Strategy management - Essay Example

Over the period of time, it has followed an aggressive growth strategy and became more innovative offering additional services. It has also been one of the first global retailers in the world to offer mobile payment checkouts at its several of stores. Through it has followed an aggressive strategy to further penetrate into its existing markets; it has also been more aggressive in terms of market development and has been opening its outlets in various new markets. Starbucks has more than 700 stores in UK, it is operating to be one of the leading coffee makers in the country.

UK is going through an economic recession and overall consumer confidence is relatively low. It was because of this reason that Starbucks suffered losses in UK also however; it is still recovering and is following an aggressive strategy to penetrate into UK market. Macro-Environment Analysis The main factors discussed in this analysis are important because it directly influence the way Starbucks operates in UK market. A careful management of these factors requires effective strategic initiative in order to become more competitive in the market.

Political Factors UK is considered as the mother of democracy in the world with stable government in place. Government is supportive of market economies and is therefore the overall risk of government intervention is relatively negligent. Overall government policies are favorable for the private enterprises and the private property rights and laws are properly in placed. Though UK has strong bureaucracy in place however, government administration and functionaries are supportive of private enterprises with little administrative hurdles in place.

Though UK has a history of nationalizing private companies however it may not be the case considering the overall dynamics of global business. Economic Factors UK is going through economic recession with consistently low or negative economic growth rates witnessed during last few years. Unemployment is on the rise and government has put in place austerity measures to control government expenditure. Due to these factors, overall consumer confidence is low and consumers are withdrawing their consumption to save more.

Recently, UK economy experienced slightly higher economic growth rates due to Olympics however, this may be considered as a seasonal variation. (Monaghan, 2012).  Still the level of unemployment is relatively with more than 2 million people are still unemployed. With the economy further shrinking, it may be possible that the unemployment rates may increase. Social Factors Drinking coffee is becoming a norm in UK though Britain are considered as tea drinkers. Mostly working class professionals as well as youth prefer to drink coffee and is increasingly becoming a social norm in UK.

It has also been suggested that drink coffee is considered as something which high achievers do. Coffee, socially, is being drunk by the working professionals who are looking for some on-the-go boast of energy. Coffee is also being used in offices mostly with different organizations. Technological Factors Technology is relatively changing fast with mobile payments becoming new trends for consumers to paying. The advancement in smart phones and mobile payments technology has brought new changes in the way consumers actually interact and pay.

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