Anagement: California

F a l l 2 0 0 4 | V o l . 4 7 , N o .
1 | R E P R I N T S E R I E S
California
Management Review
Collaborating with Activists:

How Starbucks Works with NGOs
Paul A. Argenti
© 2004 by The Regents of

the University of California
Collaborating
with Activists:
HOW STARBUCKS
WORKS WITH NGOS
Paul A. Argenti
S
tarbucks CEO Orin Smith was in for an unpleasant surprise at his
company’s annual shareholders meeting in February 2000. The
meeting had always been a fun, all-day affair during which share-
holders from around the country gathered to celebrate the
company’s success. That year, however, Smith and other senior Starbucks execu-
tives heard complaints from Global Exchange, a non-governmental organization
(NGO) focused on human rights. Dedicated to promoting environmental, politi-
cal, and social justice around the world, Global Exchange criticized Starbucks for
profiting at the coffee farmer’s expense by paying low prices and not buying
“Fair Trade” coffee beans. Not only did the activists disrupt the company’s
annual meeting, but they also threatened a national boycott of Starbucks if the
company refused to sell and promote Fair Trade coffee. Although Smith strongly
disagreed with the activists’ use of his company’s shareholders meeting as a pub-
lic forum, he knew Starbucks would likely face serious reprisals if it did not
address the issues raised by Global Exchange and a growing list of other NGOs
around the world.
This article, written in cooperation with executives from Starbucks, ana-
lyzes the company’s ultimate decision to sell Fair Trade coffee and subsequently
work with other NGOs to ensure that small farmers receive a living wage, in an
effort to live up to the standards Starbucks set for itself in the area of social
responsibility.1
The author would like to thank Dennis Macray and Sue Mecklenburg at Starbucks; Karen Beck, G.
McCall Guyton-Edmiston, and Alison Stanley at the Tuck School of Business for their help, Isabelle
Maignan, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Nijmegen School of Management, University of
Nijmegen, for her help; and the Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship at the Tuck School of Busi-
ness for its financial support of this research.
CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 91

Collaborating with Activists: How Starbucks Works With NGOs
The Changing Environment for Corporations and NGOs

In the United States and Europe, distrust in corporations is at an all-time
high. Fueled by accounting scandals, exorbitant CEO compensation packages,
and concerns that globalization contributes to ever-widening income disparities
and the homogenization of cultures, public attitudes toward business have been
in a downward spiral since the late 1960s.
Over a thirty-year period, the marketing consulting firm Yankelovich
asked American citizens to answer this question: “Does business strike a fair
balance between profit and the public interest?” In 1968, 70 percent of the pop-
ulation answered “yes.” By 1976, that number had dropped to 15 percent due to
the first wave of activism by anti-war protesters and emerging NGOs. At the end
of the 20th century, one of the most prosperous periods in American history, the
number of those answering positively remained at only 28 percent. Although
Yankelovich no longer conducts this survey, other surveys suggest that public
sentiment toward business has only gotten worse in the last few years.2
NGOs into the “Trust-Void”

While corporations have certainly acted in ways that have contributed to
negative attitudes about business, these acts, in their own right, would not have
been sufficient to cause corporations the kinds of problems in which many of
them are embroiled. By using the media and the more egalitarian and pervasive
distribution channel for information created by the Internet, NGOs have more
powerful tools than ever to threaten corporate reputations. According to one
global advocacy group focused on sustainability: “[NGOs] are the moral compass
and ethical watchdogs against the forces of government and capitalism that seek
to despoil the planet and crush the faceless majority.”3 At the same time, as a
result of the general assumption that all NGOs have pure motives, the public
takes their statements as fact and rarely asks for the kind of justification
demanded of corporations. The results of the “Voice of the People” survey con-
ducted in 47 nations in 2002 by Environics (now GlobeScan) and the Gallup
Organization illustrate the gap between the amount of trust people place in
NGOs and in corporations. When asked about their trust that various institutions
“operate in society’s best interests,” 48 percent
Paul A. Argenti is Professor of Corporate and 52 percent of respondents stated they had
Communication at Dartmouth's Tuck School little to no trust in global corporations or large
of Business. <[email protected]> national companies, respectively. At the same
time, only 32 percent of respondents expressed
distrust in NGOs. Meanwhile, 59 percent of respondents stated that they had a
lot or some trust in NGOs while only 39 and 42 percent trusted global corpora-
tions or large national companies. Seemingly, people are predisposed to trust
NGOs, viewing both their pure motives and statements about corporations as
fact. In fact, most people seem only to question the credibility of an NGO when
the NGO has partnered with a corporation that the public views as having suspi-
cious motives.
92 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

NGOs evolved to influence governments. However, many now realize

that targeting corporations, and key corporate constituents such as investors and
customers, can be an even more powerful way to effect change. Simon Heap, of
the International NGO Training and Research Centre, argues in his book, NGOs
Engaging with Business: A World of Difference and a Difference to the World, that as the
balance of power shifted from governments to multinational corporations, NGOs
had no choice but to change their approach to social problems.4 In some ways,
these two agents—corporations and NGOs—now control much of the agenda
formerly dictated by governments. Peter Sutherland, Chairman of both Goldman
Sachs and BP, states, “The only organizations now capable of global thought and
action—the ones who will conduct the most important dialogues of the 21st
century—are the multinational corporations and the NGOs.”5
Given the public’s broad-based disillusionment with business, it is not
surprising that NGOs have gained power and credibility in recent years. As
reported in a recent poll by Edelman Worldwide, an international public rela-
tions firm:
NGOs have moved quickly into the “trust-void” and have taken advantage of the
downward spiral in public perceptions of government, media, [and] corporations
. . . “thought-leaders” are two to three times as likely to trust an NGO to do what
is right compared to large companies because they are seen as being motivated by
morals rather than just profit.6
The same study revealed that trust in NGOs in the United States is
approaching parity with business and government.7 Jonathan Wootliff, Manag-
ing Director of Edelman’s Stakeholder Strategies unit in Brussels and New York,
states: “It is clear that NGOs can demand a seat at the table, without resorting to
the street.”8
In addition, the anti-war movement that formed against the war in Iraq
in the spring of 2003 created an opportunity for NGOs to reposition themselves
on college campuses along with other traditional activists. According to Peter
Verrengia, Regional President and Senior Partner at Fleishman-Hillard Interna-
tional Communications, “The coalition between anti-globalization interests and
other NGOs appears to have reintroduced itself through the more politically
legitimate anti-war movement, under the opposition to “war for oil” theme.”9
Another hypothesis that may explain the rise of NGOs, the numbers of
which have nearly quadrupled in the past decade,10 is institutional organization
theory, which posits that public expectations of corporations evolve with
changes in the social environment. Arnold and Handelman’s research on insti-
tutional organization theory argues that organizations’ actions fall into two
categories: performative actions (such as assortment of merchandise, competitive
prices, and convenient locations in the retail industry) and institutional actions
that demonstrate the company’s adherence to unwritten social rules (such as
donating to charity).11 Both performative actions and institutional actions inter-
act to contribute to the legitimacy of an organization. Arnold and Handelman
found, though, that institutional orientation may take precedence over perfor-
mative actions because negative institutional actions harmed the performance

of even high-performative firms and low-performative firms with high-insti-

tutional orientations could outperform high-performative firms. Finally, the
authors note that activists can raise the minimum standard to which customers
hold organizations through activities such as boycotts. Thus, if society regards
businesses with increasing suspicion and expects them to help solve social ills,
NGOs may have found their natural role in helping place pressure on organiza-
tions to increase their institutional orientation to meet societal expectations.
The Category Killers

