Starbucks

Rice Cakes and Starbucks
Write a summary of Rice Cakes and Starbucks in about 150 words The short story Rice Cakes and Starbucks is about the Lindens. A little family containing Dan who’s the father and an up-coming actor. Beth who is the mother and their three little children: Honey, Ben and Grace. They decide to move to L.A. to try and get some jobs for Dan because their current money situation is not very good. They can barely manage at the current time. So Dan is going to a casting at CBS while Beth and the children are staying at a Starbucks. But then CBS hears that he has three children. Dan can see that is not good thing and that they disapprove. So they say their goodbyes and Dan leaves. When Dan gets back to the Starbucks he tells Beth that the casting did not go as hoped. And then his phone rings and it’s CBS wanting to know if his daughter can come to a casting to which he replies:” I’ll have to get back to you about that” and does not tell Beth what the call was about. 176 words Characterize Dan and Beth

Dan is a caring father but he is also very insecure on himself. He wants to make as an actor and he wants to be the best father he can be. He is having a hard time trying to provide for his family and make it as an actor. But at the same time they also annoys him (p. 11 ll. 114 Dan walked twice round the block to shake all thoughts of his family off) And he was appalled by the thought that they should go with to the casting and wait. He is not a big fan of just doing something, when they decide to move to L.A. it is almost only Beth that forces them to move. Beth is a loving mother and wife. She is willing to do almost anything for her husband and she believes in him. She has given up on her own dreams so she can watch over their children while her husband is out trying to live his dreams. She wants them to move to L.A. because she doesn’t want to be blamed for holding him back or destroying his drams. And it also seems as like she thinks moving to L.A. is going to solve their problems. 206 words

Comment on Dan’s choice at the end of the text
Dan gets a call from CBS where they offer his daughter the opportunity to come to a casting for a movie but he turns is down. Dan is hurt in the end for being rejected from CBS and does not want any other to success when he
can’t even his own daughter. This also shows just how little he believes in himself that he can’t even let his own daughter get the chance. But his daughter is also very young and maybe he does not want her to get a role and become really fond of acting and then later in life get disappointed because she can’t get any roles again so he is trying to protect her from being hurt like him. 123 words Write a short essay (150-200 words) in which you discuss the challenge of having a family while pursuing your dreams. The challenge is not something that you can describe as being a certain thing because it’s different depending on which dreams you have and other different scenarios. But in my opinion the challenge lies in the fact that you often have to choose a side. You are going to miss out on some of the things that are important to your family because you have to do something else as an extension to your dreams. And you have to have your family in the back of your head in every decision you make, because they have to fit in there somehow. Just because it is a good decision for your dreams does not necessarily make it a good decision for your family or life as a family for that matter. But some people have the power to handle both their drams and a family. An example could be if a father in a family had a dream to have a big career but he had to go to another country as a part of his job, but that meant that his family had to live without him for a while, and he would miss out on his children growing up and other bad things could happen to the family. 209 words

McDonald’s Corporation operates in the foodservice industry. The company has its restaurants in more than 100 countries of the world. McDonald’s, the world’s largest food chain is headquartered in U. S. having an employee population of 390000. Starbucks Corporation Seattle based, Starbucks Corporation is the leading coffeehouse chain in the world. The company has its operations in more than 44 countries. The main products offered by Starbucks various kinds of drinks, snacks, coffee beans.

Current Ratio

Current Ratio may be defined as the relationship between current assets and current liabilities. It is also known as working capital ratio or 2: 1 ratio. It is calculated by dividing the current assets by current liabilities. The main components of this ratio are current assets and current liabilities. Current assets of a firm represent those assets which can be, in the ordinary course of business, converted into cash within a period not exceeding one year. Current liabilities mean those obligations which are to be paid within a period of one year of current assets or by creation of current liabilities (Van Horne, Wachowicz & Bhaduri, 2005).

