Why is Change Needed
One of the significant primary variations that affect Starbucks in the global realm is specifically climate change. The change yields adverse consequences in the Company’s operations on a global scale in various ways. Some of the impacts of climate change on the Company include disruption of the Company’s supply chain at the international level. The supply chain is interrupted because an average rise in temperature results in coffee crop leaf rust which damages and renders it less useful (Stoss, 2017). Additionally, climate alteration also leads to a rise in prices of Starbucks coffee products globally due to an imbalance of demand and supply. With the onset of climate change, the demand for Starbucks coffee products will be higher than the supply. Climate change has considerably influenced Starbucks employees; for instance, the company workforce, such as farmers, receives a reduced rate of yields, thus reducing the amount of money they receive from the firm. The other employees working in the production sector also experience the effects due to structural changes that lead to job layoffs and pay cuts to help the Company sustain its operations. Therefore there is a need for the Company to address climate change to reduce the effects of climate change-related coffee production.
Impact of Change on Starbucks in the Global Scale
The change that Starbucks will initiate to address climate effects includes implementing climate-smart practices in agriculture and developing robust coffee crop innovative programs by partnering with firms championing crop yield changes. The change will yield many positive impacts to Starbucks at the global level. The first impact the changes will have on the Company includes stabilizing the coffee supply chain globally since the changes will bring seamless production to the firm despite climate change effects. The overall effect will be creating a balance in the demand and supply curve of the Company (Stoss, 2017). The change will also impact the Company positively at the global level by increasing its market share in the global real, thereby retain its competitive edge at the global level, thus remaining relevant in the industry.
Impact of Change on Employees
The change will significantly impact the employees of the Company in different ways. Some of the impacts include promoting the growth of skills, making them well-rounded and highly talented. Making company modifications that address climate change would improve staff morale and satisfaction since it will result in pay raises and job retention. Furthermore, farmers who are key employees of the Company will be impacted positively by getting better pay for their coffee crop products (Bianco, 2020). Generally, Starbucks management change will enhance the well-being of its employees.
Strategies
The positive changes in Starbucks will be implemented by using Kotter’s 8 Steps model. The model will be employed as elaborated below.
Creation of a Sense of Urgency
Climate change is a major threat to the Company, which causes disruptions in the global supply chain of the Starbucks Company. This causes imbalances in the global demand and supply of the Starbucks coffee product. As a result, the Company will capitalize on the implementation of climate-smart agriculture and developing robust coffee innovative programs.
Creation of a Guiding Coalition
The vital change leaders and stakeholders that would be involved in addressing the climate change issue include the general manager of the Company, all the departmental managers, employees, Climate charge companies like Indigo, LEED, and farmers.
Creating Change Vision
The vision the Company will use in creating change will focus on activities that result in curbing climate change. Such actions will include practicing climate-smart agriculture, competitor collaborations, reducing company emissions, and tree planting. Implementing these core climate change values will be conducted in step by step manner with the involvement of employees and all other stakeholders.
Communicating the Vision
All the recommendable communication vehicles will be used to communicate the strategies and vision of the change. Thus the employees will be informed adequately and in a timely manner about the upcoming changes, events, and how to implement them. For instance, the employees will be involved in reaching the vision through meetings to deliberate on ways of curbing climate change to improve coffee crop production.
Remove Obstacles
The change process to address climate change will involve all the departmental managers headed by the general manager, who will communicate the significance of the innovation in climate-smart agriculture. Furthermore, the departmental heads will ensure that the information sinks on the employees to eradicate resistance.
Creation of Short-term Wins
Several activities will be carried out to ensure that the change process goes smoothly. These include short-term wins implementation to ensure enhanced performance in the Company. Specifically, employees who have helped improve coffee crop production through averting climate change will be rewarded for their exceptional job.
Building on the Change
To build on the change, climate alteration scientists will be hired and other employees promoted. The change development will also involve developing employees and other stakeholders implementing the change vision through training.
Anchoring New Approaches in Culture
The change culture of the Company will be instilled in the new employees during climate change meetings and training. The culture of climate change control will be instilled in the employees and stakeholders. Moreover, effective management and better leadership strategies will also be employed (Coutts, 2011).
Tactics to support the Strategies
The tactics to be employed in supporting the strategies to address climate change impacts in the Company include planning carefully before communicating the vision to implementing the climate-smart agriculture programs. Strong leadership demonstration is the technique to be employed in creating a sense of urgency (Calegari et al., 2015). Public-private participation tactics will be used while developing the stakeholder coalition to run the change process. I will also involve the tactic of telling the truth about the creation of short-term wins and timelines of implementation. Proper communication is another tactic to remove obstacles from employees.
Training tactics will be employed in building change; create a comprehensive roadmap to help in anchoring new approaches. The other significant tactic to be used is transparency to generate the change vision.
Justifying Strategies and Tactics Effectiveness
The strategy of sense urgency creation will help assess the potential threats of climate change and the opportunities available to eliminate it, and strong leadership is the best tactic to front it. The creation of a coalition strategy is effective since it helps identify leaders and stakeholders to enhance the Change in Starbucks. Creating a change vision is effective in identifying values to be embodied while addressing climate change. Vision communication strategy is effective since it helps in persuading employees and other stakeholders to adopt change.
The strategy of removing obstacles helps identify resisting employees to handle their concerns proactively and can be efficiently achieved through proper communication (Akrivos et al., 2013). The short-term wins strategy effectively identifies change projects’ success and rewards team members who enable the Company’s success. The best tactic of achieving the strategy is telling the truth. Building on change is essential in setting more ambitious goals. The strategy of anchoring cooperate culture changes is effective since it helps instill climate change values, and this can be efficiently achieved by training employees.
Impact of Change on Sustaining Company’s Competitive Advantage
The positive organizational change of addressing climate change by implementing climate-smart practices in agriculture and developing strong coffee crop innovative programs will help the Company stabilize its coffee supply chain. The streamlined supply chain and balanced demand and supply curve initiated by addressing climate change will help sustain the competitive advantage of Starbucks in the international market. Therefore, change management would be very helpful in improving the market share and profitability of the organization.
References
Akrivos, C., Reklitis, P., & Prifti, F. (2013). Greek Public Administration Reform. How to improve the effectiveness of strategic changes. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 73, 710-717.
Bianco, G. B. (2020). Climate change adaptation, coffee, and corporate social responsibility: challenges and opportunities. International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, 5(1), 1-13.
Calegari, M. F., Sibley, R. E., & Turner, M. E. (2015). A roadmap for using Kotter’s organizational change model to build faculty engagement in accreditation. Academy of Educational Leadership Journal, 19(3), 31.
Coutts, P. (2011). Kotter’s 8 Steps to Successful Change.
Stoss, L. (2017). Global Climate Change: An Issue that Mandates Government or Corporate Social Responsibility. J. Int’l Bus. & L., 17, 255.