Starbucks

Starbucks has been using Microsoft's reinforcement learning technology, a type of machine learning in which a system learns to make decisions in complex, unpredictable environments based upon external feedback, to provide a more personalized experience for customers.

Starbucks outlined its plan for the future, one that will focus on human connection, relevant innovation, and the company’s fastest growing market, China, as it moves forward with new president and CEO Kevin Johnson.

US coffee shop chain Starbucks has announced plans to add 12,000 more stores worldwide after it unveiled a new five-year growth plan which will attempt to increase its annual revenue by 10% and leverage the new roasteries and reserve stores to elevate the Starbucks brand.

Kevin Johnson will become chief executive officer and assume full responsibility for Starbucks global business and operations, Howard Schultz to become executive chairman and focus on retail innovation and accelerating growth of Starbucks ultra-premium retail formats.

This National Coffee Day (September 29, 2016) marks the one-year anniversary of Starbucks One Tree for Every Bag Commitment, an effort by Starbucks customers and partners (employees) to help combat the plague of coffee rust in Latin America.

The world’s biggest coffee-shop supply chain is buying a stake in Princi, which sells pastries, pizza and pasta in Europe, Starbucks will also act as a global licensee of the Italian company, helping it to expand globally.

While coffee is one of the first things on the minds of many people early in the morning, it was especially prevalent this week, when Starbucks Chairman & CEO Howard Schultz gave the keynote address at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals Annual Conference.

Is there anything Starbucks can’t do? Its COO, Kevin Johnson, tells Jim Cramer how they are firing on all cylinders following their strongest quarter ever in history, and how technology has become as important as selling coffee.

The concept of value chain helps to understand and segregate the useful (which help in gaining a competitive edge) and wasteful activities (which hamper market lead) accompanying each step during the product development process.

Starbucks chief Howard Schultz calls his plan to deliver coffee and food to customers who order via mobile phones “e-commerce on steroids.” This direct-to-your-door delivery plan may sound like 1999 all over again, but consider how much has changed.

What makes Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, a different kind of leader is his recognition that any company today must see itself as part of a larger community, serving a universe of stakeholders far beyond its immediate shareholders.

Troy Alstead’s promotion to Starbucks CFO and group president of global business service proves that the CFO role involves more than traditional finance functions.

Conservation International (CI) collaborated with our longtime partner, Starbucks Coffee Company, to begin answering these questions for its home-grown supply chain program, Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices, and we have a few takeaways to share on the value of these assessments as well as how to build ongoing results assessment into your own program.

With responsibilities that include more than 70,000 outbound deliveries a week to Starbucks retail stores, distribution channels and outlets worldwide, keeping Starbucks products flowing from suppliers to customers is, needless to say, a complex exercise.