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Saying she wants to spend more time with her family, president of Starbucks' (Nasdaq: SBUX) US business, Launi Skinner stepped down from her post yesterday, after less than a year on the job. She will be replaced by Cliff Burrows, who currently resides over the Europe, Middle East and Africa business. He'll take over US operations on March 12.

According to Starbucks spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil, this was absolutely Skinner's decision, and had nothing to do with the company. "This is absolutely her choice," said O'Neil.

Burrows faces a big challenge, as traffic to the stores in the fourth quarter dropped for the first time in company history, and increased competition from McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) and Dunkin' Donuts has put pressure on sales.

The balancing act he faces, is to keep the focus primarily on their core coffee product, while bringing in secondary products to spur growth. They haven't done that very well since trying things like adding music offerings in the stores.

Now that the U.S. market is starting to be saturated, they'll have to figure out ways to grow domestically without overly cannabilizing their nearby stores.

One strategy they're using is to close somewhere around 100 U.S. stores this year, and open up fewer stores than in the past.

The ongoing management changes at the company is starting to be viewed as a negative as well, and is something they need to settle down if they want to implement a successful battle to regain their brand, that has been suffering over the last year.

Other challenges are the increasing cost of milk, the struggling U.S. economy, and growing competition.