Starbucks, founded in 1971, emphasizes a strong organizational culture centered on servant leadership, inclusivity, and collaboration, aiming to create a welcoming environment for both employees and customers. The company’s culture is reinforced through shared values, recognition of heroes among partners, and consistent rituals that strengthen community ties. Starbucks’ commitment to ethical practices has established it as a leader in customer loyalty and competitive advantage in the coffee industry.

1. C U L T U R A L A P P R O A C H E S
Starbucks Coffee

2. Starbucks Background
 Opened in 1971
 Seattle’s historic Pike Place Market
 1981 Howard Schultz, current CEO, visits Starbucks
for the first time, joins a year later.
 On the 2015 World’s Most Ethical Company list for
the nine year in a row

3. What Makes a Culture?
 According to the book
 Values
 Symbols
 Rites and rituals
 Daily life
 Two ways of thinking about culture
 Culture is something an organization has
 Culture is something an organization is

4. Starbucks Culture
 Servant Leadership (“employees first”)
 Believe in treating partners with respect and dignity.
 Encouraging others to be the best they can be behind the
counter and beyond.
 Believe that if they care about each other, they will care for
their customers.
 Relationship-driven approach
 Mission: To inspire and nurture the human spirit- one person,
one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.
 Baristas creating friendships with their coworkers and
customers.

5. Starbucks Culture
 Collaboration and communication
 Accommodating demographics, tastes, handcrafted beverages,
utilities and products, food, and lifestyles.
 Finding and creating the best beverage for the customer.
 Increase efficiency in communication and café operations.
 Inclusion and diversity
 22,519 stores as of June 28, 2015 in over 65 countries.
 Prohibits any form of discrimination.
 Creating a sense of belonging.

6. Starbucks Culture
 Openness
 “Our stores are a neighborhood gathering place for meeting
friends and family. Our customers enjoy quality service, an
inviting atmosphere and an exceptional beverage.”
 How employees and customers interact.
 How employees and their fellow partners interact.
 Everyone is encouraged to ask questions.

7. Deal and Kennedy’s “Strong Culture”
 Strong culture consists of four parts:
 Values: beliefs and visions that members hold for an
organization.
 Heroes: individuals who come to exemplify an organization’s
values.
 Rites and Rituals: ceremonies through which an organization
celebrates its values
 Cultural Network: system through which cultural values are
instituted and reinforced.

8. Starbucks’ “Strong Culture”
 Values (as stated on their website)
 “Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone
is welcome.
 Acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding
new ways to grow our company and each other.
 Being present, connecting with transparency, dignity and
respect.
 Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves
accountable for results.
 We are performance driven, through the lens of humanity.”

9. Starbucks’ “Strong Culture”
 Heroes
 CEO, Howard Schultz
 Partners
 One tree for every bag commitment
 Distribute coffee trees to farmers whose farms have been infected
with a coffee plant fungus.
 In a sense Starbucks creates a hero in every aspect of
their company all the way from the top CEO down to
the coffee farmers.

10. Starbucks’ “Strong Culture”
 Rites and Rituals
 Embroidered aprons after 3 months
 Official barista certification
 Partner of the quarter
 Voted by partners for their store.
 Coffee Master black apron
 Granted to those who take the
journey of discovering the
history of coffee.

11. Starbucks’ “Strong Culture”
 Cultural network
 Partner Hub
 Allows employees to connect with one another and find all the
latest news within the company.
 Access to education, grants, 401K plans, and stocks.
 Coffee Passport
 Helps the partner explore different coffees and what they taste
best with.
 Allows for more efficient networking with customers when they
want to find their perfect coffee fit.
 Connecting with each other through face-to-face.

12. Peters and Waterman’s “Excellent Culture”
 8 themes to create an excellent culture:
 A bias for action
 Close relations to the customer
 Autonomy and entrepreneurship
 Productivity through people
 Hands-on, value driven
 Stick to the knitting
 Simple form, lean staff
 Simultaneous loose-tight properties

13. Starbucks’ “Excellent Culture”
 A bias for action
 Excellent organizations react quickly and do not spend excess
time planning and analyzing.
 Managers quickly assign tasks and manage breaks to best fit a
situation.
 Close relations to the customer
 Excellent organizations gear decisions and actions to the need
for the customers.
 Willing to explain different types of coffees and drinks to
customers to help them find their favorite drink. Partners are
always willing to remake a drink if the customer doesn’t love it.
 Remembering customer names and orders.

14. Starbucks’ “Excellent Culture”
 Autonomy and entrepreneurship
 Excellent organizations encourage employees to take risks in
the development of new ideas.
 Creating new drinks and sharing them with partners.
 Latte art
 Encouraged to share ideas with mangers and each other.
 Productivity through people
 Excellent organizations encourage positive and respectful
relationships among management and employees.
 Managers and fellow employees understand struggles are always
willing to help one another out.

15. Starbucks’ “Excellent Culture”
 Hands-on, value driven
 Excellent organizations have employees and managers who
share the same core value of productivity and performance.
 Interview questions prior to hiring include situational questions
and evaluate whether or not a particular person holds the same
values and passion for the products as the company does.
 Stick to the knitting
 Excellent organizations stay focused on what they do best and
avoid radical diversification.
 Starbucks encourages partners to excel in their knowledge of
coffees, teas, and other industry related topics. Try to enrich each
other for the soul purpose of creating a better experience for our
customers.

16. Starbucks’ “Excellent Culture”
 Simple form, lean staff
 Excellent organizations avoid complex structures and divisions
of labor.
 Starbucks does not follow this. There are certain jobs that are
assigned to partners (ex. Register, bar, drive through, and support)
to increase the efficiency of the store. There is a division of labor
but it is a simple structure.
 Simultaneous loose-tight properties
 Excellent organizations exhibit both unity of purpose and the
diversity necessary for innovation.
 Baristas unite together to create consistent products for customers
but each have something different to contribute to the store’s
culture and interactions with the customers.

17. Emergent Culture
 “Created through the interaction of organizational
members.”
 Says that culture is created in the moment with the
people we communicate with each other.
 Starbucks’ culture is created when we engage with
customers from the moment they walk in the door
until the time that they leave.
 It’s the little things that make a mark as to who
Starbucks is.

18. What Culture Does for Starbucks
 Competitive advantage against other coffee industry
leaders.
 Customer loyalty.
 Starbucks exemplifies both a “strong” and “excellent”
culture. They know who they are, how to interact
with customer, and how to operate within their
organization.

19. Questions
 What are some ways that Starbucks could include
their customers more into the culture?
 Through mobile apps?
 Does Starbucks plan to do to expand their culture to
people who are not educated in the coffee industry?
 Tea lovers who do not currently drink coffee?

20. Works Cited
 Ferguson, E. (2015, September 13). Panmore:
Starbucks Coffee Company’s Organizational
Culture. Retrieved February 8, 2016, from
http://panmore.com/starbucks-coffee-
company-organizational-culture
 Mission Statement. (n.d.). Retrieved February 08,
2016, from http://www.starbucks.com/about-
us/company-information/mission-statement