Current ratio of the Starbucks Corporation and McDonalds Corporation is . 79 and . 80 respectively in the year 2007. There is little difference in the current ratio of both the companies. The ratio reflects weak liquidity position of both the companies and it shows that the companies do not have short term solvency. Liquidity position can be improved to some extent and can be made equivalent to industry average. The industry average of current ratio is . 90: 1. Quick Ratio This ratio is also helpful in analyzing short term financial position of a business.

Quick ratio is the measure of the instant debt paying ability of the business enterprise, hence it is called quick ratio (Van Horne, Wachowicz & Bhaduri, 2005). A quick ratio of 1:1 is considered as an ideal ratio. If the liquid ratio is more than 1:1, the financial position of the firm seems to be sound and good. On the other hand, if the ratio is less than 1:1 the financial position of the firm is unsound. Quick ratio of Starbucks is . 30:1 and McDonald’s ratio is . 67:1. There is high difference between the quick ratios of both the corporations.

McDonald’s liquidity position is much better than Starbucks. Overall, the short term liquidity position of both the firms is quite poor because both the ratios are less than the desired norms. For instance, current ration should be 2:1 whereas, it is 1:1 approximately. Similarly the liquidity ratio is much less than 1 as compared to ideal standard of 1:1. Therefore, the companies will face difficulties in current obligations on maturity.

Debt Equity Ratio

This ratio indicates the relative proportion of debt and equity in financing the assets of a firm. Debt Equity ratio reflects the relative claims of creditors and shareholders against the assets of a firm. The industry average of ratio is . 42:1. Debt equity ratio of McDonalds is . 92:1 which is highly satisfactory as normally the ratio of 1:1 is considered reasonable. The Starbucks ratio is 1. 34:1 which is very high. A high debt equity ratio has serious implications from the firm’s point of view. A high proportion of debt in the capital structure lead to inflexibility in the operations of the firm as creditors would exercise pressure and interfere in management.

Proprietary Ratio

Proprietary ratio establishes relationship between proprietors or shareholder’s funds and total assets of the business. This ratio highlights the general financial strength of the firm. It is of great importance to creditors since it enables them to find out the proportion of shareholder’s funds in the total assets used in the business. The ratio of Starbucks is . 43:1 and for the McDonalds it is . 52:1. Though, ratios are quite similar but McDonalds again has a better position than Starbucks Corporation. Solvency Ratio

This ratio measures the long term solvency of the business. It reveals the relationship between total assets and total external liabilities. This ratio measures the proportion of total assets provided by creditors of the firm i. e. what part of assets being financed from loans (Van Horne, Wachowicz & Bhaduri, 2005). The total assets of Starbucks and McDonald’s are more than total liabilities which indicates that the company is solvent. So, the higher the ratio, the grater is the amount of creditors that is being used to generate profit foe the owners of the firm.

The difference in both the companies’ ratio is small but still Starbucks has better performance than McDonald’s in terms of solvency. Inventory Turnover Ratio The ratio indicates the number of times inventory is replaced during the year. It measures the relationship between the cost of goods sold and the inventory level. The inventory turnover ratio measures how quickly inventory is sold (Van Horne, Wachowicz & Bhaduri, 2005). The inventory turnover ratio of Starbucks is 12 times while McDonald’s ratio is 118 times. McDonald’s has an efficient inventory management.

Whereas Starbucks has low inventory turnover ratio and it is unsatisfactory. In general, a high inventory turnover ratio is better than a low ratio. A high ratio implies good inventory management. A very low level of inventory has serious implications. It adversely affects the ability to meet customer demand as it may mot cope up with its customer requirements. Gross Profit Ratio The ratio expresses the relationship of gross profit on sales to net sales in terms of percentage (Van Horne, Wachowicz & Bhaduri, 2005). Goss profit is the result of the relationship between prices, sales volume and costs.

Gross profit margin of Starbucks Corporation is 23% whereas the ratio for McDonald’s is 35%. McDonald’s ratio is high as compared to Starbucks which is a sign of good management. It implies that the cost of production of the firm is relatively low. The McDonald’s has reasonable gross margin which ensures adequate coverage for operating expenses of the firm and sufficient return to the owners of the business, which is reflected in the net profit margin. Net profit Ratio This measures the relationship between net profits and sales of a firm.