NGOs are in the unique position to be focused on single, specific issues—
“category killers” in a debate with individual corporations. Deri and Wootliff
shed light on NGOs’ emerging role as category killers.12 “Category killer” refers
to the ability of an NGO to focus on one issue at a time just as some retailers are
able to beat competitors with multiple products by only selling one kind of prod-
uct and, thus, gaining a competitive advantage. One reason NGOs have gained
so much power is their ability to focus singularly on their agenda and to culti-
vate sophisticated communication mechanisms to instigate change. Meanwhile,
the agendas of the corporations that NGOs target span multiple issues across
multiple constituencies.
Not only are NGO communications usually far more sophisticated than
what corporations produce, they are also more interesting and more likely to
receive positive media attention. NGOs can act with a swiftness that their more
bureaucratic corporate counterparts often cannot. Wootliff, who served as public
relations director for Greenpeace before joining Edelman, puts it this way: “The
advantage, when I was working at Greenpeace, running a communications
department, is that we could put out press releases pretty damn quick [sic]. We
found that corporations would take days. I knew this from having worked in the
corporate world before . . . they had to go through lawyers and the legal and the
legislative departments.”13
Along with their ability to focus, gain attention, and act quickly is the
high level of credibility NGOs have cultivated with many constituencies. In
recent surveys released by SustainAbility, a UK-based international consulting
firm that has been studying the relationship between business and society for
over a decade, NGOs scored much higher than corporations, governments, and
the media across a wide variety of issues including the environment, human
rights, and health.14 This credibility stems in part from their emotional, rather
than fact-based, appeals and the impassioned nature of their arguments. As
stated in the same global advocates report cited earlier: “They [NGOs] know that
‘perception is reality,’ that emotion is a more powerful motivator than fact and
reason, and that feelings are more compelling than thought. Finally, they abide
by the rule that the end justifies the means.”15 NGOs are also typically better at
building coalitions than are corporations, enabling them to gain allies for their
“selfless crusades” against what they portray as corporate greed.16

Assessing the NGO Threat

Although many NGOs may be advocates for the same cause, they are by
no means created equal, nor do they operate in the same way. Depending on the
organization involved and the target of their concern, NGOs play different roles
at different times and use a variety of tactics, from violent protests to collabora-
tion, to enforce their messages. NGOs’ approaches to social issues—and therefore
the threats they pose to big business—differ greatly based on their philosophies
and historical practices. Therefore, their threats carry varying levels of credibility.
In their recently published report: The 21st Century NGO In the Market for
Change, SustainAbility, Global Compact, and the United Nations Environment
Programme offer a framework to categorize NGOs by the following five
approaches used to threaten corporations.17
b Developing Campaigns Against Business—These campaigns, such as Green-
peace’s attack on Shell following the company’s decision to dump the
Brent Spar oil rig in the ocean in the 1990s, typically focus on a single
issue, target companies with successful and well-known brands such as
McDonald’s and Nike, and are augmented by market trends such as the
homogenization created by chains like Wal-Mart and Starbucks. NGOs
now realize that anti-corporate campaigns can be far more powerful than
anti-government campaigns. As one activist put it: “[Focusing on brands]
was like discovering gunpowder for environmentalists.”18 Global
Exchange’s attack on Nike for sweatshop labor conditions in the 1990s
was one of the most highly publicized and also one of the most successful
anti-business campaigns in recent years.
b Attempting to Build Market Intelligence—NGOs who focus on building mar-
ket intelligence appear to have developed a more sophisticated under-
standing of the value chain, key business drivers, and market behavior.
They tend to target key constituencies as they try to change how business
acts. For example, People and Planet, a student activist group focused on
the employee constituency, recently infiltrated a series of job fairs run by
ExxonMobil in an attempt to convince potential employees that joining
the company was a bad idea.19 Likewise, NGOs trying to stop Monsanto
from marketing genetically modified products in Europe have focused on
supermarkets supplying the end product to consumers.
b Engaging Businesses—Many NGOs have discovered that the best way of
leveraging corporate and market change is to get directly involved. As
Randall Hayes, founder of the Rainforest Action Network has said: “If
you [as an NGO] are not talking to business, you are just preaching to the
choir. The real change to protect the environment is going to come from
the business sector; we can’t depend on government regulation to solve
our problems.”20 Working with McDonalds in the early 1990s, the Envi-
ronmental Defense Fund (EDF) was able to convince the fast-food giant
to change from plastic, foam packaging to paper through a collaborative
effort with the company.21

b Strive to Make Market Mechanisms More Intelligent—Most interactions

between NGOs and corporations listed so far have been at the level of
individual companies. The fourth strategy focuses instead on trying to
change the entire market. As the late Professor Donella Meadows of Dart-
mouth College said about confronting the WTO: “This is a huge system!
We’re cranking the system in the wrong direction and the control mea-
sures are puny!”22 The point she was making is that NGOs need to oper-
ate higher up in the organizations they target to be most effective. An
example of an effective use of this strategy has been in the development
of certification standards for industries such as the forest products indus-
try in the Pacific Northwest influenced by a group of NGOs addressing
environmental and social concerns.23
b Disrupting Markets—Major market changes are atypical in most developed
markets in the short term, but some markets are disrupted over time as a
result of changing attitudes. As an example, the market for tobacco has
changed dramatically over the last forty years. A coalition of NGOs led by
Friends of the Earth International is currently attempting to apply lessons
learned in tobacco litigation to a variety of other industries to deal with
issues such as obesity and climate change.
NGOs’ standard responses, usually reflective of their underlying philos-
ophies, dictate the kind of relationships they develop with businesses. These
relationships can be categorized by the degree of intended disruption (e.g., con-
frontation versus collaboration) and the level of discrimination between targets
(e.g., focused on one versus a number of companies). For the purposes of this
study, we focus primarily on two types of NGOs—both of which are more dis-
criminating in identifying targets. The first type uses a more antagonistic
approach and rarely compromises, and the second attempts to integrate its ac-
tivities into a corporation’s work. The more collaborative organizations tend to
have a greater capacity to learn, adapt strategies easily, are creative, and tend to
fend off more aggressive NGOs focused on disruption.24
Starbucks and Global Exchange: The Battle over Fair Trade Coffee
Starbucks began working with NGOs in 1996, and the company’s rela-
tionships with various NGOs illustrate both the spectrum of business responses
to NGOs and the changing NGO landscape. Though Starbucks has been the
recipient of numerous accolades for social responsibility, the company’s visibility
in the marketplace makes it a target for NGOs, the media, and consumers. As
noted, Global Exchange first focused its spotlight on Starbucks in 2000, criticiz-
ing it for not buying Fair Trade coffee. Since its initial dealings with Global
Exchange, Starbucks has taken innovative steps to work collaboratively with
NGOs to create social change.
Overview of the Coffee Industry

An examination of the coffee industry and some of the market factors
that contributed to the increasing emphasis on Fair Trade Certified coffee helps

to put Global Exchange’s attack on Starbucks in context. By 2000, coffee was

the second most traded commodity on worldwide markets after oil25 and an
$80 billion industry. The coffee market is fragmented, with many layers between
coffee bean producers and the end-consumer. For example, in 2001, between 50
and 70 percent of global coffee came from small-scale farms, which usually do
not own the mills necessary to process the product.26 Some small farms operate
as part of cooperatives that collectively own mills, but not all small-scale farmers
have this as an option. Often, mills are owned and operated by large farms, and
small farmers have little leverage when negotiating prices. As a result, small
farmers commonly accept a considerably lower price just to get their coffee to
market.27
Small producers often have difficulties financing their operations
throughout the year and sell their crop prior to harvest for a cash advance to
middlemen, known as “coyotes.” These middlemen provide small farmers with
credit at high interest rates in exchange for bringing their beans to market. As a
result, small-scale farmers are often caught in a perpetual cycle of poverty: low
production levels limit their access to cash which, in turn, hinders the potential
for increasing output.28
Like any other commodity product, coffee prices depend greatly on sup-
ply and demand. The cyclical nature of the coffee market also does not favor
small farmers, who are forced out during times of overproduction. When subse-
quent coffee shortages encourage small farmers to reenter the industry, by the
time the trees are ready for harvest, supply and demand levels have inevitably
returned to equilibrium resulting in overproduction of beans once again.
By 2000, coffee prices had reached the lowest levels they had experienced
in more than 50 years as a result of oversupply.29 In 1998, the composite coffee
price was over $1 per pound, but by the following year, it had dropped to less
than 86 cents.30 In 2000, it had fallen to just over 64 cents per pound, and over-
supply was expected to continue for the next five years.31 Also, the percentage
of the coffee price that ended up in the hands of the farmers was usually very
low due to the many layers between farmer and consumer, particularly the cof-
fee “coyotes.” In the long term, the hope of coffee prices rising was dim.32
Because Starbucks focused heavily on the quality of its coffee beans, the
company paid an average of $1.20 per pound—well above the market price—in
2000. Starbucks, however, is much more than just a premium coffee retailer;
Starbucks has also been committed to social responsibility since its founding.
Starbucks and Social Responsibility

