Case Study Coca-Cola Company: Then and Now
Vladyslav Mozharov vladyslavmozharov@cityu.edu MBA 545: People and Systems in Organizations
John Elmer
Case Study – Coca-Cola Company: Then and Now
May 1, 2014
The traditional change model consists of three steps: unfreezing, i.e. recognizing the need for change because of some event or threat, the actual change actions and refreezing, i.e. incorporating new ways of operating and thinking into everyday operations of the organization. Apply this model to the situation at the coca-cola company at the point when the lawsuit was served in 1999.
As it is stated in the case of Coca-Cola, it was a marketing machine ran by bureaucrats and tried to create an image of their brand more than
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The next stage is a stage of providing the actual change actions. Here, the company has chosen a new CEO and President, Douglas Daft, who was an opposite of Ivestor. Daft was a delegator, who wanted to turn Coca-Cola to a most desired company by employees in the world. He also saw a company as a head of the class, when speaking about diversity of workforce and business. Daft was fast in his actions. He has put Ware on the position of Vice-President for Global Public Affairs, as he was concerned about diversity issues in the company as well. They applied Ware’s suggestions about supporting the diversity from the top-executives and tying compensation increases to the achievement of diversity goals. On this stage, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia approved the Settlement Agreement, which was used to non-hourly U.S.-based workers of the company, excluding its bottlers and called for pay-back to employees, future pay equity and equal employment opportunity. Task Force was created to provide an independent supervision of company’s compliance and was reporting on implementation of these programs. On this stage, Coca-Cola learned a lot about its past mistakes and provided dozens of changes to its policies and procedures. As it is not possible to change a whole organization in a short-time period, Coca-Cola was implementing changes during the next decade after a lawsuit and even created a document, called “Manifesto of
Founded in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton, multinational beverage manufacturer The Coca-Cola Company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Today they are the world’s largest beverage company. Their current Chairman and CEO is Muhtar Kent. Other notable people are Board of Directors member Robert Kotick and Executive Vice President Ahmet Bozer.
Coca Cola was born in the laboratory of Dr. John Pemberton in May 1886 in Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-Cola's own name was made by Frank Robinson. And marketed for the first time with an ad of banners with the inscription of oil paints labeled "drink Coca Cola". Although it was the title of "brand of the century", Frank Robison had experienced a loss in sales. Coca Cola formula then bought by Asa Chandler in 1892 that heavily promoting senhingga experiencing huge profits. Coca cola increasingly global sales thanks to independent bottling firms with licenses to other countries and this is maintained until now.
As it is stated in the case of Coca-Cola, “it was a marketing machine ran by bureaucrats and accountants focused more on getting the most out of what they had than of thinking of good ideas” (Harvey & Allard, 2015, p. 100). At that stage, Ivestor, who was a CEO of the company, was focusing more on the numbers and revenues than on what is really going inside of the company. He was described as “arrogant and insecure” (Harvey & Allard, 2015, p. 100) and refused to listen to his own people, working for him. Instead of solving the real problems in the company, he was focusing on keeping profits on the same level. Case gives an example of passivity of his actions by increasing the price of Coke syrup sales to bottlers to keep it. Of course, it was a mandatory action due to the “largest product recall in company history" (Harvey & Allard, 2015, p. 100) but it only accumulated a racial tension in the company, as he was indifferent to people and focused on financial results. Ivestor tried to prevent dramatic outcomes of the lawsuit more than to solve the problem and prevent it in the
It's unfortunate that Coca-Cola had to be involved in a lawsuit to start making changes with the way the company treated their employees and the way they viewed diversity in the workplace. If we apply the traditional change model to the Coca-Cola situation, I would say the lawsuit was a big eye opener for the CEO and leaders that were in charge at
Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company. Coca-Cola Company owns 500 non-alcoholic beverage brands, such as water, sparkling drinks, juices, fruit juices, sports and energy drinks, coffees, and teas. It owns and markets four of the world’s most popular carbonated drinks: Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and Diet Coke and is sold in over 200 countries .
The multinational company that I have chosen is Coca Cola Company since it is a very popular brand and has been serving its customers for more then 10 decades and even after so many years its popularity seems to be increasing day by day which itself speaks about the company's remarkable performance. The Coca Cola Company is an American multinational corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of the nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups (Wright, 1999). It came into existence in 1886 and was invented in Columbus, Georgia by John Stith Pemberton. The current statistics of the company shows that it is currently operating in over 200 countries offering its customers over 500 brands with each day serving of more then 1.7 billion (Charles W. L. Hill, Essentials of Strategic Management, 2012). .Further more the Coca Cola Company is alone responsible for the 78% of the total gallon sales of all the beverages sold worldwide. The company is listed in New York Sock Exchange and is very popular in most of the countries especially United States of America, which alone consumes 47% of the total gallons, sold worldwide (Zurkuhlen & Meeker, 1987). The company headquarter is located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America and its current chief executive and chairman is Muhtar Kent (Charles W. L. Hill, Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach, 2012).
