Starbucks was born in 1971 seattle Washington, Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker; Inspired by the Afredo Peet coffee cellar, they decided to open a store selling grains and coffee machines for domestic consumption. In 1982 Howard Schultz decided to embark on the project as director of marketing, but during a trip to Italy I was captivated by the charm of those small coffee shops with a pleasant atmosphere where you could taste delicious coffee in a beautiful and authentic atmosphere, he thought that importing that experience genuine coffee to the United States was a good business idea, as his partners did not see clearly his idea decided to set up his own chain of coffee shops under the name of II GIORNALE, installing standards of authenticity and quality inspired by his travel experience. In 1982, the first GIORNALE II cafeteria was opened and in 1987 Howard Schultz acquired the Starbucks Company together with its five stores and merged it with its coffee shops, keeping the name of Starbucks. Schultz felt passion not only for the coffee but everything that the experience of taking it implied, inspiring in his experiences in his trip through Italy, he decided how it would be the product that he was going to sell in his cafeterias, a rich and complete experience.
Schultz was the executive director of the company from 1987 until the year 2000, during those years the chain did not stop expanding first in North America and then in the rest of the world. The first coffee shop that opened outside the US borders was in Tokyo in 1996, after those first successful years Schultz thought that the hard work was already done and decided to step aside and stop being the executive director since he believed that the company's route was quite on track, however the principles and philosophy that had inspired Starbucks from the beginning were being lost little by little without anyone noticing; The company's policy had focused almost exclusively on expansion and perhaps there were important things along the way. As if it were not enough around 2007, there was a severe financial crisis and an economic recession that hit the world, Schultz stopped for a moment to observe what Starbucks had become. He could not control external factors such as the crisis but he was in His hands improve the company from the inside as it was clear to him that there were many things that did not work or were not being done correctly, he realized that the expansion had become the main strategy and objective of the company but in reality In accordance with the foundational principles that had been so much invested in establishing, the experience that offered to the clients and that should be in continuous improvement should be the main objective and strategy of the company. The expansion would come as a result of good work achieved in the day to day of their coffee shops, to know the real problem that existed in Starbucks needed to leave the comfort of his office and jump to the front line to analyze what it was that was doing wrong, he decided to move around all countries and through different coffee shops to see what that service was like and if he really had lost those values and principles that he loved so much for his company.
He realized that the essence of Italian coffee shops, the experience of sitting in a desirable place and tasting a delicious coffee served by a friendly staff had been completely lost in most establishments, the workers were too busy to offer a adequate service and entering Starbucks gave the feeling of entering a crowded and busy place even becoming a somewhat oppressive space; In addition, the stores frequently ran out of stock at noon, with which customers often could not order their coffee according to the time of day. Schultz realized that this could not happen at all, Starbucks needed a more efficient system not only to replace products but to recover that special atmosphere that had sent him back to the same years ago and bring back the emotional connection that they had once had with their clients.
So after that exhaustive study he decided that it was time to return to the front of the company and establish a new system to reroute the company's route, which made it clear that from that moment the expansion would slow down, because They needed to focus all their strategies so that those important elements of the Starbucks experience that had been left on the way back to their company. Schultz decided to act again at the root by training the workers again and improving their relationship with them by going much closer.
All Starbucks in the United States were closed for 3 hours to train and teach their workers on the principle that making a great cafeteria is an art and requires practice, they needed the experience and the continuous improvement of the real priority of the company for and Starbucks complete. Starbucks complete. As the business strategy from a growth and expansion point of view decided to focus on improving their services and customer service, also in the reproduction system so that this would be much more efficient and customers ask for their coffee in any time of day no matter what time it is, in addition to renewing the coffee machines for new ones that left much more aroma in the environment and understood that the experience was a set of factors: the furniture, the taste of coffee, the music pleasant, the aroma, the noise of the cafeterias, the treatment to the client everything necessary to be in tune, that he likes the atmosphere that breathes in each one of the establishments of Starbucks. So they established a system that they then tried to replicate in all parts of the world.
The new system worked and soon the company began to recover thanks to Howard Schultz who had the courage to stop for a few minutes, look around and realize that he could not let the essence of Starbucks get lost, he could not sacrifice that that made it special for an expansion that had been too aggressive.
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Starbucks is an incredible example of how a company has taken advantage of moments of crisis to pause, observe, take notes and act. Followed after their depression have become much stronger and wise, they are aware that stumbling and crisis are a natural part of any path and that the smartest thing is to take advantage of them to improve. Growth as a company not only to expand and increase economic value but also all the wisdom and lessons we can draw from those difficult times and this is expressed by Howard himself and says that the best days of Starbucks still to come and thus leave Of course, the company's philosophy of continuous improvement and its desire to improve itself year after year, however, Starbucks knows perfectly well that no company is exempt from making mistakes in the future and that it will possibly encounter stones along the way but also knows that with determination and effort will be able to overcome even the biggest setbacks.