The net profit margin is indicative of management’s ability to operate the business with sufficient success not only to recover revenues of the period, the cost of merchandise or services, the expenses of operating the business and the cost of the borrowed funds, but also leave a margin of reasonable compensation to the owners for providing their capital at risk (Van Horne, Wachowicz & Bhaduri, 2005). Net profit ratio of McDonald’s and Starbucks is 15. 67% & and 7. 15% respectively. McDonald’s is generating adequate returns for its owners.

On the other hand, Starbucks net profit margin shows inadequate returns to its owners. Overall efficiency and profitability of McDonald’s is higher than Starbucks.  The ratio expresses the percentage relationship between net profit and proprietors funds or shareholder’s investment (Van Horne, Wachowicz & Bhaduri, 2005). It is used to ascertain the earning power of shareholders investment. Return on proprietors’ funds for McDonald’s is 15. 7% and for Starbucks it is 29. 5%. Starbucks has better performance and higher return than the McDonald’s. Earning Per Share

The rate of dividend on shares depends upon the amount of profits darned by the firm. Whatever profit remains, after meeting all expenses and paying preference share dividend, belongs to equity shareholders (Van Horne, Wachowicz & Bhaduri, 2005). These are the profits earned on equity share capital. The earning per share is calculated by dividing the profit available to equity shareholders by the number of shares issued. This is a popular ratio as it measures the profitability of a firm from owner’s standpoint. McDonald’s EPS is higher than Starbucks which shows that the market price of the firm would be greater.

It will also help the company to raise additional capital without any difficulty. This ratio plays an important in comparison of two companies from investment point of view. Investment Decision I would like to invest in McDonald’s Corporation as the overall performance and productivity is high for the firm. The liquidity analysis performed through current ratio and quick ratio reveals that the McDonald’s is better in terms of liquidity position. The company also has satisfactory position in terms of long term solvency. Though solvency ratio of Starbucks is higher but overall McDonald’s has good financial position.

Firm is able to quickly convert various assets into cash. McDonald’s has high profit margins which is necessary for the higher returns to the shareholders. It shows that the resources are effectively utilized at the firm. EPS is very high which is necessary for the investment. Thus, investment in McDonald’s Corporation is beneficial and it would give higher returns.

References

1. About McDonald’s… (2008). Retrieved November 19, 2008, from http://www. mcdonalds. com/corp/about. html McDonald’s Corp: Financial Statement. (2008).
2. MSN Money. Retrieved November 19, 2008, from http://moneycentral. sn. com/investor/invsub/results/statemnt. aspx? Symbol=US:MCD&lstStatement=Balance&stmtView=Ann Starbucks Corp: Financial Statement. (2008). MSN Money. Retrieved November 19, 2008, from http://moneycentral. msn. com/investor/invsub/results/statemnt. aspx? Symbol=SBUX&lstStatement=Balance&stmtView=Ann
3. The Company. (2008). Retrieved November 19, 2008, from http://www. starbucks. com/aboutus/overview. asp
4. Van Horne, J. C. Wachowicz, J. M. & Bhaduri, S. N. (2005). Fundamentals of Financial Management (12th Ed. ). (pp. 130-133). United Kingdom: Pearson Education.

Introduction

Starbucks has a global presence around the world with functioning extremely well wherever it is present. Currently it is present in a number of countries including Australia, Austria, Beijing, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Shanghai, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and United Kingdom. It has several kinds of coffee in its portfolio, which has been originated from different regions such as Latin America, Asia Pacific, Africa, Asia and other multi-region blends (Starbucks Coffee, 2007.). The success of the organization is indicated by its rapid expansion from 281 stores abroad to 1200 stores till date. Not only in the numerical value of number of stores, Starbucks has actually grown in profit size as well with earning almost 20 percent each year after going public last year. Even in a magazine like Business Week has rated Starbucks among one of the fastest growing top brands around the globe as per the research conducted. Even now, the growth is unstoppable with a Starbucks candidly stating, “We’re going to see a lot more growth’, says Jerome A. Castellini, president of Chicago based CastleArk Management, which controls about 300,000 Starbucks shares”