Starbucks is known as a company that puts “people first and profits
33
last.” In fact, the number one principle in Starbucks’ mission statement, which
guides all of the company’s business decisions, is to “provide a great work envi-
ronment and treat each other with respect and dignity.”34
Howard Schultz, who purchased Starbucks from its founders in 1987 and
was Chairman and Chief Global Strategist in 2000, managed the business by his
philosophy that if you “treat people like family . . . they will be loyal and give

Starbucks Mission Statement

Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining
our uncompromising principles while we grow.
The following six guiding principles will help us measure the appropriateness of our decisions:
b Provide a great work environment and treat each other with respect and dignity.
b Embrace diversity as an essential component in the way we do business.
b Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of
our coffee.
b Develop enthusiastically satisfied customers all of the time.
b Contribute positively to our communities and our environment.
b Recognize that profitability is essential to our future success.
Source: <www.starbucks.com/aboutus/environment.asp>
their all.”35 In return for the company’s good treatment of its partners
(Starbucks’ term for employees), Starbucks had a turnover rate of just 60 per-
cent in 2000, compared to the restaurant industry average of 220 percent.36
Furthermore, 82 percent of partners claimed to be “very satisfied” and 15 per-
cent as “satisfied” with their jobs when asked by outside audit agencies.37
Just as treating partners well is one of the pillars of Starbucks’ culture, so
is contributing positively to the communities it serves and to the environment.38
Starbucks made this commitment not only because it was the right thing to do,
but also because its workforce was aware and concerned with social and envi-
ronmental issues. For example, on the community-level, Starbucks store man-
agers have discretion to donate to local causes and provide coffee for local
fund-raisers. Another example at the corporate level is Starbucks’ annual dona-
tion to the Starbucks Foundation, which Howard Schultz created to advance
childhood literacy, using the advance and on-going royalties from his book, Pour
Your Heart Into It.39
To support coffee-producing countries, Starbucks contributes to CARE, a
worldwide relief and development foundation, specifying that its support go to
coffee producing nations.40 By 2001, Starbucks had contributed more than $1.8
million to CARE.41 In 1998, Starbucks began a partnership with Conservation
International, a nonprofit organization that promotes biodiversity in coffee-
growing regions, to support producers of shade-grown coffee, which protects
the environment. The partnership, focused on the coffee cooperatives in Chia-
pas, Mexico, benefited both the environment and the Mexican farmers. Shade
acreage increased by 220 percent while farmers received a price premium of 65
percent above the market price and increased exports by 50 percent.42

Throughout the 1990s, Starbucks continued to institutionalize its commit-

ment to social and environmental responsibility. In 1992, the company devel-
oped an environmental mission statement to articulate more clearly how it
interacts with the environment. Starbucks hired Sue Mecklenburg in 1994 as
the first Director of Environmental Affairs, where she was given the task of
developing environmentally responsible corporate policies and minimizing the
company’s environmental “footprint.”43 At the end of 1999, Starbucks created
a Corporate Social Responsibility department and named Dave Olsen, a well-
respected, long-time Starbucks employee, as the department’s first Senior Vice
President for Corporate Social Responsibility.
Global Exchange and Fair Trade Coffee

Starbucks’ commitment to social responsibility did not go unnoticed. In
2000, the company was listed 46th on the list of “100 Best Corporate Citizens”
by Business Ethics. The same year, Starbucks was also 88th on Fortune’s list of
the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” However, despite these endorsements,
Global Exchange launched a grassroots campaign directed toward Starbucks in
early 2000.
Global Exchange, as the popular leader of the “corporate accountability”
movement, primarily targets companies that move their assets toward the
cheapest labor sources to maximize profits. Supporters of this movement claim
that corporations have helped widen the divide between the world’s rich and
poor.44 One of the primary issues on which Global Exchange focuses its efforts
is fair trade.
The concept of fair trade began after World War II as church–affiliated,
non-profit organizations purchased handmade products for resale from Euro-
pean producers.45 Fair trade is an economic model based on fair labor compen-
sation and mutual respect between producers and consumers. By the late 1990s,
the fair trade movement had gained a foothold in the United States, and in early
1999, TransFair USA, a third-party licensing organization, launched its Fair
Trade Certified coffee label. According to TransFair USA, the impact for United
States consumers is minimal since the premium they pay equals only 92 cents
per roasted pound of coffee, which translates into just pennies per cup of brewed
coffee.46 That summer, Global Exchange began a campaign to educate consum-
ers and the media about labor conditions in the coffee industry, focusing on get-
ting the message out to specialty coffee consumers.
Global Exchange’s fair trade campaign originally did not have a corporate
angle. While activists were successful in educating pockets of consumers, the
organization’s leaders soon realized that they could increase consumer aware-
ness by directing blame for the farmers’ woes and linking poor labor conditions
to a company’s core product. Global Exchange decided to take an anti-corpora-
tion approach to this issue and focused its attention on the most visible brand in
specialty coffee: Starbucks.
Starbucks met several of Global Exchange’s criteria for a target company.
It was a large company that could make a big difference in the Fair Trade coffee

Definition of Fair Trade Coffee

TransFair USA defines Fair Trade coffee according to five basic guidelines:
b A Fair Price: Producer cooperatives are guaranteed a fair price (a floor price of $1.26 per
pound for regular coffee and $1.41 for certified organic coffee or 5 cents above the pre-
vailing market price).
b Democratic Organization: Producers must belong to cooperatives or associations that are
transparent and democratically controlled by their members.
b Direct Trade and Long-Term Relationships: Importers must purchase coffee directly from Fair
Trade cer tified producers and agree to establish long-term and stable relationships.
b Access to Credit: When requested by producers, importers must provide pre-harvest
financing or credit (up to 60% of each order).
b Environmental Protection: Producers must implement integrated crop management and
environmental protection plans.Through price incentives, producers are encouraged to
work toward organic production.
Source: <www.transfairusa.org/content/works/wrk_index.jsp>
industry. Also, Starbucks was based in the United States, making it an easier
target for Global Exchange, which uses tactics such as demonstrations in front
of retail locations and attendance at shareholder meetings.47
The strong Starbucks’ brand provided yet another reason to target the
company. Interbrand and Business Week magazine ranked Starbucks 88th in its
list of “Best Global Brands” in 2000 and also named it the fastest-growing brand.
Despite Starbucks’ high visibility and respected brand, the company attracted its
share of critics. Starbucks’ critics pointed to “questionable” real estate practices,
which they claimed put local establishments out of business and focused on
Starbucks as one of the brands responsible for a homogeneous culture.48 As
Deborah James, Fair Trade Director at Global Exchange said about its decision
to target Starbucks, “It’s the company people love to hate, and it made sense to
pick them.”49 Global Exchange not only believed that Starbucks claimed to be
socially responsible without backing it up, but the organization was also
attracted to Starbucks’ visible national presence through its ubiquitous retail
locations. Those very stores provided Global Exchange with places to gather for
rallies and demonstrations.50
Sue Mecklenburg, now Vice President for Business Practices at Starbucks,
characterized Global Exchange’s targeting of Starbucks as an attempt to pick
“low hanging fruit.” Because roasters and retailers of the specialty coffee indus-
try were already accustomed to paying a premium for their coffee, they were
perceived as more likely to agree to purchase Fair Trade coffee. In addition, Star-
bucks’ retail locations provided Global Exchange an ideal venue for demonstra-
tions, unlike Starbucks’ mass-marketed counterparts who sold their products in

supermarkets where there was no visible platform to target the brands. Demon-
strations at Starbucks’ stores could disrupt the flow of operations and create an
embarrassing situation for the company.51
Nonetheless, Global Exchange’s campaign took Starbucks by surprise. In
November 1999, Paul Rice, a representative of TransFair USA, pitched Fair Trade
coffee to Starbucks representatives. Rice seemed cautiously optimistic after these
meetings. “I didn’t have any expectation that they would sign up immediately,”
Rice said. “They had concerns and I knew it would take a couple of months to
address them.”52 However, in February 2000, Global Exchange decided to turn
up the heat on Starbucks, hosting its first protest in front of a Starbucks in
downtown San Francisco the day after a local television station aired the first of
a two-part segment on child labor in Guatemalan coffee farms. “Our hope was
to generate media attention, and we did. That night the local station introduced
the second segment with a clip on our demonstration,” explained Deborah
James.53
A few days later, James attended the Starbucks’ annual shareholders
meeting with other Global Exchange employees, including Medea Benjamin,
who had led Global Exchange’s campaign against Nike. During the open forum
portion of the meeting, Benjamin took the microphone and asked why Star-
bucks wouldn’t offer Fair Trade coffee. As James describes it, “Things got heated
and we were physically removed from the meeting. However, we met with Sue
Mecklenburg afterwards and explained our demands. If Starbucks didn’t offer
Fair Trade coffee in all of its United States stores, we would conduct a nation-
wide campaign.”54 Global Exchange threatened to launch its anti-Starbucks
campaign in mid-April of 2000, during its planned anti-globalization rallies
scheduled for Washington, D.C., during the IMF and World Bank meetings.
“We felt that they weren’t moving fast enough. . . . We believed this was the
way to get the CEO to buy into Fair Trade coffee,” said James.55
Addressing the Global Exchange Threat:

