ASSIGNMENT-I

HRM-IR

TOPIC: The Coca-Cola Company

Submitted By,
Abhishek Mohanpuria.
BBALLB B
3 Semester

Submitted To,
Asst. Prof. Shivani Sah
C.A.I.L.
About the Company

The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage company, manufacturer,

retailer and marketer of various non-alcoholic beverages (The Coca-Cola Company, 2012). It
was founded on 8th May, 1886 by John Pemberton and Asa Griggs Candler. It is popularly
known for its leading product Coca-Cola and as the world’s largest beverage company. Its
headquarters is in Atlanta, Georgia but it was incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware (Wayne,
2012). It operates in more than 200 countries worldwide and has over 700,000 employees
(The Coca-Cola Company, 2018). It is the largest bottler and distributor of Coke with 430
distribution centres that deliver to more than 400 million consumers on a daily basis. The
Coca-Cola Company has acquired many brands since 1960 starting with Minute Maid, Indian
cola brands: Thums Up and Barq, Odwalla, Fuze Beverage, Zico and Honest Tea. As of
2017, its revenue was 35.4 billion dollars with an operating income of 7.5 billion dollars. The
chairman of the board is Muhtar Kent and the president James Quincey.

Coca-Cola, or popularly known as Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by The

Coca-Cola Company (Stafford, 2012). It was introduced on 8th May, 1886 in the United
States of America. It was created by John Pemberton in the late 19th century and was
originally proposed as a patent medicine. He later sold it to Asa Griggs Candler in 1889,
whose marketing strategies led Coke to its dominance in the world soft drink market till
today (World of Coca-Cola). Its name refers to the two original ingredients, that is kola nuts –
which is a source of caffeine – and coca leaves. The “kola” was changed to “cola” due to
marketing purposes (Bellis, 2017). There are many other variations of Coke such as Diet
Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Coca-Cola Cherry, Coca-Cola Vanilla, Coca-Cola with Lime,
Caffeine-Free Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Citra, Coca-Cola Ginger and Coca-Cola Life. The most
popular ones among these are Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. The Coca-Cola
Company also produces other soft drinks like Fanta and Sprite. In 2017, Interbrand listed
Coca-Cola as the 4th best global brand in the world with a brand value o f 69.7 million
dollars (Interbrand, 2017). Currently, Coke is sold in more than 200 countries worldwide,
with more than 1.9 million drinks consumed per day (The Coca-Cola Company, 2017).

The Vision : “Our vision is to craft the brands and choice of drinks that people love, to
refresh them in body & spirit. And done in ways that create a more sustainable business and
better shared future that makes a difference in people’s lives, communities and our planet.”

Organisation
James Quincey
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
James Quincey is Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. Quincey, who first joined
the company in 1996, has held a number of leadership roles around the world. He became
CEO in 2017 and Chairman of the Board in 2019.

Quincey is leading Coca-Cola in its continuing evolution as a total beverage company. Coca-

Cola is a growth company that provides brands and beverages that make life’s everyday
moments more enjoyable, all while doing business the right way. The result is shared
opportunity for communities, customers, employees and shareowners.

Before becoming CEO, Quincey served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the
company from 2015 to 2017.

Brian Smith
President and Chief Operating Officer
Brian Smith is president and chief operating officer of The Coca-Cola Company. In this role,
he is responsible for leading the company’s global field operations, with a focus on in-market
executional leadership, talent development and deployment.

Organisational Structure
Organizational Design

The Coca-Cola Company is highly decentralized. This is a form of embracing modernism.

Hence, the organization has two main operating groups: (1) bottling investments and (2) the
corporate. In addition, the operating groups split by different regions: Africa, Eurasia, Latin
America, North America, European Union, and the Pacific. As a result each of these is split
further into various geographic regions (Plasketes, 2004).

The company and its auxiliaries employ more than 31,000 people all over the world which is
hailed as positive postmodernism where there is a creation of livelihood. Syrups, the
concentrates and beverages bases for Coca-Cola, the company’s flagship brand, and over 230
many other company soft drink brands are produced and sold by the Coca-Cola Company and
its other small outlets in almost 200 countries all over the world. The company’s operating
management structure is made up of five geographic groups in addition to the Minute Maid
Company. The North America Group is also made up of the US and Canada.

