Starbucks UK Competitive Advantage

This report analyzes Starbucks UK's competitive advantage, focusing on its use of information technology within its business environment. It begins by examining the macro-environmental factors impacting Starbucks, including political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental, and legal factors. The report then applies Porter's Value Chain analysis to Starbucks' operations, examining inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. The analysis highlights how Starbucks utilizes its resources and IT to create efficiency, improve quality, and target its marketing efforts. The conclusion emphasizes the crucial role of IT in managing customer relationships, enhancing brand image, and streamlining business processes for a competitive edge in the UK market. The report includes a comprehensive list of references.

Analysing business
environment and using IT to
gain competitive advantage in
STARBUCKS UK

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Macro environment of Starbucks.....................................................................................................1
Porter's value chain analysis of Starbucks.......................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Information technology is the foundation to run a business and in the present world
scenario it is a need of the organisation. Company which is making goods and services have to
use IT to communicate with their employees and to make communication with their targeted
customers for their products and services. Technology is having affairs in all sections and parts
of the company and they have to use it in a well manner to gain better production. This project is
having focus on the Starbucks which is a coffee and tea house and they are having a big chain in
the UK (Yu and Ramanathan, 2012). They are having a international trade and they are having
more than 23,000 centres worldwide. They are having a regular customers who visits their cafe
on the daily basis. The Starbucks is having a variety in coffee like; Latte, Cappuccino, Flat
White, Americano, Piccino and Espresso. They are having a range of breakfast and lunch to
provide an extra service to their customers. The company is having many competitors in this
sector which is making a direct impact on the business and they have to adopt the external
factors to develop their products and services.
Macro environment of Starbucks.
Starbucks is having a deal in the international trade and they are having many counters in
the whole world to address their customers and to make profits by their services. They are having
a direct impact of external factors and they have to make changes in their activities and work
styles to be a better and to respond changes in accordingly. Here is some macro environmental
factors which is making an impact on the Starbucks;
Political; This factor is having direct impact on the Starbucks, they are dealing in several
countries and most of the countries are having changes in the political parties and this change
impact on the political policies. So the company have to adopt new changes in their business
activities. Change in a country makes new government and they make modifications in the set
rules and regulations to for foreign companies. The new government changes in the tax rates and
interest rates so they have to adopt these changes in their trade and they have to make changes in
the cost and price of their products.
Economical; This is the biggest factors and which is having economic growth rates,
employment rates, cost of raw material, crude oil rates, change in monetary policy and inflation
rates. The company is having affair in world wide so they are facing a lot of changes world
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economy. In the recent time, financial crisis is the biggest example which is making a effect on
the trade and they have adopt this and having affect in the profits. UK is having planned
economy which is have plan to allocate their resources so they have to use these resources to
make proper activities to attain their targets.
Socio culture factors; This is related to the social factors, they have to use this in their
trade. This is a having several sub factors like; age, population, level of education, distribution of
wealth and social classes, traditional taste and lifestyles. UK is having a traditional taste in the
coffee and tea, so they have to use this in their trade (Alshamaila, Papagiannidis and Li, 2013).
Most of the consumers wants a the traditional taste in their coffee and it is related to the old age
peoples. So they have to use this age distribution in their work.
Technological factor; This is refer to the technological IT is playing a crucial role in this,
technology is going better and better and they have to adopt this in their trade and marketing. E
commerce, online trade, social sites are some factors which is the latest trend of business and
they have to use this in the marketing process. Most of the persons in the UK are using internet
and they are using social sites on a regular basis so this is an opportunity for them and they have
to use this to make more consumers and enlarge their advertisements. On the another hand
Starbucks is having many employees and management have to make communication with all of
them. So they have to use proper communication tools like; Blue tooth and intercom.
Environmental factor; This is a factor which is having a large impact on the current trade,
environmental changes having a serious affect on the business activities (What is Business
Environment? Explain its types .2016). UK is having a cold atmosphere so they are having
business in the UK because most of the person wants coffee to reduce cold impact. So they are
mostly serving hot coffee to their customers.
Legal factor; Starbucks is having so many franchisee in UK and out of the UK. So they
are having several contracts with the persons and business entities (Goworek and et.al., 2012).
They have to follow all the legal aspects of that particular country. They are having employees
which is from out of the countries, they have a legal responsibilities of them. They are following
the employment act to for employees to tie them.
The above given factors are the macro environmental factors of the company and they are
affecting on the company's trade, policy and revenues.
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Porter's value chain analysis of Starbucks.
The Porter's value chain analysis focus on the production chain, all things have to be
properly aligned to create efficiency in the product and to increase cost effectiveness. A
company is having their own process to develop their raw material in to a final products to sale.
So they have to be aware about the quality in minimum cost, the value chain analysis is
concentrated to find out the threats in the production chain and it helps an organisation to make
better cost effective production.
Inbound Logistic; This is a factor which is focused on the inputs, the Starbucks is having
some types of raw materials which are coffee beans and milk. They are highly focused on the
qualities so they are using the best coffee beans to make coffee for their customers. They are
having their suppliers in the Brazil, Africa, Latin America and Asia (Hill and et.al., 2014). They
have make contracts with them and the company is having a quality department to check coffee
beans. After it they are having a standard in the milk and they are having their particular
suppliers.
Operations; Starbucks is having their outlets in more than 60 countries and they are
having more than 23,000 stores. They are having a range of breakfast and lunch, they are having
some foods to which can be used by their customers when they are taking coffee like; Muffins,
