedure which mainly enables to
identifying, evaluating, analyzing and interpreting the information in right manner to generate
significant results (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis and Schönberger, 2017). This section of research is
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