Starbucks Coffee Company was founded in 1971 by three people. They opened their first store in Seattle's Pike Place Market. The name "Starbucks" actually originates from Herman Melvin's classic novel titled Moby Dick. The seafaring name seems appropriate for a shop that imports the world's best coffees to the cold, thirsty people of Seattle. Then came Howard Schultz. He joined Starbucks in 1982. During a business trip to Italy, he visits the famous espresso bars in Milan. Impressed by their popularity and culture, he sees their potential in Seattle. It's been proven that after people start trying lattes and mochas, Seattle quickly becomes coffee crazy. Now Howard Schultz is the president and chief philosopher of what is arguably the best coffee retail company in the world. At Starbucks their employees are called "partners". This is to avoid any form of discrimination between employees. Another reason is that Starbucks provides stock options even to part-time "partners". Starbucks Coffee "harvests" coffee beans primarily from three regions; Latin America, Africa/Arabia and Asia Pacific. Even in Malaysia they have the same supply of coffee beans (it is standardized nationally). In Malaysia, Starbucks Coffee is a joint venture between BERJAYA GROUP of Malaysia and Starbucks Coffee International. All operations are carried out by BERJAYA which includes cultural adaptability, local customs, store development and strategic management plans. Starbucks Coffee International is responsible for maintaining standards relating to the term "Starbucks". They take care of quality control and make business visits from time to time. The first Starbucks Coffee store in Malaysia was opened in KL Plaza in 1998. Now, in 2006, there are already 68 stores nationwide. One of their strategies or "culture" is to open a shop in every corner of the city. Their mission is to provide a second home or "third place" to the people out there. This way there will be a Starbucks Coffee store available everywhere for customers' needs, hence the term "Starbucks follows you wherever you go" SECTION B (i) Explain the key factors you would consider while conducting a PEST analysis of the environment. Illustrate your answer by providing supporting examples. “PEST analysis examines the broad environment in which the organization operates” (Johnson, 1999). “A company's marketing environment consists of all factors that are external to its marketing system and impact a successful exchange process with its customers” (Hannagan, 2005). There are four key areas to consider how current and future changes may affect Starbucks Coffee's business.