Scope

The scope of the project includes determining the strategy that Starbucks need to use in maintaining its presence around the globe healthily. It also needs to devise a plan to adjust to climate and culture, which is starkly different from one country to the other. Although the figure it displays in profit shows that it need not change because at times its stock price has surpassed that of huge blue chip companies like IBM, Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola, Microsoft, General Electrics and Walmart.

Limitations

Despite the extreme effort, the assignment includes certain limitations which may hurdle the way to the to complete perfection, which includes the time limitations, the monetary constraints, no official negotiations or interviews from any Starbucks official.

Background and Situational Analysis

The existence of this entity dates way 36 years back in 1971 by Howard Schultz initially opened in Seattle, Washington, Unites States of America, which happens to be its headquarter today as well. The foremost act to adjust and be accepted by the locals is to adopt a name that the domestic citizens can understand and that’s what Starbucks has done like “China, Taiwan, Hong Kong: ??? Pinyin: x?ng b? kè, ? x?ng” means star, while is a transliteration of “-bucks, South Korea:  transliteration (ss ta buk ss), often used in conjunction with the English name, Japan: transliteration (su taa ba — ku su), Thailand:  transliteration (sa taa bak)” (Wikipedia, n.d.).

Despite its heavy cash inflows and profit boost after going public, the coffee place is facing serious issues in its home country. Starbucks has a hefty presence in United States of America and especially in Seattle with an outlet every other corner which is canniblizing its own sales eventually at a rate of 30% per year. Because of its presence at every other corner, it actually has culminated its own growth as there isnt a margin of any making people lead to the conclusion that it has reached its height of saturation. Some critics have even stated that at most two years is what Starbucks is left with. The panic of this news stateed by the fact that Starbucks is planning to increase its global presence to even further stages by increasing the number of outlets around the globe.

There are several other ways that the organization is trying to elaborate its life such as Starbucks Coffee and The New York Times have formed a strategic alliance through which the Times will be the only national newspaper sold at company-owned outlets. In return, the Times will use its national advertising resources to promote the chain’s products and locations” (Brandweek, 2007) as it is the only method via which they can regain their sales in the home country because they have no margin to exapnd any further with the number of outelts.

Market Analysis

The market in the current years have become saturated due to its increasing opening in several states of America with Starbucks becoming a national joke because of its outlets presence at every other corner of the place. The only way to increase or maintain its sales is to increase the amount of visitors attending that outlet or switch people from other brands, which could be only done via more marketing and promotion. In the United States of America the people who started Starbucks in their teenage or adolescence are now putt off by the fact that it has become more of a designer brand than a place to enjoy a cup of coffee at. The oldest customers of Starbucks believe that they are earning of their brand name while the price is not worth their quality.

The market is in the home country is going down rapidly and therefore they need to come up with new schemes and coffee types in order to counter the untapped and lost market. It has applied the strategy of opening up more stores in the home country therefore now it needs to concentrate on its marketing and promotion rather than the pan to open up anymore of the outlets.

The counter strategy Starbucks have decided to shift more to the international market than the home country because of its declining sales in the latter part. “Starbucks Coffee — the world’s largest retailer of specialty coffee — announced last week that it was switching many of its stores in western states and New England to milk free of the controversial artificial hormone rBGH, a move experts say will further harm Monsanto’s declining sales of the hormone” (Fraser, 2007) hence indicating that international market might still hold some unforeseen and vulnerable incidents for it.

Strategy Recommendation

In order to curtail its original position and boost its sales it has to rely more on newer techniques than to just open novel outlets with the same pace. More outlets mean more employees and the employee satisfaction rate is not that high for Starbucks as well despite of high wages as compared to other fast food retailers. It needs to accommodate all the four P’s in its plan in order to gain an overall edge in the market.

