Starbucks reviews

Management is venal, dishonest, incompetent, and petty. Decision-making process (if you assume there is actual cognitive activity on the part of management) is opaque and seemingly random. Their marketing efforts, especially on the web, are pointless and are not seen as valuable by senior mgmt. The company is in dire financial straights and is cutting staff monthly. Howard Schultz is a con man, and a bad one at that.

Data and effective utilization of technology is nearly non-existent relative to truly competitive large companies. Decisions have been made almost entirely on intuition of the most powerful personalities, rather than business savvy and analysis. In certain highly critical areas, there is an attempt to change this, but it doesn't happen overnight. There is very little planning or project management expertise, process, or discipline or appreciation for these skills. The business is significantly more complex than it might appear, and so these specific issues have great impact on financial and operational performance. On the flip side, there is extreme potential for improvement, so if the ongoing change efforts are successful, Starbucks is going to be reborn like a phoenix in the medium term.