Evaluating Starbucks’ Alternatives
In the face of Global Exchange’s threat, Starbucks had to assess the NGO’s
credibility, then evaluate the potential ramifications of this threat to the com-
pany, and, finally, consider how to respond.
As evidenced in Global Exchange’s campaign against Nike, this NGO had
established a reputation for successfully executing unrelenting, aggressive, and
damaging campaigns that ended in the targeted company’s capitulation to its
demands. Starbucks understood that Global Exchange posed a credible threat
and would pursue its campaign until Starbucks relented.
Starbucks struggled with how to integrate Fair Trade Certified coffee,
while remaining focused on its strategy to offer high-quality coffee at a premium
price as well as its mission to be socially responsible. According to Starbucks
executives, their chief concern with Fair Trade coffee was finding top quality
beans from cooperatives that had not demonstrated an ability to produce beans

to Starbucks’ quality standards. In this case, Starbucks’ need for access to high-
quality coffee conflicted with its pride in being a socially responsible company.
Treating partners (employees), customers, suppliers, and communities with dig-
nity and respect was essential to the company. Starbucks’ reputation for both
quality coffee and social responsibility was on the line.
In their recent California Management Review article “The Power of
Activism: Assessing the Impact of NGOs on Global Business,” Debora Spar and
Lane La Mure suggest that businesses base their responses to NGO threats on
how those threats would affect the company’s transaction costs, brand, and com-
petitive positioning.56 Applying these criteria to Starbucks, since the company
already paid $1.20 per pound on average (vs. the $1.26 stipulated under Fair
Trade), the additional six cents per pound was not prohibitive. However, Star-
bucks would have to incur the cost of identifying new suppliers and the possible
disruption of its business operations if deliveries did not meet expectations,
which could result in significantly higher transaction costs.
The threat to Starbucks’ brand and competitive position also appeared
daunting. Starbucks was concerned that the quality of Fair Trade coffee that
Starbucks was able to source could turn out to be very different from the rest
of its 30 whole-bean coffee line. “Honestly, we didn’t want to put our brand at
risk,” said Tom Ehlers, Vice President of the Whole Bean department. “This was
an uncharted category and, as marketers, we were concerned about endorsing a
product that didn’t meet our quality standards.”57 If Starbucks were forced out of
the high quality niche, its competitive position would erode, opening it up to
competitive threats from smaller players, such as Peet’s Coffee, which were small
enough to escape Global Exchange’s notice. In addition, claims of human rights
violations would smear the company’s reputation and therefore damage its
brand.
An analysis using Spar and La Mure’s criteria of transaction costs, brand,
and competitive positioning thus appears to point to a strategy of capitulation.
However, this analysis does not consider the full ramifications of Global
Exchange’s threat. The threat goes deeper, with the potential to affect some of
Starbucks’ most important constituents, jeopardizing the company’s reputation,
mission, and business model. Recognizing this, Starbucks took a broader per-
spective and evaluated the threat not just as a financial issue, but as a communi-
cation issue that would affect multiple constituents in different ways.
Starbucks was battling a “category killer” that used communication as a
powerful weapon. To fight this threat successfully, Starbucks had to evaluate its
response within a communication framework focused on its constituents. To
maintain its success, Starbucks had to develop a response to Global Exchange’s
threat that was consistent with the company’s mission, strategy, and reputation,
and effectively communicate it to all of its constituencies.
b Partners (Employees)—Starbucks’ partners chose to work for a company
with strong values because many were concerned about corporate social
responsibility. Maintaining both high partner morale and customer ser-
vice was essential to Starbucks’ continued success. If Global Exchange

executed a successful campaign against Starbucks, partners could lose

faith in the integrity and values of their company. Alternatively, Starbucks
recognized that its partners would likely embrace the move to sell Fair
Trade coffee as yet another sign of caring for its communities.
b Customers—Customers flocked to Starbucks for high-quality coffee, the
experience, and convenience. Nationwide protests could, at a minimum,
damage Starbucks’ image as a socially responsible company or, at an
extreme, disrupt business operations and make it physically difficult for
customers to access Starbucks’ stores. On the other hand, Starbucks did
attract a socially responsible following and would serve Fair Trade coffee
if there was a market for it. The extent of customer demand for Fair Trade
coffee was unknown, however, and time was of the essence as Global
Exchange’s deadline was approaching.
b Suppliers—In weighing the Fair Trade coffee issue, Mary Williams, Senior
Vice President of Coffee at the time, had concerns with how the farmers
she worked with would react when they discovered that other farmers
received the same price without being held to the Starbucks quality stan-
dards. As Williams explained,
“The relationships I have with farmers were built over the last 20 years. It’s
taken some of them years before I would use their beans consistently and pay
them $1.25 or more. Now I was being asked to use another farmer who I did-
n’t know and pay him the same price without the same quality standards?”58
b Community—In addition to sustaining and growing its business, Starbucks

supported causes “in both the communities where Starbucks stores were
located and the countries where Starbucks coffee was grown.”59 The Fair
Trade coffee decision had implications for both. Starbucks firmly believed
that when it opened a store, the company added value to that community
because the store “becomes an instant gathering spot, a Third Place that
draws people together.”60 As each Starbucks store drew most of its busi-
ness from the surrounding neighborhood, maintaining local community
support was essential to Starbucks’ success. With respect to producing
countries, in addition to fiscal and social aid, Starbucks’ coffee bean pur-
chases supported coffee communities. Switching suppliers could cause
Starbucks to drop some existing suppliers, thereby causing economic and
social disruption.
b Shareholders—While Starbucks placed “people over profits,” shareholders
were still an extremely important constituency group.61 The company’s
ability to differentiate a commodity product through quality, image, and
social responsibility allowed the company to profit. The Starbucks brand
itself was a key driver of the company’s profitability. To maintain that
profitability, Starbucks had to ensure uninterrupted business operations
and also protect its brand. The Whole Bean Department would face sev-
eral challenges in introducing Fair Trade coffee to 3,200 stores in the
United States at that time. First, it would have to develop a marketing
strategy for Fair Trade coffee. “A lot of our business is about the romance

of coffee—where it comes from and how to make it come alive for the
customer. We weren’t really sure where Fair Trade beans would be com-
ing from,” explained Tim Kern, Whole Bean product manager.62 Besides
confirming the marketing message and being able to communicate it
effectively to both employees and customers, Kern wasn’t sure Starbucks
could change its product offerings as quickly as outsiders thought the
company could.
b The Media—Starbucks also had to consider the media, who typically
endorsed the NGOs’ campaigns and gave them prominent coverage. The
media almost inevitably cast the activists as the “good guys” working for
human rights, while villainizing big business. Causes involving Starbucks
in particular always garnered the media’s attention. Starbucks realized the
media would quickly pick up on Global Exchange’s campaign and rein-
force its message nationally, which could further tarnish the company’s
reputation.
Starbucks’ decision came down to priorities. On one hand was the com-
pany’s mission to be socially responsible; on the other was its desire to sell high-
quality coffee. The company did not want to sacrifice either objective, nor did it
want to alienate any of its constituents. Sourcing requirements did not allow the
company to immediately provide Fair Trade coffee. Global Exchange, however,
was unwilling to compromise on its demands and claimed not to understand the
business impediments Starbucks faced in meeting them. Time had run out.
Starbucks’ Decision:
Good Faith Effort or “Too Little,Too Late”?
Starbucks faced a spectrum of possible responses to Global Exchange’s
demands, ranging from ignoring the NGO, to fighting back, to capitulation.
Based on precedent, Starbucks knew Global Exchange was tenacious and would
not disappear if the company pursued the first option. While Starbucks could
fight Global Exchange on the Fair Trade coffee issue, it could not always know
whether the farmers got their fair share of the high prices. However, capitulation
had its drawbacks as well. Starbucks was concerned that if it succumbed to one
NGO’s pressure, it could be perceived as an “easy target” for activist campaigns
by other NGOs.
Ultimately, Starbucks CEO Orin Smith pursued a middle ground alterna-
tive between fighting back against Global Exchange and completely capitulating
to the NGO’s demands. To appease Global Exchange, Starbucks agreed to sell
Fair Trade coffee in its domestic company-owned stores, with the understanding
that they would reevaluate the decision in a year and decide whether to con-
tinue serving Fair Trade coffee. This compromise put Starbucks in a good posi-
tion. In the short term, the decision reduced the likelihood of Global Exchange
conducting a national campaign and allowed Starbucks to maintain its reputa-
tion both for selling high-quality coffee and for social responsibility with all its