The lack of attention to its marketing aspect is indicated by the expenditure it has on Marketing, which is only $30 million. Its constitutes to a minimal percentage of 1 percent to be precise and only on special occasions when they have a launch of a new product or flavors.

Product

 Despite the variety presence in the number of coffee and other products available there are still bad healthy remarks associated with caffeine and junk food, which include baked material as well. Therefore in order to counter that they should come up with ways to make their product more healthy and yet tasty like their move of “attempting to eliminate hydrogenated oils from its foods for more than two years” and now “Coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. recently announced that it would remove trans fats from baked goods in half of its U.S. stores by Jan. 3, and plans to eventually cut the unhealthy fats from foods in all its stores” (Fraser, 2007).

There are several advantages attached to this act of there as “the trans fat ban applies to the items offered on Starbucks’ food menu, including doughnuts, muffins and other baked goods. Research has shown that trans fats listed on Starbucks’ ingredients labels as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil clog arteries and can trigger heart attack and stroke, as well as raise levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol” (Fraser, 2007). Hence, assuring a healthy snack along with coffee and as far as the caffeine content of the coffee goes, there are many options for the customer to choose the one that has less caffeine content than the other as there is no lack of variety for any kind of customer.

 What they need to do now is to promote their healthiness and taste as per the culture of the country. They need to heavily rely on marketing along with their other strategies, as they have to set off negative sentiments like “After prolonged “caffeinism,” your body enters a state of adrenal exhaustion. Your caffeine consumption has simply pushed your adrenal glands so much that they’ve burned out. Ralph T. Golan, ND, describes this unfortunate state in his book, Herbal Defense: “Caffeine forces your glands to secrete when they don’t have much left to give, and they have to keep digging deeper and deeper, making you more and more tired over time. And over the years, it takes more and more coffee to get the same result. Some people reach the point of drinking half a dozen or more cups of coffee to get the same result and it’s barely keeping them awake. That’s severe adrenal depletion” (Veracity, 2005).

Price

Despite the long existence of Starbucks there still prevails a concept in consumers perception that it charges high because of its brand name development. Although there are some other competitors who are charging more than what Starbucks is but they need to remove this price costly association related to them. According to a research conducted “Starbucks regular coffee was 4 percent less expensive and its iced blended drinks were as much as 30 percent less expensive when compared with specialty competition” (Starbucks’ prices lower than rivals’, 2004).

However in the recent years it has been reported “Starbucks is raising its prices by about 11 cents per cup, effective Oct. 6. The company blames the increase on the higher cost of milk, rent and health insurance. It’s the first system wide increase in the U.S. since August 2000, when the chain raised prices by seven cents” (Starbucks Raising Prices, 2004). Although the price change is within a large interval but it still needs to keep it in control its prices to retain the existing customers. Or else, it would have to promote through marketing and advertisement that the prices it charges are all on market average and fair rate.

After all justification for price people still have counter arguments as “Well, if you break down the components it becomes clear that you are paying a vast premium for the heating of your milk  but not the milk itself. The main ingredient is a double shot of espresso, and that costs $1.85. The Starbucks doesn’t charge for a single pump of vanilla, so that’s free. And at the sugar-and-napkins counter, you can pour all the milk into your cup that you like. So that’s free, too” (Markman, 2005).

Place

In the United States of America, Starbucks is situated in almost every other corner and yet there are still places left where it hasn’t opened a single retail outlet. Therefore it needs to plan its placement accordingly in order to spread evenly through out the country. Except the home country, it is present worldwide and is highly appreciated globally. Such as in Japan, it is growing extremely well beating its own expectations. In order to counter the lessening in sales at home, it has decided to go further abroad as “the company announced at its annual meeting last week a plan to open 1,500 new stores globally and boost total revenue by 20%” (Markman, 2004).

It expects to double its existence abroad to 10,000 outlets, which is one of the ways to counter its decreasing sales, but then it has to find a way to counter it within the home country as well. The global companies usually have a stagnant Product Life Cycle after their maturity stage which leads them to prolong their good times as their decline in one country is set off by their growth in the other, hence canceling out the effect.

