Recommendations: Coffee and Competitive Advantage Essay

Submitted By Analopez10
Words: 1482
Pages: 6

Recommendations:
In order to meet its goals for growth, we recommend that Starbucks develops a strategic posture of a future shaper in the specialty coffee industry. There are several reasons why:
Starbucks is already a leader in the market and needs to be a shaper in order to maintain that position and continue to maintain your customer base or risk losing it to the competitors if they adopt a reservist or no play position.
They already have core competencies in this industry and it would be natural for them to continue in that direction.
Your choice depends on your current project portfolio and all the elements of the Diamond-E
As a future shaper, Starbucks must to be at the forefront of the advancement of the specialty coffee industry. It should intend to be the leader in terms of carrying the industry forward. Starbucks must ensure that it has the core competencies required to accomplish this. A shaping strategy is designed to increase the probability that a favored industry scenario will occur. Example: shapers commit companies to building new capacity far in advance of an upturn in demand to pre-empt the competition, or they might consolidate the industry through mergers and acquisitions. Shaping strategies can fail, so Starbucks should supplement shaping bets with options that allow them to change course quickly if necessary [Be willing to cut losses; build competent workforce with product-development skills; closely monitor key variables]
To ensure continued success Starbucks must elaborate a formal strategic planning process and a means by which “emergent strategies” can be adopted. With constantly changing market conditions and customer needs, such strategies may be very powerful and they must be able to incorporate them strategies into its operations. These strategies can emerge if their baristas are allowed to be entrepreneurial VIPs.
Even if Starbucks is an industry leader, they must always be willing to reinvent themselves. Renewal is a key part of continued success. They must always be willing to create a new, more effective product or service that offers the client additional value. If they don’t then their competitors will. The means for creating competitive advantage are : superior quality, superior efficiency, customer responsiveness, innovation, and the competitive use of time. Positioning in the marketplace is key to a successful business. Satisfying clients’ needs by offering a unique product in a new, innovative, and difficult-to-replicate manner still (taking a radically new approach rather than make an incremental improvement) remains the quintessential sustainable competitive advantage. Investments in R&D projects to monitor developments in coffee technology & specialty coffee markets, as well as small investments in industry consortia in order to monitor global events are recommended.
Starbucks must become a horizon scanner and look at global opportunities, emerging macrotrends and how they could affect business; they must be scanning different markets and new technologies, and examining business or technological developments far removed from your current markets in case they represent an opportunity or a threat, and they must analyze the strategic role of the shaper, adapter, etc., ensuring there is a good fit with their Diamond-E.
OTHER NOTES FOR RECOMMENDATIONS satisfy all stakeholders: win-win must be the operating philosophy;
Create and deliver a unique positioning and brand in the minds of consumers relative to the competition;
Develop a unique way of creating value and a set of core competencies that are difficult for a competitor to reproduce;
Ensure that every level and every individual create and add value. No one should be controlling, monitoring, or “managing” others, and no one should need it;
Employees should be leaders: good communicators, networkers, and coaches. Above all, they should be trustworthy;
Recognize that employees at all levels represent intellectual capital and