constituencies. While this “good faith effort” to work with TransFair USA to
meet Global Exchange’s demands did not solve all of Starbucks’ problems, this
decision bought the company more time to assess the consumer demand for Fair
Trade coffee while providing an opportunity to explore how Fair Trade coffee
would fit with its sourcing strategies.
Developments Since the Fair Trade Decision

Global Exchange’s campaign against Starbucks elevated the role of social
responsibility—especially regarding living conditions for coffee farmers—even
higher on Starbucks’ agenda, raising internal awareness and driving the com-
pany’s commitment to rapid progress on the issue. Not only did Starbucks
actively pursue and evaluate the Fair Trade model, but the company also has
continued to expand its social responsibility programs and explored several alter-
natives to Fair Trade in an effort to reach the same goal: improved livelihoods for
the small farmer.
Now the largest roaster and retailer of certified Fair Trade coffee in the
United States, Starbucks has increased Fair Trade purchases from its initial
653,000 pounds in 2001 to 1.1 million pounds in 2003. Yet Starbucks’ customer
demand for Fair Trade coffee has been virtually flat. Broader trends also suggest
that consumer demand for Fair Trade coffee is low, as evidenced by the huge
supply-demand imbalance in the Fair Trade market and the relatively low con-
sumer demand in Europe, despite higher consumer awareness abroad than in
the United States. According to TransFair USA, Fair Trade coffee suppliers pro-
duced over 235 million pounds of coffee in 2002, but only 32 million pounds
were actually sold as Fair Trade.63
Starbucks has continued to increase its purchases of Fair Trade coffee, but
the company has found, in keeping with its original concerns, that many Fair
Trade certified co-ops do not have the volume or consistency of quality that
Starbucks requires. Additionally, a number of Starbucks’ large suppliers cannot
become certified Fair Trade coffee producers due to their size. Finally, the cur-
rent Fair Trade system neither provides Starbucks with sufficient economic
transparency nor does it have well-defined environmental criteria or relevant
social standards to help ensure the sustainability of Starbucks suppliers.
While Fair Trade may be the only option available to Global Exchange
or smaller companies, Starbucks’ size and leverage enables it to pursue other
options to address the sustainability of coffee producers. Believing that Fair
Trade was not the most effective way for the company to help farmers,
Starbucks has embarked on other initiatives to increase stability and predictabil-
ity at the producer level. Initiatives include purchasing green coffee at outright
prices (independent of the market prices), creating direct relationships where
possible, and implementing long-term contracts with suppliers.
Before TransFair USA’s launch in the U.S., Starbucks had entered into an
agreement with Conservation International to develop coffee sourcing guide-
lines that would provide increased transparency for Starbucks related to its

coffee purchases and incentives for producers to grow coffee more sustainably.
Starbucks’ goal is to be able to trace the flow of money to ensure that producers
are earning enough to stay in business and earn a living wage. While certified
Fair Trade coffee may only represent one percent of its total purchases,
Starbucks’ efforts will affect a much broader supplier base.
In addition, the company has continued to receive numerous accolades
and awards for social responsibility, including the first annual Humanitarian
Award by the Coffee Quality Institute (May 2002) and the 2002 World Summit
Business Award for Sustainable Development Partnerships for its collaboration
with Conservation International. Starbucks was included in the 2002-2003 Dow
Jones Sustainability Index and has ascended rapidly in the social responsibility
polls: in Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For,” Starbucks climbed from
88th in 2000 to 47th in 2003. Likewise, the company rose from 46th in the 2000
“100 Best Corporate Citizens” poll by Business Ethics to 21st in 2002.
Despite all of Starbucks’ achievements, however, including expanding
sales of Fair Trade Certified coffee to seventeen countries, Global Exchange,
along with other activists, still do not believe the company is responsible
enough. While Starbuck’s “quasi-capitulation” on the Fair Trade coffee issue
initially removed the company from Global Exchange’s radar, it proved to be a
short-term reprieve. Global Exchange has continued to express its disappoint-
ment in Starbucks, claiming the company “negotiated in bad faith” because it
has not achieved Fair Trade coffee sales of five percent.64 In addition, Global
Exchange now demands that Fair Trade coffee be brewed in its domestic stores
once a week instead of once a month, as is the current standard. Global
Exchange still encourages consumers to request Fair Trade coffee at Starbucks,
stating on its web site, “Until Starbucks lives up to true social and environmental
standards, coffee drinkers should instead only give their business to locally-
owned, socially responsible companies.”65
Other activists have watched Global Exchange’s campaign unfold with
great interest, many of them piggybacking on its momentum. Organic Consum-
ers Association (OCA), TransFair USA, and Co-op America have continued the
fair trade rally against Starbucks, while other NGOs have raised new complaints
against Starbucks, such as reprimanding the company for purchasing milk that
may or may not contain recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone. At the March
2003, annual shareholders meeting, activists from NGOs, including Global
Exchange, arrived to distribute leaflets, lobby shareholders, and speak out
against the company.
Starbucks is not the only corporation that has been such a perpetual NGO
target. Other corporations, such as The Gap and Shell, have also been subject to
continuous criticism from NGOs despite their attempts to position themselves as
socially responsible companies. This continued criticism raises the question: Can
a company ever be socially responsible enough? When a company openly sets a
mission to be socially responsible, is it just setting itself up to be a NGO target?

Collaboration: The Hard-Earned “Win-Win”

While Global Exchange was uncompromising on its Fair Trade coffee
position with Starbucks, not all NGOs take such a hard-line stance. Increasingly,
NGOs and businesses are exploring an alternative approach: collaboration. Many
organizations have found that, through carefully developed partnerships, each
party can move beyond their respective organizational constraints to achieve
results that exceed what each can accomplish individually.
A number of factors have caused both businesses and NGOs to consider
collaboration. Companies recognize the importance that many of their
constituents place on social responsibility and the importance of being better
citizens in the communities in which the company operates. More and more,
corporations are focusing on the “triple bottom line” (financial, social, and envi-
ronmental) and recognizing that profits and principles need not be mutually
exclusive. The landscape is also changing for NGOs, providing fresh incentives
for better relationships with businesses. Many are growing in size and reach and
thus need to become more sophisticated. As their visibility increases, NGOs need
to concern themselves with matters of reputation and branding. They are being
held more accountable for results. In short, NGOs are dealing with many of the
operational and strategic issues that corporations historically have faced.
As SustainAbility’s report, The 21st Century NGO, states, “Markets are
becoming legitimate channels for social change.”66 NGOs are recognizing that
harnessing the power of the market, rather than constantly fighting it, can actu-
ally lead to positive results. At the same time, businesses should consider that
they may reap tangible economic and competitive benefits from sound social
and environmental practices. In “Misery Loves Companies: Whither Social
Initiatives by Business?” Joshua Margolis of Harvard University and James
Walsh of the University of Michigan review the literature researching the link
between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial perform-
ance (CFP).67 Margolis and Walsh reviewed 95 empirical studies conducted
between 1972 and 2000, finding that the majority indicated a positive relation-
ship between CSP and CFP. The authors question the validity of the data due
to concerns including the difficulty of measuring CSP in the face of the myriad
definitions for the concept; a sample bias toward large companies; and the
inability of researchers to control for the wide variety of other factors in CFP
(e.g., industry, company size, and market risk). However, Margolis and Walsh
also contend that a variety of indices point to a widespread social movement in
business and that further research might better examine “how” to invest in CSP
rather than “whether” or “why” to invest, since the trend seems to be in the
direction of increasing social responsibility. As businesses and NGOs begin to
cross over into each other’s traditional territories, the potential for meaningful
partnership looks stronger—entailing risks along with opportunities.
Dealing with Differences and Managing Risks

The path of converging interests, however, is not without its bumps.
Much mutual learning still needs to take place between businesses and NGOs.