cakes. They are having a separate place for those peoples who wants to celebrate a mini party
and birthday parties.
Outbound Logistic; This is related to the output final products and these are various types
of coffees, tea, drinks and foods. They are having many countries in the UK market and in
another country. Anyone does not use the brand name of the company, they are having their own
franchisees which are authorized to create their services on behalf of Starbucks. In the UK
market they are having their own cafeterias and they are fully owned by the company. So they
are free to make their activities to sale their products and to make their services towards the
consumers (Bartolomei and et.al., 2012). Company is targeted on the big markets and those
places which are easy to come for their customers.
Marketing and sales; The company is dealing in the food industry so they have to make
their products according to the right taste which their clients wants. This is a type of targeted
marketing so they have to use this and they can use this to make their coffee, tea, lunch and
breakfast as their customers demands. Taking it to in the products advertising, they are using
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internet for advertisements and they are using as well as print media and television to announce
their new products and range in the public domain. In the sales, they are using their stores for
sales and for those persons who wants a home delivery, they are having online portal to place an
order on it (Turner and Zolin, 2012). They are using all appropriate methods for marketing and
selling of their products. The company is having a phone number where a customer can place an
order and they are having a online payment process which is giving a way to for customers to
make their payment via banking process.
Service; This is a related to the feedback and customers satisfaction, the company have to
make their services as their customers wants by which they can feel satisfy. The Starbucks is
addressing their customers and making all the possible services for them. Their vendors are
highly polite towards their customers to give them, proper taste as they want in their coffee and
another product (Bulgurcu, Cavusoglu and Benbasat, 2010). They are having a feedback system
and they make feedbacks from their customers to make their services better. The Starbucks are
using their best services to fulfil all requirements of their customers.
As per the above discussion it has been ascertained that Starbuck corporation have an appropriate
qualitative and quantitative resources such as inbound logistic, outbound logistic, services,
marketing and sales etc. As per this mentioned discussion it can be said that cited venture can
effectively utilise its physical, infrastructural and marketing resources in order to gain
competitive advantage in the UK market. In the context of information technology, Starbuck can
easily develop its effective brand image by use of impressive resources of IT. Information
technology play a very crucial role in order to make business successful and effective. This
system assist in managing the relation with customers as well as suppliers in the market (García,
Gómez and Molina, 2012). With assistance of IT, it can develop its campaign which helps in
attracting large number of customer. Furthermore, in the present time uses of social media and
internet is continuously increased. This is the sign of effective information technology in the
country so cited venture can use this in order to improve its public relation and sales promotion.
By use of information technology, company can store and protect its business related personal
information so as rivals can not access. One another use of information technology is that cited
venture can develop electronic customer relationship system under which it can contact with
customer by use of electronic mode in order to take order and get payment. Furthermore,by use
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of information technology, it can formulate a feedback option for its customer. By this system,
corporation can gather various suggestion and views of potential customers so as it can improve
its existing process of business and supply chain management. Starbucks is a famous company
for its foods and drink products. So if it can use electronic or technical source in the operation of
business then it will definite deliver an excellent quality of product and services to customer.
One another use of information technology is that it give remote access to corporation's
electronic network, so that it can work from home or on the road. In addition to this, streamlined
work flow system, shared storage and collaborative work space can increase efficiency in a
business and allow employees to process a greater level of work in a shorter period of time. IT
assist in use a automate routine tasks, to make data analyse esaier and to store data in a manner
that can easily be retrieved for future use (Abdillah, 2014.).
As per the above discussion it can be said that information technology may largely assist to
Starbucks in order to improve its business process and develop a competitive advantage. This is
utmost helpful in customer relationship management through which cited venture can develop a
distinctive and effective brand image in the market.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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operations: case study evidence from China. International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management. 40(3). pp.218-234.
Alshamaila, Y., Papagiannidis, S. and Li, F., 2013. Cloud computing adoption by SMEs in the
north east of England: A multi-perspective framework. Journal of Enterprise Information
Management. 26(3). pp.250-275.
Goworek, H. and et.al., 2012. The sustainable clothing market: an evaluation of potential
strategies for UK retailers. International journal of retail & distribution management.
40(12). pp.935-955.
Hill, C. and et.al., 2014. Expert consensus document: The International Scientific Association
for Probiotics and Prebiotics consensus statement on the scope and appropriate use of the
term probiotic. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 11(8). pp.506-514.
Bartolomei, J.E. and et.al., 2012. Engineering Systems Multiple‐Domain Matrix: An organizing
framework for modeling large‐scale complex systems. Systems Engineering.15(1). pp.41-
61.
Turner, R. and Zolin, R., 2012. Forecasting success on large projects: developing reliable scales
to predict multiple perspectives by multiple stakeholders over multiple time frames.
Project Management Journal. 43(5). pp.87-99.
García, J.A., Gómez, M. and Molina, A., 2012. A destination-branding model: An empirical
analysis based on stakeholders. Tourism Management.33(3). Pp .646-661.
Abdillah, L.A., 2014. Managing information and knowledge sharing cultures in higher
educations institutions. arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.4748.
Bilbao-Osorio, B., Dutta, S. and Lanvin, B., 2013, April. The global information technology
report 2013. In World Economic Forum (pp. 1-383).
Borghoff, U.M. and Pareschi, R. eds., 2013. Information technology for knowledge
management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Bulgurcu, B., Cavusoglu, H. and Benbasat, I., 2010. Information security policy compliance: an
empirical study of rationality-based beliefs and information security awareness. MIS
quarterly. 34(3). pp.523-548.
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Online
What is Business Environment? Explain its types .2016.[online].Available
through:<http://www.mbaofficial.com/>.[Accessed on 6 january 2017].
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