ETE 280

Exploring Diversity
deBonos Thinking Hats

ETE 280

Exploring Diversity
deBonos Thinking Hats
Shannon Murphy
Diversity Subject/Topic
Starbucks effect on coffee
Goals:
The growth an American company caused
on Costa Rica
Rationale:
Important to recognize the effect other
countries can have on each other

Objective

Objective
Coffee Crisis was in the late 1990s prices
dropped ($38 usually, Starbucks paid $60)
Starbucks started to buy coffee in the 2000
Must keep C.A.F.E Practices (approximately
$200,000 a year in upkeep)
Must produce more coffee to keep up with
demand while focusing on quality

Objective
Caf Practices
Starbucks introduced its Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices
initiative in 2001 to improve coffee-bean quality and to
strengthen relationships with farmers, workers and
communities, as well as to protect the environment. An
independent company verifies that growers and processors
follow the guidelines set by Starbucks on:
Social responsibility:Forbids child labor, encourages better
living conditions for workers.
Growing, processing quality:Institutes growing practices
that keep plants healthy, producing longer; requires
maintenance of shade trees and springs on farms.
Environment:Bans agrochemicals, encourages protecting
water and soil, using small plants or grasses for ground cover.
Economic accountability:Requires full-time workers be paid
more than the minimum wage.
http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/sourcing/coffee

Intuitive

Intuitive
Companies had to decided between buying
equipment and paying for workers.
In 2000 Starbucks started to buy coffee from
Costa Rica and life improved.
Comfort in multiyear contracts
Could buy new machinery and maintain their
trucks and have no debt.
Harvest season is celebration

Negatives/Weaknes
ses

Negatives/Weaknes
ses

Farmers have disagreements with certifiers

and standards
Require shade trees which all farmers do not
have
Certifies come over like police causing
problems
Very expensive to keep up with standards
No guarantee they will buy coffee
Leaves for worry all the effort was for nothing
Hard to do away with agrochemicals

Positive/Strength
s

Positive/Strength
s
New standards were actually better for the plant as a whole

Increased production over the years

Starbucks is researching ways to reduce fungus issues
C.A.F.E. Standards are transferable to other standards as
well
Opens up a larger market
Actually helps save money in the long run
Standards are more like the old ways then really a new way
Helps make better pay and standards for the workers like
homes and electricity.

Maixcol Ibarra, 20, cuts hair outside a row of worker housing at

Santa Eduviges. Permanent workers pay for electricity, and no rent.
Seasonal workers do not pay rent or utilities. "We really need those
people," said Norman Alpzar, a supervisor at the Santa Eduviges
mill. Many Nicaraguans migrate to Costa Rica to pick coffee due to
harsh economic conditions in their home country.

Creative

Creative
The new standards required farmers to be
creative to solve their plan issues without
fertilizer
They are still trying to solve many fungus
issues
Using hybrid plants to produce better
coffee and more of it
Come up with new ways to process coffee

Thinking About
Thinking

Thinking About
Thinking

Starbucks as a whole changed the way

coffee was produced in Costa Rica
Starbucks made them completely redo the
way coffee is grow and dried.
Forcing Costa Rica to find eco-friendly ways
to do everything, while producing better
pay and work environment.
This all also makes Costa Rica more
valuable for all companies who want to buy
their coffee