As Paul Gilding, a former executive director of Greenpeace International and

now a consultant to businesses, explained, “When it comes to market transfor-
mation, the problem is that NGOs are almost completely ignorant [of] how mar-
kets and business work, while business is largely ignorant of how to work with
NGOs.”68
Inherent tensions exist whenever NGOs and corporations collaborate,
partly due to sharply different organizational mindsets and cultures. Corpora-
tions need to balance their efforts carefully so that profits do not become a casu-
alty of responsible business practices: rather, they need to find ways to “do well
by doing good.”
Collaborative relationships between businesses and NGOs also carry risks
that both parties need to understand and manage carefully. NGOs risk reputa-
tional damage due to the perception that they are “selling out” by working with
business, especially when entering into a financially based relationship. Busi-
nesses, for their part, can be accused of “using” NGOs for purposes of self-pro-
motion and attempting to influence constituencies by focusing on emotional
issues to accomplish self-serving objectives. Accusations of “greenwashing” can
result if clear, measurable outcomes are not defined and the company’s progress
on meeting them is not disclosed to its constituencies.
Historically, NGOs have employed more antagonistic tactics to move
business further in the direction of social and environmental change. These
approaches have yielded results: as companies either capitulated to their
demands or preempted them by crafting their own agenda of social responsibil-
ity, they have arguably become more responsible global citizens. Perhaps the
next wave of business-NGO relations can capture the best of both worlds by
striking a balance between collaboration and confrontation. As David F. Murphy
of the New Academy of Business explained, “The challenge facing partnering
organizations is not to try to resolve paradoxes but rather how to best manage
them and learn from the experience. The partners need to acknowledge each
other’s differences and work with them and against them simultaneously.”69
Collaboration in Action:
Starbucks, Oxfam America, CEPCO, and the Ford Foundation
Because Starbucks’ primary concerns about Fair Trade coffee related to
the company’s ability to maintain quality and consistent sources of coffee, the
company sought out ways to find coffee that met its needs while providing
farmers with a fair price. To that end, in July of 2002, Starbucks developed
a two-year pilot program with a diverse set of partners—Oxfam America, the
Oaxacan State Coffee Producers Network (CEPCO), and the Ford Foundation.
Oxfam America, a member of Oxfam International, is an NGO dedicated to
fighting hunger, poverty, and social injustice around the world. CEPCO is the
largest association of small-scale coffee producers in Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s
poorest states; its membership includes 16,000 farmers and 44 cooperatives. The
Ford Foundation is a private, nonprofit institution that provides grants and loans
to organizations that support its goals around democratic values, poverty and

injustice, international cooperation, and human achievement. Starbucks and the

Ford Foundation provide financial support for the partnership, each committing
$125,000 per year for the two-year pilot project for a total of $500,000.
This collaboration has four overarching goals:
b increase the supply of high-quality Certified Fair Trade coffee for the
United States specialty coffee market from small-farmer cooperatives;
b improve the skills of small-scale coffee farmers by providing resources and
training to implement and standardize post-harvest quality improvement;
b provide information and support to enable farmers to earn premium
prices for their coffee by producing a high-quality product; and
b enable the farmers to disseminate their learnings to other coffee
cooperatives.
The partners knew they faced several risks as they began working
together. The Ford Foundation wished to avoid the perception that it was pro-
viding financial support to a corporation, which is expressly forbidden in its
bylaws. Oxfam had never partnered with a corporation and was worried that
the NGO community would think it was “selling out” by working with Star-
bucks. CEPCO was apprehensive about what its participation might imply about
the quality of its coffee. Starbucks had initiated the partnership and had prior
experience working in partnership with NGOs, but it still had concerns about
making the project successful given the number of organizations involved.
While the organizations’ shared concern for the farmers of Oaxaca
ultimately prevailed over their fears, even after agreeing to collaborate, they
continued to face obstacles with regard to both logistics and mindset. Physical
preparation for the program and communications among its partners were often
difficult due to the number of partners, the physical distance between them, and
the need to communicate both in Spanish and English. The members of the
partnership also experienced some organizational challenges. For example, hir-
ing a project manager from outside the cooperative to manage the project was
time-consuming and introduced yet another party into the group. Additionally,
initial fears regarding external perceptions of the partnership proved to be well-
founded: some NGOs, like the Organic Consumers Association, used this part-
nership to attack the credibility of Oxfam and the Ford Foundation, accusing
them of supporting Starbucks’ efforts at “greenwashing.”70
Yet as the collaboration progressed, the organizations developed a greater
understanding of each other and their respective motivations. In February 2003,
Starbucks met with CEPCO in Oaxaca. At this meeting, the two organizations
made significant progress in their relationship, getting to know each other and
learning about each other’s organizations and aspirations. After the meeting in
Oaxaca, Starbucks invited CEPCO leadership to Seattle for a tour of Starbucks
roasting plants to learn about the roasting and packaging processes and how
exacting Starbucks is with regard to the quality of its coffee. In the roasting facil-
ity, CEPCO representatives met two long-time Starbucks partners (employees)—
a married couple originally from Mexico who spoke at length about their job

satisfaction, the stock options they had through Starbucks, and the two homes
they owned in Seattle and Mexico. The CEPCO representatives were surprised
factory workers could be so successful and happy with their jobs. This interac-
tion, while completely unplanned, went a long way toward convincing CEPCO
that Starbucks stood behind its claims of treating employees well.
CEPCO representatives have also been pleased with the educational
process through which they have been learning more about how to meet Star-
bucks’ strict quality standards. “It is very interesting to be able to share and to
see firsthand what an American (coffee) company is looking for, “said Jaime
Hernandez, CEPCO’s trade and sales manager, of a tasting session conducted in
June 2003.71 As part of Starbucks support of the project, the company also pro-
vides CEPCO with technical support, such as building and equipping cupping
labs and helping purchase an electronic sorter, which enables farmers to become
even more successful suppliers of high-quality Fair Trade coffee.
From Starbucks’ perspective, the process of relationship building has been
one of the most difficult parts of the partnership, but also the most critical to its
success. Through hard work on both sides, Starbucks and Oxfam America have
developed greater mutual respect for one another, and Starbucks believes that
Oxfam America has a deeper understanding of the corporate perspective and the
barriers to change that a corporation like Starbucks can face. At the same time,
Oxfam has shared with Starbucks its broader view of human rights.
Starbucks hopes that its new partnership, by demonstrating that NGOs
can maintain their integrity and independence while working closely with a
corporation, will serve as an example for NGOs that have resisted collaboration
and will inspire those NGOs to move beyond “shouting matches” with corpora-
tions and toward sharing some of the hard work that goes into creating positive
change. Starbucks also hopes that more confrontational NGOs will notice that
NGOs and corporations can achieve more when they combine their expertise
and the work.
Seven Lessons from the Starbucks Case

Based on our research on this case, we offer the following lessons to man-
agers engaged in activities with NGOs, no matter what the issue or industry:
Lesson 1: Realize that socially responsible companies are likely targets

but also attractive candidates for collaboration.
While it may seem counterintuitive, truly socially responsible companies
are actually more likely to be attacked by activist NGOs than those that are not,
for a variety of reasons. Some NGOs will use a socially responsible company as a
platform for its own message. Activists may also hold a company to a higher
standard because they may feel that the company is using a socially responsible
positioning to enhance its reputation rather than honestly trying to do the right
thing. Similarly, NGOs believe companies that are already socially responsible
may be more willing to make changes. Our interviews with Global Exchange

suggested that Starbucks was a better target for the fair trade issue because of
its emphasis on social responsibility, as opposed to a larger company without a
socially responsible bent.
Companies focused on social responsibility should think about which
NGOs are most likely to attack and what issues make them most vulnerable.
Business should seek out those organizations more interested in collaboration
and be proactive in building coalitions and strategic alliances. By closely studying
which issues are most likely to be contentious and becoming familiar with the
NGOs that address those issues, companies can identify potential partners.
Familiarity with the NGO community will enable companies to learn which
NGOs are inclined toward collaboration and which take a more confrontational
approach. A more proactive approach should also help neutralize attacks from
NGOs, allowing companies to focus on the issues rather than “the fight.”
Lesson 2: Don’t wait for a crisis to collaborate.