The Latin America Group consists of the company’s operations across Central and South
America, from Mexico to the end of Argentina. The Greater Europe Group moves along from
Greenland to Russia’s Far East, adding to some of the most developed markets in Western
Europe and the rapidly developing nations of Eastern and Central Europe. The Africa and
Middle East Group consists of the Middle East and the whole continent of Africa. The Asia
Pacific Group has operations starting from India across the Pacific region encompassing
China, Japan, and Australia (Blumenstyk, 2006).

As from the above observations of geographic groups, everyone around the world has access
to Coca-Cola. Therefore, it is a global industry. One significant fact that is necessary to
pinpoint is that Coca-Cola does not just deal with the soft drink Coke (Bogomolny, 2004).
The Coca-Cola Company also owns the Minute Maid Company. This is its juice branch,
which is situated out of Houston, Texas, and is also the world’s number one marketer of
juices and juice drinks. The Minute Maid Company’s products are made up of Minute Maid
Premium Orange Juice with calcium, Minute Maid Premium Lemonade Iced Tea, Minute
Maid Coolers, Hi-C Blast and the Five Alive (Bogomolny, 2004).
One of the Coca-Cola Company’s major strengths is its ability to do business on a global
scale and at the same time maintaining a local approach. At the core of this approach is the
bottler system. The Coca-Cola company has the financial capacity to put at equilibrium
standardization and mutual adjustment.

Organizational Structure
The Coca-Cola company structure is a combination of both the mechanistic and the organic
model working together ,the most area of concern n the Coca-Cola company is on the
responsiveness (Dawson and Halpert,2009). The intertwined nature of integrated mechanisms
as previously discussed are the main characteristics of an organic structure (Bogomonly,
2004). The companys aspects associated with mechanistic model structure are the
centralization and the high standardization, the companys stability and flexibility.therefore it
is the mechanistic organic,as for the organic model is concerned with efficiency,high low
standardization,responsiveness specialization,high low intergrating mechanisms ,the simple
complex centralization,the high low communication and the top to down (Dawson and
Harpert,2009). The putting together of both types of structure appears to be very ideal for the
organization.

Being flexible is very crucial for a company trying to appeal to a very diverse and large
number do very independent markets .Nevertheless, high standardization is very vital to
continue being efficient in production. The company utilization of complex integrating
mechanistic model makes it able to clear the coordination of the company globally;
furthermore, centralization keeps organizational deliberations in line with the company’s
goals and objectives.

The in formation in the company is moving smoothly in almost every direction, this is
because the upper management is able to have easy access to the information hastier than it
did before; this is viewed as the modernistic advantage, adding to the company’s flexibility
and high responsiveness. The modern changing towards a thorough decentralized and organic
structure correspond with the instability of the company’s environment .the main strategic
structural dynamics that the company had to go through in the recent past has Influenced it
positively, the sales has very highly increased and employees were more satisfied
(Bogolomolny,2004).
The organization is trying to develop a more creative tradition by moving towards
decentralization even though it seems that it is not satisfied with its beverage industry trends,
however it is fighting on to remain undisputed in the production of new and most thrilling
products.

Organizational Strategy
The most outstanding competences that allows the organization to get to its greatest
competitive advantage are in its strong brand name which includes its large network of
bottles contributors .Other than the marketing capacity and capabilities including the broad
portfolio products ,the Coca-Cola company has major competences which are very difficult
to duplicate. The strong brand name of the company does provide the company with a very
high level of bargaining power and leverage due to its ability to embrace and ingrain
modernism in their business theory. A good example is shown in the competition of the
pepsico and the Coca-Cola company in the year 1999 for the tender to supply the wenndys
restourant chain with beverage ,pepsico offered far much higher amount than the Coca-Cola
company but the wendys opted for the Coca-Cola company due to its brand name).Therefore
the brand name recognition is a major benefit source for any business and it gives an upper
hand as a great bargaining tool.

