Thursday, May 7, 2015

Day 6 – Starbucks and Museums

Today, we went to the ISA office to hear a presentation from Starbucks representative about their modified version of practicing Fair Trade called Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E.) Practices. The main difference between the two is that Fair Trade is only applicable to small farms, while C.A.F.E. Practices are applicable to all sizes of farms. The mission of the program is to create long term relationships with suppliers who use sustainable methods of growing their crop. Starbucks’ goal is to have 100% of their suppliers using C.A.F.E. Practices by the end of 2015, and as of 2013 they had 95% of their goal accomplished.


This kind of innovation demonstrates the kind of creativity involved in the organization of the company. There is constantly research being done to find ways of improving their product and increasing efficiency. This is not unique to Starbucks though, as Café Britt had a similar mentality towards research. Because of this fact, I think this characteristic might be applicable to the gourmet coffee industry as a whole, just by its nature. It’s an industry that constantly striving for both perfection and to be socially responsible, so improvements always need to be made. And because it’s a rapidly changing and volatile industry, innovation is absolutely necessary to accomplish those lofty goals.

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