Companies often wait for a crisis to develop before seeking opportunities
to collaborate. The opportunity for companies is much greater if they operate
from a position of strength rather than in reaction to pressure from a vocal NGO.
Companies can identify opportunities to collaborate before the issue becomes
part of a public debate. Such an approach gives companies an opportunity to
shape the agenda before they are put on the defensive and before an adversarial
relationship develops with potential partners.
Starbucks responded to Global Exchange after a crisis of sorts—the very
public display at a shareholders meeting. The company then thought carefully
about the best course of action in light of a variety of issues. After learning from
this experience with Global Exchange, Starbucks actively sought out Oxfam
America, CEPCO, and the Ford Foundation as partners in its fair trade efforts. As
a result, these organizations were able to chart a course of action that satisfied all
parties.
Lesson 3: Think strategically about relationships with NGOs.

As a company thinks about collaborating with NGOs, its leadership
should determine which ones offer the best opportunities for the company to
enhance its social responsibility positioning with key constituents. Which NGO
has the most credibility in different areas of focus and with whom?
Starbucks’ decision to listen to the concerns of Global Exchange and take
actions to address them bolstered the company’s credibility with its partners
(employees), who tend to be young and liberal in orientation. It also fended off
some potential attacks from other NGOs by softening Starbucks’ image as a big,
bad, faceless embodiment of capitalism. As Starbucks built more proactive rela-
tionships with other NGOs, such as Oxfam, the company continued to build
credibility with key constituents.
McDonald’s offers another example of a company that gained credibility
through collaboration. The company’s collaboration (mentioned earlier) with
EDF in the early 1990s over its decision to move from Styrofoam to paper

packaging similarly allowed the company to increase its credibility on environ-

mental issues with consumers.72
Lesson 4: Recognize that collaboration involves some compromise.

Companies working together with NGOs must understand that compro-
mise will be a necessary part of the relationship. Starbucks made the decision to
address Global Exchange’s concerns realizing that it would have to change some
of its business practices in the process. However, the tradeoff was worth it, as the
company was able to avoid becoming the “poster child” for irresponsible prac-
tices in the coffee industry in the same way that Arthur Andersen became the
pariah for irresponsible practices in the accounting industry. Finding a middle
ground that managers feel comfortable with, without compromising organiza-
tional principles, is an important part of the collaborative process. However,
compromise should not lead to situations in which organizations betray their
core values. An NGO may believe that its corporate partner is not sincere in its
effort to affect social change; or a company may believe its participation in the
partnership might harm the business in some way. In either of these cases, both
organizations should reconsider the partnership.
At the same time, companies must be willing to admit their mistakes.
Despite their radical posturing and often-adversarial tactics, NGOs usually exist
to foster positive change in society. Companies, despite their best efforts to do
the right thing, may find themselves in compromising situations due to a variety
of factors. For example, many of the most publicized cases of inhumane working
conditions in sweatshops were more the result of mistakes by on-site managers
rather than an all-pervasive policy at the corporate level. As Sydney Finkelstein,
author of Why Smart Executives Fail asserts: “In fact, it is often ambitious man-
agers trying to impress senior executives that are the cause of major corporate
blunders.”73
Tobacco companies took decades to admit their responsibility for health
problems associated with smoking, which led to countless lawsuits, attacks from
a variety of organizations, and the disruption of the entire tobacco industry.
Starbucks, on the other hand, was ultimately willing to try to find high-quality
Fair Trade coffee, which led to better relations with consumers, its NGO part-
ners, and other activists who might have attacked the company more
aggressively.
Lesson 5: Appreciate the value of the NGOs’ independence.

More radical organizations will see the NGO partner’s collaboration with
a corporation as a sign of “selling out’ rather than an earnest attempt to effect
change. This can lead to a loss of credibility for the NGO, which may, in turn,
affect the credibility of the relationship between the two organizations. As with
many strategic alliances, it is easy to lose objectivity if the NGO does not main-
tain some distance from the organization. “NGOs and the Private Sector,” a pol-
icy briefing from INTRAC (the International NGO Training and Research

Centre), suggests that NGOs in partnership with corporations manage the

independence issue by drawing the line at endorsing a company.74
Starbucks did not have to worry about this particular problem since
Global Exchange maintained its distance and its challenging posture even after
establishing a relationship with Starbucks. In contrast, because of its collabora-
tive relationship with Starbucks, Oxfam’s credibility has been questioned by
other NGOs.75
Lesson 6: Understand that building relationships with NGOs

takes time and effort.
NGOs—particularly those with a more radical orientation—expect quick
results, but many companies also believe that they will see results from alliances
soon after the relationship has started. The mutual understanding and trust
required for productive collaboration takes time to develop. Most NGOs are ini-
tially skeptical of their newfound partners because they tend to have a negative
view of business and distrust those who work for the companies they have his-
torically seen as the enemy.
Starbucks initially chose to think about the relationship with Global
Exchange as being a one-year time frame—to see if there was actually a market
for Fair Trade coffee, to determine if this was the correct approach to dealing
with farmers, and to see what would come of a relationship with the organiza-
tion. While this may seem like a long time to devote to such activities, think
about how long Global Exchange’s attack on Nike lasted as the company ignored
the NGO’s pleas to address its labor issue in Asia. Rather than spend five years
under constant attack from an adversary, companies can dedicate one to two
years working with the same organization on a plan that may actually achieve
mutually beneficial results and potentially lead to a stronger reputation in the
long run.
Lesson 7: Think more like an NGO by using communication strategically.

NGOs are able to act as category killers in their single-minded focus on
an issue and their simple, direct, and powerful communication campaigns. First,
companies should try to set up a team dedicated to focusing on issues of mutual
concern from the NGO’s perspective and should use communication in an
equally strategic manner. While companies need to think strategically about
communications in general, they need to do so especially when involved in the
potentially risky relationships that often characterize business-NGO relations.
Companies need to discuss their interest in and activities around social responsi-
bility with constituents regularly to be most effective in this area. Second, com-
panies must be consistent in all of their communications about issues of social
responsibility both within the organization and with external constituents. As
an example, Starbucks’ Social Responsibility team worked closely with the com-
pany’s corporate communications department to insure that Starbucks was
speaking with one voice about its positioning around Fair Trade coffee.

Conclusion
NGOs are having an increasing influence on society and corporations
must work in collaboration with these powerful organizations to effect change,
meet social responsibility goals, and enhance their organizations’ reputations
while also meeting their business objectives. Furthermore, NGOs are also seek-
ing out new ways to work with, rather than against, corporations in the ongoing
desire of both to do what is best for society.
Notes
1. The author has had no current or prior relationship with Starbucks other than as a
researcher first on the development of a case followed by further research on this article.
Starbucks did not try to influence the outcome of this article but did provide invaluable
assistance in terms of the development of the research and editing of this article.
2. Paul A. Argenti, Corporate Communication, 3rd ed. (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2003),
pp. 2-3.
3. International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources Fisheries Committee,
“IFCNR Special Report: How NGOs Became So Powerful,” February 20, 2002.
4. Edwin R. Stafford, Cathy L. Hartman “NGOs Engaging with Business: A World of Difference
and a Difference to the World [book review],” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 29/4
(Fall 2001): 418-419.
5. Speech by David Grayson, “The Public Affairs of Civil Society,” January 26, 2001.
6. “Non-Government Organizations More Trusted Than the Media, Most-Respected Corpora-
tions or Government,” <developmentgateway.org>, accessed December 1, 2000, p.2.
7. Edelman Survey, “NGOs trusted more than business or governments,” February 5, 2002.
8. Ibid.
9. Interview with Peter Verrengia, Regional President and Senior Partner, Fleishman-Hillard
International Communications, August 15, 2003.
10. Michael Yaziji, “Turning Gadflies into Allies,” Harvard Business Review, 82/2 (February 2004):
111.
11. Stephen J. Arnold and Jay M. Handelman, “The Role of Marketing Actions with a Social
Dimension: Appeals to the Institutional Environment,” Journal of Marketing, 63/3 (July
1999): 33-48.
12. Christopher Deri and Jonathan Wootliff, Stakeholder Strategies, Edelman Worldwide,
“NGOs: The New Super Brands,” Corporate Reputation Review, 4/2 (2001): 158-164.
13. Speech by Jonathan Wootliff, “NGO’s and Global Corporate Citizenship,” March 13, 2001,
p. 21.
14. SustainAbility, Global Compact, and United National Environment Programme, “The 21st
Century NGO: In the Market for Change,” report, June 2003, p. 37.
15. International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources Fisheries Committee,
op. cit.
16. Deri and Wootliff, op. cit., p. 159.
17. SustainAbility et al., op. cit., pp. 27-35.
18. Ibid., p. 8.
19. Ibid., p. 29.
20. Ibid., p. 30.
21. Sharon M. Livesey, “McDonald’s and the Environment (A),” Harvard Business School case
#9-391-108, June 30, 1993.
22. SustainAbility et al., op. cit., p. 31.
23. Ibid., p. 33.
24. Ibid., p. 14. For more information on this subject, refer to John Elkington, Cannibals with
Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business (London: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.,
1997).
25. Gregory Dicum and Nina Luttinger, The Coffee Book: Anatomy of an Industry from Crop to the Last
Drop (New York, NY: The New Press, 1999), p. 38.