The Coca-Cola company business level is strategy is very unique,since the company is
known to apply creativity in marketing that does promote its brand name in a big way and
thus protecting its other branches from its competitors.this is to say that the company is
usually dedicated to extensive market research and development of more local offices,thus
creatind new ways to continue serving the customers in the whole world

Organizational Technology
At the present, the out put processes are the largest source of lack of stability for the
company, as previously stated, the Coca-Cola Company does not produce the end product,
but rather it is the distributors and the bottlers that mix the ingredients and come up with the
end products, that is carbonated water and syrups and the concentrates. The Coca-Cola brand
name is on the end products ,this is without consideration of the bottling company, the
company furthermore pushes for the maintenance of very high quality outputs without which
the whole Coca-Cola company would ruin its reputation as a whole, the syrup is the secrete
of a few and has never been disclosed in any way
The main structural characteristic of the company which applies the mass production is a
mechanistic structure where efficient production is mandatory end (Fisher,2007).The Coca-
Cola company structure is very unique and exclusive this is indicated by the fact that it has a
lot of characteristics of an organic structure .this is brought about by its ability to concentrate
on the market6ing and the local acceptance .this structural divergence means that the
companies production may not be very efficient as required ;nonetheless, the benefits of the
company structure overshadows he consequences .

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

Well Established Brand: 

Coca Cola is an established brand of nonalcoholic beverages. The company has maintained a
strong brand image and has earned heavy recognition for its products as well as marketing.
Apart from its leading position in the soda industry, the company is also recognized for its
focus on marketing. Incorporated in 1892, in Atlanta, Georgia, the company has grown to
become a global soda brand with a heavy fan following worldwide and a large product range.
It serves customers across 200 countries and the brand can be easily recognized by its name
and logo in every corner of the world. Some of the main factors that have helped Coca Cola
build a distinct identity include product quality, marketing, and branding.
Strong Distribution Network: 

As a soda giant with global sales, Coca Cola depends on its extensive network of independent
bottlers, distributors, and retailers for the sales and distribution of its soda products. Its
distribution network is one of its core strengths and a major source of a competitive
advantage which has helped it manage its global presence successfully. The distribution
network of Coca Cola is comprised of independent bottlers, distributors, wholesalers, and
retailers as well as company-owned or controlled bottling distribution systems. According to
Coca Cola, it is the largest distribution system of nonalcoholic beverages in the world. The
bottling partners of Coca Cola combine sweetener or syrup with still water or sparkling water
to produce finished beverages. In 2019, the entire Coca Cola system sold 30.3 billion unit
cases of Coca Cola products and according to the company, consumers enjoy more than 2
billion servings of Coca Cola each day.
Large Product Portfolio: 

Coca Cola has a large product portfolio which includes still and sparkling beverages, waters,
juices, dairy-based products as well as coffee and tea. It sells more than 500 brands
worldwide and offers around 3900 beverage choices. In the US alone, Coca Cola offers more
than 800 varieties of drinks. Its product portfolio also features 21 billion dollar brands of
which 19 are available in low-calorie options. The company has a Taste It! Beverage lounge
in Atlanta where the customers can sample more than 100 varieties of beverages. A large
product portfolio that includes several globally famous brands and flavors is also among the
leading sources of competitive advantages for the brand.

Weaknesses

Water management related issues: 

Water is one of the most heavily used raw materials in the supply chain of Coca Cola but also
a limited resource. Coca Cola has faced several legal issues and a lot of criticism over its
water management practices in the past. While Coca Cola claims that it replenishes the water
it uses, the company has faced a lot of protest over causing water scarcity in several parts of
the world including India.
Lower product diversification:

Compared to its leading rival, Pepsi, the level of product diversification of Coca Cola is low.
While Pepsi diversified its product portfolio to include snacks, cereals, chips, pasta and more
of dairy-based products, the product portfolio of Coca Cola has remained limited largely to
drinks. Coca Cola is also facing increased competition from Pepsi whose sales and revenue
have grown faster as compared to Coca Cola. 

Opportunities:

Diversification: 

For faster growth and expansion, Pepsi must expand its product portfolio to make it more
diverse. Despite Coca Cola’s large product portfolio, its level of diversification is low. The
company should add more health friendly products to its portfolio as well as make it more
diverse by adding snacks, chips, and other edible products. 