Promotion

The foremost issue of this organization currently is its lack of marketing in the home country regarding the edge it has over other competing rivals. Due to its lack of interest in this particular field, it is unable to promote its advantages and counter argue it imposed disadvantages. Therefore in order to be proactive and counter the forthcoming irregularities it needs to be within the attention of the audience in order to gain their trust.

In order to gain edge over its competitors it needs to have a proactive marketing plan in focus which it needs to follow in order to be in the minds of the consumer always and not only rely on previous loyal customers and word of mouth.

The lack of their insight in the marketing arena is demonstrated by the fact that “On August 23rd Starbucks sent out an email to some of its Atlanta employees and business partners inviting them to enjoy a free coffee. The email said they could forward it to a few family and friends as well. The emails wound up being sent across the country, resulting in an influx of the coupons on a scale that Starbucks simply never anticipated. It got so big and out of control Starbucks canceled the promotion, saying that the wider-than-expected redistribution altered the intent of the promotion” (Thilk, 2006).

Although it’s reliance on word of mouth and its good will till now has been quite profitable but now since it has passed its growth stage and reach the maturity it needs to devise ways to counter the saturation that has occurred in the home country if not to its global presence.

Recommendations

In order for the organization to counter the fact of its downfall due to saturation in the home country, it needs to enhance its presence in the minds of the current, lost and potential customer to regain its prior value. One of the major issues along with marketing that it faces is its employee satisfaction and motivation level as well. “Many of Starbucks’ 140,000 employees worldwide joined the company after it began the switch to automated espresso machines in 1999, and very few remember the early days when it kept coffee in bins rather than flavor-locked packages” (Allison, 2007). Hence, they enter the organization believing that they know the organization when actually they don’t, which creates problems.

As the saying goes “When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”, Starbucks has also met the same fate, as not one things but everything is seen under a bad light. Where once people just came because of its name, now they are finding the price higher than the fair value despite other places having the same or more price. This could also be countered with the help of its marketing tactics if used intelligently that is by promoting the fairness of its price and justifying it by giving reasons.

For the placement issue, it needs to stop opening its stores at places where it is crowded but needs to focus in promoting and having more customers in the ones that are already present. The foremost issue it needs to cater is the marketing techniques.

Conclusion

In order to revive itself back in the business Starbucks immediately needs to establish a good marketing technique and counter the issues of placement, price, rumors that it is facing currently.

Bibliography

1. Starbucks. (2007). Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://www.starbucks.com/
2. Starbucks. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks_Coffee
3. Brandweek. (2007). Starbucks Dumps USA Today, Inks with New York Times – Brief Article. ). Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BDW/is_32_41/ai_64161110
4. Fraser, J. (2007). Starbucks to cut trans fats from baked goods in half of U.S. store. Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://www.newstarget.com/021387.html
5. Fraser, J. (2007). Starbucks to cut trans fats from baked goods in half of U.S. stores Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://www.newstarget.com/021387.html
6. Veracity, D. (2005). The hidden dangers of caffeine: How coffee causes exhaustion, fatigue and addiction. Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://www.newstarget.com/012352.html
7. Starbucks’ prices lower than rivals. (2004). Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://starbucksgossip.typepad.com/_/2004/08/starbucks_price.html
8. Starbucks Raising Prices. (2004). Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/starbucks.html
9. Markman, J. D. (2004). Starbucks’ genius blends community, caffeine. Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P107679.asp
10. Thilk, C. (2006). Starbucks email campaign a tad too successful. Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://www.adjab.com/2006/09/01/starbucks-email-campaign-a-tad-too-successful/
11. Allsion, M. (2007). Starbucks must find lost “soul,” Schultz says. Retrieved on 26 February 2007 from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003586922_starbucks24.html

Which one of the 5 generic business strategies best matches Cataracts strategy? Why? I believe that of the generic strategies the best match to Cataracts strategy is that of the rivalry within the industry. This is the best match because there are a lot of different types of specialty coffee shops out their in the industry so the rivalry amongst all the competitors is very fierce. Of the other coffee shops it will tough for hem to match the price and popularity that Cataracts has on the rest of the competition.