26. This percentage varies depending on how large small-scale farms are described. In one
source, small-scale farms are less than 5 acres (50 percent), in another, less than 10 acres
(70 percent).
27. Dicum and Luttinger, op. cit., pp. 44-47.
28. Ibid., pp. 58-65.
29. Greg Richards, “The Coffee Crisis,” Java Jives (Winter/Spring 2002).
30. Composite prices are calculated using the four groups of coffee—namely, Columbian Mild
Arabicas, Other Mild Arabicas, Brazilian, and Other Natural Arabicas and Robustas—traded
in the three main markets (New York, Germany, and France). International Coffee Organi-
zation, Green Coffee Trade Statistic 1996 to 2001 No. 7, July 1, 2002, p. 47
31. “Bitter Coffee: How the Poor are Paying for the Slump in Coffee Prices,” Oxfam, May 16,
2002, p. 5.
32. Ibid.
33. Howard Schultz, Pour Your Heart Into It (New York, NY: Hyperion, 1997), p. 131.
34. Ibid., p. 139.
35. Ibid., p 125-137.
36. Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World
(New York, NY: Basic Books, 1999), p. 374.
37. Interview with Orin Smith, CEO, Starbucks Coffee Company, July 25, 2002.
38. Schultz, op. cit., p. 139, 293.
39. “Corporate Social Responsibility FY01 Annual Report,” Starbucks Coffee Company, February
2002, p. 21.
40. Pendergrast, op. cit., p. 375.
41. “CSR FY01 Annual Report,” p. 5.
42. Ben Packard, “Sustainability Practices Presentation,” National Recycling Coalition Confer-
ence, January 16, 2001.
43. “CSR FY01 Annual Report,” p. 8.
44. Michael Massing, “From Protest to Program,” American Prospect, July 2, 2001, p. 5.
45. Chris O’Brien, “2002 Report on Fair Trade Trends in the U.S. and Canada,” Co-op America
Business Network (April 2002), p. 4.
46. David C. Zehner, “An Economic Assessment of ‘Fair Trade’ in Coffee,” Chazen Web Journal of
International Business (Fall 2002), p. 8, at <www-
1.gsb.columbia.edu/chazenjournal/article.cfm?pub=92>.
47. Interview with Valerie Orth, Fair Trade Organizer, Global Exchange, August 1, 2003.
48. Interview with Ronnie Cummins, Executive Director Organic Consumer Association, July
16, 2002.
49. Interview with Deborah James, Fair Trade Director, Global Exchange July 23, 2002.
50. Ibid.
51. Interview with Sue Mecklenburg, Vice President for Business Practices, Starbucks Coffee
Company, August 8, 2003.
52. Interview with Paul Rice, Executive Director, TransFair USA, August 9, 2002.
53. Interview with James, op. cit.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. Deborah L. Spar and Lane T. La Mure, “The Power of Activism: Assessing the Impact of
NGOs on Global Business,” California Management Review, 45/3 (Spring 2003): 78-101.
57. Interview with Tom Elhers, Vice President Whole Bean, Starbucks Coffee Company July 25,
2002.
58. Interview with Mary Williams, Senior Vice President Coffee Department, Starbucks Coffee
Company, July 24, 2002.
59. Schultz, op. cit., pp. 139 & 293.
60. Ibid., p. 281.
61. Ibid., p. 131.
62. Interview with Tim Kern, Whole Bean product manager, Starbucks Coffee Company, July
25, 2002.
63. TransFair USA web site, <www.transfairusa.org>.
64. Interview with Orth, op. cit.
65. Global Exchange web site, <www.globalexchange.org>.

67. Joshua D. Margolis and James P. Walsh, “Misery Loves Companies: Whither Social
Initiatives by Business?” discussion paper presented June 21, 2001, accessed at <www.
aspeninstitute.org/AspenInstitute/files/CCLIBRARYFILES/FILENAME/0000000133/
miserylovescompanies.pdf> on February 24, 2004.
69. David F. Murphy, “Business and NGOs in the Global Partnership Process,” accessed at
<www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/un/unctad16.htm> on August 7, 2003.
70. Organic Consumers Association Web site <www.organicconsumers.org/Starbucks/
0805_starbucks_greenwashing.htm>.
71. J.H. Newcomb, “Small Coffee Farmers Learn from Giant Starbucks” Seattle Times, June 10,
2003.
72. Livesey, op. cit.
73. Interview with Sydney Finkelstein, Steven Roth Professor of Management, Tuck School of
Business, August 22, 2003.
74. Simon Heap, “NGOs and the Private Sector,” NGO Policy Briefing Paper No. 1, January
2000, for the NGO Sector Analysis Programme, International NGO Training and Research
Centre, p. 2, accessed at <www.intrac.org/Intrac/docs/Ngopbp_1.pdf.pdf> on February 24,
2004.
75. Organic Consumers Association web site, <www.organicconsumers.org>.
California Management Review

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F a l l 2 0 0 4 | V o l . 4 7 , N o .

Collaborating with Activists:

© 2004 by The Regents of

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 91

The Changing Environment for Corporations and NGOs

NGOs into the “Trust-Void”

92 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

NGOs evolved to influence governments. However, many now realize

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 93

of even high-performative firms and low-performative firms with high-insti-

The Category Killers

94 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

Assessing the NGO Threat

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 95

b Strive to Make Market Mechanisms More Intelligent—Most interactions

Overview of the Coffee Industry

96 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

to put Global Exchange’s attack on Starbucks in context. By 2000, coffee was

Starbucks and Social Responsibility

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 97

Starbucks Mission Statement

98 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

Throughout the 1990s, Starbucks continued to institutionalize its commit-

Global Exchange and Fair Trade Coffee

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 99

Definition of Fair Trade Coffee

100 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

Addressing the Global Exchange Threat:

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 101

102 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

executed a successful campaign against Starbucks, partners could lose

b Community—In addition to sustaining and growing its business, Starbucks

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 103

104 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

Developments Since the Fair Trade Decision

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 105

106 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

Collaboration: The Hard-Earned “Win-Win”

Dealing with Differences and Managing Risks

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 107

As Paul Gilding, a former executive director of Greenpeace International and

108 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

injustice, international cooperation, and human achievement. Starbucks and the

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 109

Seven Lessons from the Starbucks Case

Lesson 1: Realize that socially responsible companies are likely targets

110 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

Lesson 2: Don’t wait for a crisis to collaborate.

Lesson 3: Think strategically about relationships with NGOs.

CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004 111

packaging similarly allowed the company to increase its credibility on environ-

Lesson 4: Recognize that collaboration involves some compromise.

Lesson 5: Appreciate the value of the NGOs’ independence.

112 CALIFORNIA MANAGEMENT REVIEW VOL. 47, NO. 1 FALL 2004

Centre), suggests that NGOs in partnership with corporations manage the

Lesson 6: Understand that building relationships with NGOs

Lesson 7: Think more like an NGO by using communication strategically.