Coca Cola Struggles with Ethics

products to suit customer’s needs, Coca-Cola was able to make a positive step forward in their

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

The book Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism by Bartow J. Elmore is about the environmental history of Coca-Cola. Elmore is a historian who grew up in the Atlanta area, where the Coca-Cola Company was formed and has a presence to this day. The book discusses how the Coca-Cola Company came into existence and how it acquired resources to manufacture the best-selling product, Coke. After doing a little bit of background on the three book options offered for review, I chose this book because I was most interested in how the company came into existence and how the products were manufactured. What I discovered was that the Coca-Cola Company is a consumer, not a producer. I will go on in this review and discuss the reasons why it is a consumer and not a producer.

The Coca Cola Company is very cautious and responsive to change; they act with urgency and have the courage to discourse when needed to work more efficiently. Coke’s focus is to administer its system assets to build values and rewards for the people who take risks by finding better ways to solve problems. Coca Cola Company feels they are accountable for their actions and inactions and hence answerable to the people. They learn from their outcomes and understand what works or what doesn’t for them.

Also, Coca-Cola has very strong rivalries. The main one is of course PepsiCo, which is very famous all over the world and has a great variety of products. Thus, Coca-cola can’t afford its image to be damaged because if that happens PepsiCo will become the leader of the industry very fast. Right now Coca-Cola needs a new Strategic Communication Plan to try to overcome the issues.

Coca-Cola has a trademark value of $25 billion with the ability to make strategic decisions to satisfy and retain consumers (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, 2013). However, Coca-Cola has struggled to maintain a strong ethically sound integrity. Not only has the beverage giant struggled with ethical issues in the U.S., but has also had difficulty maintaining a positive reputation abroad as well.

“A Coke is a Coke, and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same, and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it."(Andy Warhol, 1975) Regardless of its corporate reputation, the organizational performance and its social responsibility of Coca-Cola makes it loved around the world. Ever since its creation in 1886 Coca-Cola has been a household brand known globally for generations of families. I have to mention, of all the cases researched this is my least favorite not only because of my childhood love for the product because the ethical issues in one way or another always manage to resolve themselves not before further tainting the reputation Coke worked so hard to obtain. Most times, whether an organization is innocent of an unethical act, it becomes secondary to the suspicion of the original act. Almost as if the court of public opinion has the power to ruin the reputation of an organization based on an unfounded accusation. In spite of my loyalty after having ready the case, I do believe Coca-Cola to be flawed. The contamination scare in Belgium is a great example of a public relations nightmare. The slightest hint of impurity should have pushed Coca Cola into crisis management mode but they were slow to react, citing it a minor issue (Ferrell, Fraedrich, & Ferrell, (2011). It was not until local officials

Giant soft drink company Coca-Cola has come under intense scrutiny by the investors due to its inability to

The Coca Cola Company are a leading global drinks company founded in Georgia, USA, 1886. Due to being a private and a profit-lead company, its aims and objectives are “to be known globally as a business that conducts its business responsibly and ethically and to accelerate sustainable growth to operate in tomorrow 's world”, which narrows down to ensuring they are a fair company morally, and want to maximise profitability. An example of how Coca Cola follows through with their marketing is through a recently released product by the company, called “Coca Cola Life”:

Coca Cola’s first main weakness is that it is highly susceptible to any kind of negative publicity. Every kind of negative publicity can hurt the brand badly. Some years ago after traces of pesticides were found in the products of Coca Cola, it had hurt the brand really hard. Sales had dipped in various corners of the world apart from the criticism that flowed. Any such thing can hurt the popularity and sales of coca cola. However, Coca cola can overcome this weakness by being more transparent regarding the ingredients it uses in the production of its brands.

Weaknesses: The weaknesses include luck of health beverages in its multi-billion dollar food and beverage brands, and water management. Coca-Cola has been criticized for using too much water in countries where water is scarce and water shortages are widespread.

They have made sure to go above and beyond with having high standards and have stated very clearly what they expect out of their employees on their website. The company bases its rules and regulations off of what is covered in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights as well as the International Labor Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principals and Rights at Work. Clear cut rules for hours of work, contract workers, workplace safety, etc. are well known to all employees and management. This should (in most cases) ease ethical dilemmas. Coca-Cola is very outspoken about human trafficking and forced labor. Due to that conviction the company has strict policies in place to prevent these violations. With these well-publicized guidelines in place, mangers are able to avoid these types of international ethical dilemmas (Coca-Cola

To be the customer’s first choice, Coca-Cola not only has to worry about their taste. Coca-Cola must focus on availability, affordability, acceptability, activation, and attitude. Being a great company with a great product goes far beyond just the product. I think that the most important attributes that Coca-Cola focuses on outside of the product itself would be availability, affordability, and attitude. Customers today want something easy to access, they want to work smarter, not harder. If prices are unreasonable, that is an automatic turn

With a value of $25 billion, the Coca-Cola brand is globally synonymous with soft drink beverages, and holds the title of the world 's largest beverage company. So large in fact, that they have maintained as much as 50% of the world 's market, they operate in excess of 200 countries across the globe, 85% of their revenue stems in the international market, they facilitate the world 's largest distribution system, and produce four of the top five soft drinks in the world. Coca-Cola is a large supporter of philanthropic programs across the globe by way of college grants and scholarships, childhood education programs, numerous international grants, and supports programs and initiatives in the world fight against HIV/AIDS.

Coca Cola has done a great job marketing itself, but I think it should branch out. Coke’s primary focus on its beverages has proven successful in the past, but as more companies’ merge into one another and the competition becomes more intense, Coca Cola may find itself trapped in a dying industry. As Americans, and the world in general,