Other companies may be able to sell their coffee at a higher price but then the number of sales that they receive is going to be lower than that of Cataracts. The rivalry in the coffee shop market is very competitive but Cataracts has an advantage over the competition in the fact that it can charge a higher price then its competitors and still have more customers then the rest of the market. 2. Evaluate Cataracts social responsibility strategy. Is it sincere or Just something to help with image?

I believe that the social responsibility of Cataracts is sincere and not Just something to help promote their image. They want to make sure that the prices that they have paid for the coffee beans is high enough that the small farmers were able to cover all their productions cost as well as provide for their families. Cataracts also wants to work directly with small coffee growers, local coffee-growing cooperatives, and other hypes of coffee suppliers to promote coffee cultivation methods that protected biodiversity and were environmentally sustainable.

Lastly Cataracts made purchasing arrangements that limited the exposure to sudden price Jumps due to weather, economic, and political conditions in the growing countries where they were getting their coffee beans. 3. What major issues face the company in mid 2010? In the mid 2010 people were not spending their normal amount on money, customers were more worried about saving their money because of the economic crisis.

A new wave of promises to make fast food even faster. But how good are they? We put four (all available for both iOS and Android) to the test. Bon app-étit!

Chick-fil-A One 

The promise: Customize meals down to extra salt and “lite” mayonnaise, skip the line for pickup and earn points toward free “treats.”

The reality: I felt all-powerful strutting into a crowded midtown Manhattan location and grabbing my bag of bird without a wait. And those free treats are a big deal: Chick-fil-A’s loyalty program — which rewards frequent customers with items like soft-serve — had been invite-only and shrouded in mystery for years. The app finally grants anybody entrée.

Taco Bell Live Más 

The promise: Make customized orders, get deals and maybe even play a game.

The reality: The app is eye-poppingly busy — lots of scenic landscapes and pics of having fun overlaid by text like “Time to Recharge.” At testing time, there were no special offers and the built-in game was “out of season.” Womp womp. One plus, such as it is: I could choose additional ingredients or condiments for each food item.

Starbucks 

The promise: Beat the line by preordering and prepaying for coffee and food. Cash in rewards for free beverages.

The reality: If your local Starbucks has fear-inducing lines (like mine does), life is better when you can grab a joe to go. Although the automatic encourages me to stay: I’d get free in-store refills. (Also, I’d get a free drink on my birthday.) Maybe next time, I’ll just grab a table to work at — and order from there.

Domino’s Zero Click 

The promise: Open an app and a pizza magically shows up at your door. No further tapping or typing required. 

The reality: This is nothing short of evil genius: I open the app, wait 10 seconds without clicking “cancel,” and my favorite pizza (stored in my “pizza profile”) shows up about 30 minutes later. Good news: The self-loathing associated with buying a MeatZZa Feast Pizza all for myself drops precipitously when I don’t have to say the order out loud. 

Starbucks act ethically in a way that is consistent with the statement of ethics. The enforcement of the ethical processes is of great importance to the firm. Incases where the firm is suspected or is alleged to violate it is the duty of the person who makes such discovery to report to the firm’s manager, the team management at the sites or at the ethics committees directly. The firm therefore conducts an investigation in order to identify and also to confirm the allegations as well as the legal aspect that may make the intended objective of the firm difficult to achieve.

In cases when the allegations are found to be true, the management takes action immediately in order to correct the divergence and the contact of the guilty person is terminated regardless of the position held by the person. The areas that are monitored and observed by the firm include the work place, the market place and the worldwide community. The workers are informed that there is no guide or a manual in the firm that can be used to give the person a full set of rules that they should be followed.

