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Category Archives: Work and Business

Coffee Wars

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Posted on July 5, 2006 – 22:53

On my way to the wonderful Trumps Coffee Shop on Bute Street to pick up my lunch for today, I spotted a building under development right in the heart of the Cardiff Bay area. Intrigued, I walked past to discover that it is to be a Starbucks – a few minutes walk away from the independently owned and run Trumps and 10 steps away from Coffee Mania, another chain.

I’m not going to digress into anti-globalisation rhetoric or argue a case for resisting multi-national corporations. After all, I’m an advocate – realising that they have their problems like all other ideologies but they’re a necessity in this world we live in. Neither am I particularly anti-Starbucks – after all, you don’t build up a global empire with a business plan that doesn’t appeal to anyone. Plus, Starbucks is a long way from the worst corporate neighbour, with an environmental mission statement, progressive labour benefits and a host of cooperative charitable activities – whether they stick to them or not. It’s not my place to play with facts and hearsay.

What I do have a problem with though is unethical predatory business practices where free enterprise is overshadowed by unfair competition and Starbucks taking the successful elements from coffee shop culture and mass-producing it for each of its venues.

Quirky and eccentric local hotspots are replaced with generic, uninteresting coffee shops with no character – apart from the ‘art’ that is hung on the walls… produced by the marketing team and available to buy.

Instead of unique or unusual coffee blends we now have the Frappuccino®. Omitted are the diverse musical tastes of the clientele or staff played through the store, and instead we’re offered a branded CD that wouldn’t be unsuitable as an ‘easy-listening’ background piece at your next pseudo-intellectual (read: pretentious) dinner party.

It’s not all bad though – here in Cardiff there are only 4 (now 5) Starbucks in the entire city and maybe an extra 10 or so other coffee shops that are chain-owned. In the 5-mile radius around Cambridge Circus in London there are 165 Starbucks – click here and see how many are in your area? Can you beat that?

(Want my opinion and not just my observations though? I believe Starbucks sell fake corporate and ecological responsibility as a way to rid itself of its 1999 WTO image as the evil face of globalisation and I would walk twice the distance to get a cup of coffee somewhere else – even though it isn’t all that bad!)

Google vs China

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Posted on June 26, 2006 – 21:32

I’m in two minds about the whole Google-China debate.

Whilst I do disapprove of Google’s decision to collaborate with the Chinese government’s policy of censorship, I can understand why it has done so.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression… [and] to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

This could be understood that those under Chinese rule have the freedom to express their opinions in any way they feel – including over the Internet, without censorship. To launch a censored version of its search engine in China and in turn accepting China’s censorship conditions, Google is encouraging China to continue its draconian policy on freedom of expression and democracy.

Nobody doubts that the Chinese government is committing a Human Rights violation by censoring the media (the Internet included) entering and leaving China, but we must realise we are living in a New World Order.

The majority of governments no longer control their own countries, with business being the driving force behind almost every foreign and domestic policy decision made throughout the Western World. The Third Way is here, yet Capitalism is king, whether we like it or not.

Google, being the biggest Internet company in the world has a lot to account for. With a virtual monopoly on searches, the advertising from this has generated enough profit to let Google venture into the software market and is now a real contender to some of the biggest Software houses in the world. The Internet is a volatile market where, within the space of a year, a multi-million pound company can be reduced to the history books. This is why Google must be careful.

With regards to China, the country has a huge population, most of whom are connected to the Internet, and without creating a censored version of its search results, and hence getting blocked from China, they are missing out on an incredible amount of revenue. Without this revenue, the company’s future, while currently very stable anyway, would be less stable than it currently is.

It’s not as simple as that though – for years Google has made it’s image one of being the ethical company for the people. This image is now well on its way to being in ruins. Good news for competitors, but is it actually bad news for Google, or can they somehow come out of this smelling like roses?

Only time can tell.