The essay describes the key characteristics of Coca Cola Company and how these characteristics are aligned with the organizational behavior. The motivational theories are also discussed in detail which could be useful in managing such a large workforce.
On May 8, 1886, Dr. John S Pemberton, a pharmacist in Atlanta, Georgia, USA mixed the syrup that became Coca-Cola'. His friend and bookkeeper, Frank M. Robinson, thinking that the two C's would look well in advertising', suggested the name Coca-Cola'. He wrote the words in his now familiar Spenserian script, and the world's most recognized trademark was born.
The Coca-Cola beverage, produced by the Coca-Cola company of Atlanta, Georgia is sold in more than 200 countries. The Company produces the coca-cola (otherwise called Coke) beverage which is then distributed to licensed international Coca-Cola bottlers. The bottlers hold exclusive contract with Coke and produce the complete Coke before they distribute, market, and sell it. The bottlers include Coca-Cola Enterprises which is the largest Coca-Cola bottling company in N. America ("Brand Fact Sheet". Coca-Cola official website).
In this essay, we will be talking about Coca-Cola company, so let's firstly briefly describe it. Basically, it is a carbonated soft drink which it sold almost everywhere in this world, places such as, local stores, restaurants or even any vending machines, in airports for example. These drinks are produced by the company Coca Cola Atlanta Georgia, but among all of us we call it just a Coke. I would like to mention that Coca Cola has registered it's trademark in the United States of America in March 27, 1944. A person called John Pemberton has invented it originally as a patent medicine in the nineteenth century, however later on a businessman Asa Griggs Candler has bought this company from John.
During 1985 the Coca-Cola Company instituted a transformation of their flagship brand, thereby altering a formula principally contributing to a remarkable success story approximately one hundred years in the making. Conspicuous erosion of market share to rival Pepsi gravely concerned company executives on account of potential backlashes associated with exclusivity agreements coming out of the restaurant and vending industries. Now those contracts hung in the balance and were becoming particularly ominous. Moreover, losing out to their rival might mean imperiling en masse renewals of agreements going forward. A change in Coke's recipe would inevitably jettison an indomitable formula remaining unchanged for a century and had spawned a global enterprise. Could this create additional concerns for Coca-Cola Company's marketing and sales executives? In other respects and considering Coke the preeminent brand on the planet, could management have overlooked valuable intangible assets such as brand loyalty and goodwill cultivated over the decades? Be that as it may, development of a contemporary formula demonstrating an empirical preference over both present-day Coke and Pepsi began in earnest.
Since the 1990’s Coca-Cola has been involved in some scandalous and very unethical activities in areas such as product safety, anticompetitiveness, racial discrimination, channel stuffing, distributor conflicts, intimidation tactics, pollution, depletion of natural resources, and health concerns (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Farrell, 2015). According to the case study, they have been named in multiple law suits; some which resulted in out of court private settlements, others in a court battle and still others that remain unresolved at this time (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Farrell, 2015). By all accounts, Coca Cola has made attempts to resolve all complaints and issues but sometimes their technique was not what many thought it should be. Even with a history of troubles, Coca Cola remains one of the most recognized brand names in the world. In the south, if you ask someone what they want to drink they will most likely say a “coke”; one must understand that this could actually mean any of a dozen different carbonated soft drinks because everything is a “coke”. They are well known for their savvy marketing and a reputation for quality (Farrell, Fraedrich, & Farrell, 2016).
On May 8, 1886, The Coca-Cola product was born in Atlanta, Georgia by Dr. John Stith Pemberton, a local pharmacist. He produced the carbonated water which was teamed with the new syrup to produce the Coca-Cola drink. (http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/chronicle_birth_refreshing_idea.html)•In its first year, Coca-Cola products placed on sales for five cent a glass as a soda fountain drink with the sales about 9 glasses a day. (http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/chronicle_birth_refreshing_idea.html)•In 1889, The Coca-Cola Company first formed by a great business man, Asa Candler with $100,000 initial capital. He became the company first president. Cadler is the first who had introduced the U.S. to Coca-Cola.and the first
The name Coca-Cola is one among the foremost common brands within the world and the company and graded the most important company in beverages trade these days. This can be therefore as a result of the Coca-Cola Company continues to achieve growth to the timely increasing across the planet, the corporation operates presently in additional than two hundred countries with 84,000 suppliers this makes seventieth of the company’s turnover to be from different foreign countries. This can be potential thanks to globalization; John Pemberton founds the corporate within the 1880’s within the US of America with a decent name for consistency and top quality, within the early stage storekeepers requested for a gorgeous package with complete recognition.
The iconic brand of Coca-Cola dates back to the late 1800’s when a pharmacist from Atlanta created a distinctive soft drink that would take the world by storm. Initially charging five cents per glass out of a soda fountain machine at local convenience stores, Coca-Cola started to grow and expand outside of Atlanta. Once they recognized success as a fountain drink, Coca-Cola then started the production of bottling the beverage. Coca-Cola beverage consumption has since grown and is now around $1.9 billion a day with presence in over 200 differnet countries (Coca-Cola History│World of Coca-Cola, n.d.).