Scenario:

After reviewing the latest marketing data, Christine Day, senior vice president of administration at Starbucks, is concerned with the company's performance in meeting customer expectations in the area of customer satisfaction. She is contemplating an annual investment of $40 million to increase the weekly labor hours in the North American stores, but before she makes this recommendation, she wants to better understand the cause of the decrease in customer satisfaction. She calls on your consulting service to investigate the cause of this issue and to recommend improvements. You are selected for this consulting job based on your knowledge of systems thinking.

As you complete the improvement plan, be sure to include specific examples from the case as well as relevant citations

Integrate your systems thinking and management skills and continue to provide an organizational improvement plan based on your analysis of a case study. Put yourself into the shoes of a paid consultant and performed a thoughtful systems analysis of the case study. Develop the executive summary of your plan to improve the performance of the organization.

QUESTIONS:

PROVIDEPart 2 and the executive summary for your improvement plan, which should include the following:

Part 2: Applying Systems Thinking Concepts

For Part 2 of your improvement plan (3 pp), address the following:

• Analyze how the concept of mental models is present at Starbucks and how this concept either negatively or positively affects the customer experience.
• Analyze how the concepts of team learning and of building a shared vision could benefit Starbucks in terms of improving the customer experience, thereby improving customer satisfaction.
• Propose a minimum of three recommendations, based on your analysis, that might improve the customer experience at Starbucks. Explain why.

Executive Summary

Provide Christine Day with an executive summary (1 pp) of your findings and recommendations for improvement. Address the following in your executive summary:

• Clearly identify the purpose of the improvement plan.
• Summarize the cause(s) of the low customer satisfaction (referencing the causal loop diagram in the main report).
• Concisely synthesize the recommendations to improve customer satisfaction.

FOR REFERENCE:

Part 1: Tools for Improvement: Causal Loop Analysis

1. Reinforcing Loop (R1) & 2. Balancing Loop (B1)

Higher More Labor Costs Investment More Labor in Labor Hours Hours Higher Few Labor Better Lower Customer Revenue Hours Profits Service Less investment in Labor More Higher Hours Customer Customer Loyalty Satisfaction