Therefore this leaves the workers to trust their own judgment of what they feel is right or wrong. The firm’s management has put in place many internal controls that ensure that the firm complies with the SEC policies and the regulations. SEC was created in order to protect the country’s investors and to regulate the securities markets. Then policy also monitors the firms which operate in USA in order to ensure that the firms’ policies and regulations are compliant with those of the Federal government. The Trend for Each Ratio

The current assets of Starbucks firm show that the firm has the ability to pay its near term financial obligations. Depending on the type of business done by the firm, the current ratio is at least 2:1. A lower amount of ratio means that the firm is not able to pay its bills when necessary whereas a higher current ratio means that the firm has got money either in cash or in asset form that could still be used to run the firm effectively safely in the future. The day’s receivable ratios of Starbucks Company are used to measure the average number of days when the accounts receivable are outstanding.

The number is lower than the firm’s credit terms. If it was equal to the firm’s credit terms, the number would still be appropriate. In addition, other ratios such as the cost of sales to payable ratios could be converted to ratios. The debt ratio indicates the mix between the Starbucks’ investment and the capital that is supplied. The company is therefore safer because it has low debt to equity ratio. This means that the firm has a higher proportion of the capital which is supplied by the owner. Excessive ratio in the firm could show high caution.

The debt of the firm has to be between 50- 80 percent for the firm to be successful. The debt ratio could also be used to measure the Starbucks capital which is available for investment through borrowing. If the debt ratio of this firm is more than 1 then the firm has a negative worth and could translate that the firm is bankrupt. References Bangs and David, H. , Managing by the Numbers: Financial Essentials for the Growing Business. Upstart Publishing, 1992. Casteuble and Tracy. Using Financial Ratios to Assess Performance. Association Management. July, 1997.

The Starbucks’s homepage is quite appealing and smarter than Greenmountaincoffee’s website. The information is precise in the former but is in full and confidently would catch reader’s attention due to the precise format of the information. For Greenmountaincoffee the site is quite elaborative with product details, customer reviews and many more making it complete but quite large in number for dealing. Both of them follow a business to business (B2B) and business to customer model (B2C) which caters to various individuals and businesses for accomplishing their customer service.

The concept of “add to basket”, “checkout” and other scenarios display real content and make sure that the customer feels at the center of their universe when shopping for their coffee. The difference is in the ulterior motive of the two firms engaged in selling coffee and coffee products over the internet. The motive of Starbucks and Greenmountaincoffee is to ultimate earn profit, however the dedication and contribution to society is seen largely for Greenmountaincoffee (see: http://www. greenmountaincoffee. com/CSTM_Brewing-A-Better-World. aspx).

Greenmountaincoffee caters to supporting local communities in donations, employee volunteerism programs, domestic grants and many other foster growth and trust in them. Contributing to make a social place lively by reducing solid waste, responsible use of energy, conventional sourcing, community partnerships and many more speak volumes about their great contribution to society and environment at a large scale. Starbucks on the other hand has also depicted responsible actions towards society in the form of contributing its assistance to savethechildren.

com and mercycrops. org for improving children’s health. Conclusion Engineering principles were a necessity in the complexity/diversity surrounding online activity. Legal and ethical issues are vital to security conscious users. Starbucks and Greenmountaincoffee have utilized their virtualized value system for economies of scale and global reach. Their virtual community model has excelled in customer relations, aiding brand image. Associates and business model flexibility have sustained competitive advantage.

References/Bibliography

Armstrong, A. & Hagel, J.(1996) The Real Value of On-line Communities, Harvard Business Review, pp. 134-141. Berscheid, E (1985). Interpersonal attraction. In Lindzey, G. and Aronson, E. , Handbook of Social Psychology: pp. 413-484. Chaffey, D. (2004). E-Business and E-Commerce Management, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education Limited, pp. 46, 53, 55, 224, 492. Cooke, M. (1997) Java e-commerce: technologies for distributed enterprise computing. Retrieved 2, May 2008 from http://www. dcs. shef. ac. uk/~martin/teaching/ecommerce/intro_1. ppt. Hamel, G. & Sampler, J. (1998). The E-Corporation, Fortune, pp. 80-93.