Health friendly products:

Consumers have grown increasingly health-conscious in the recent decade. They are now
looking for more health friendly products like low-calorie products and energy drinks. Coca
Cola can grow its sales faster by growing its product portfolio of health-friendly products.
This will help the company tap into a large segment of health-conscious consumers and thus
generate extra revenue.
Partnerships:

Partnerships with other brands can also help the company with marketing and sales. By
partnering with other brands including beverages and snack brands, the company will be able
to grow its sales. Coca Cola can use its partners’ resources to grow its reach and penetrate
new or existing markets deeper. For example, Starbucks and Nestle entered a partnership to
grow the sales of their products and expand their market share. Coca Cola can also enter new
partnerships to reduce competitive pressure.

Threats:

Competitive threat: 
The threat of competition has grown heavily against Coca Cola in recent years. Apart from its
leading rival Pepsico, the company is also facing higher competitive pressure from other
sports and energy drinks brands like Red Bull or Monster energy drinks. While Coca Cola
has retained its leadership position in the beverages segment, the company is experiencing
growth in operating expenses including marketing due to higher competition. Pepsi is a close
second in terms of market share in the US market in the beverages segment.

Regulatory issues:
The level of regulatory pressure on soda brands has kept growing. Apart from the laws in the
US, Coca Cola has to remain compliant with the laws in the markets where it operates. There
are several laws affecting Coca Cola including tax, labor laws and laws and regulations
related to the environment that the company is required to remain compliant with. Moreover,
the level of fines for noncompliance has also increased leading to higher pressure on the
company.

Demand for health-friendly products:

The demand for health-friendly products around the world has grown while soda products are
largely seen as unhealthy and a cause of obesity. These trends have affected the sales of soda
products. Companies are offering low-calorie options for health-conscious consumers.
Despite that, there is more pressure on Coca Cola to cater to the changing preferences of the
consumers. People are consuming juices and other health-friendly drinks instead of soda
drinks which are calorie-heavy and not so health-friendly. Maintaining a high level of
demand now requires more investment in marketing and customer engagement.
The Coca Cola Company HR process

With a network of over 700 thousand associates worldwide HR-management is fundamental

activity for Coca-Cola. The process is composed by internal and external recruitments in
which, the Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) established a common procedure and framework to
maintain quality standards to a certain level. In the external search, Coca-Cola is always on
the lookout for new talent, be it in experienced hires, the Coca-Cola graduate programme, or
the University Talent Programme. As it costs in average up to $4000 to recruit an employee
for an open position the recruitment process need to make sure the person and its abilities are
fitting perfectly to the vacant position. As previously mentioned, the recruitment starts with
being attractive to talents and applicants. TCCC achieves this with several initiatives and a
clear statement towards employees of being part of a community with shared values and
stating it is a local business on a global scale with a unique culture and a strategy to grow
from within. This means that a new employee is fully integrated and has a variety of
development programs to choose from as well as having ‘one of a kind’ experiences like
being a brand-ambassador at the Olympics or FIFA World Cup. TCCC puts also a lot effort
into the acquisition of new talents, as they are supporting students in the ‘University Talent
Program’ or are creating new platforms like the ‘All women hackathon’, to name two of
them. Coca Cola Company’s recruitment process of external applicants also follows a
specific multi steps practice as seen below, where they want to find the ideal candidate, who
combines the attributes of ‘Creative and fresh thinking’- spirit of collaboration-pragmatic and
commercial mind set.

Outlook

The current recruitment process of TCCC combines all the features of a global player
assuring to find the right person for the position and can be seen as highly effective. TCCC
can also create the so important attractiveness for new applicants, through the popularity of
its brands, the creation of a corporate culture which values every position, as well as putting
up several initiatives. However, these things are more or less taken for granted from a global
company and lacks a certain degree of uniqueness. The changing environment where the
trend is going towards a more candidate-driven market, where applicants are using interviews
to determine if the company fits to them and their lifestyle is one of the central topics
pressuring companies to adapt. In order to respond to this development, companies need to
include new digital and cognitive technologies like VR and channels to target the new
generation of talents. Platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor are gaining even higher
importance in the next years and are central for the search to employees. Here it is key for
TCCC to build a digital employment brand on a defined strategy which is recognizable and
transparent to benefit from the socialized online environment where people are sharing
experiences and evaluate their employers.

Achieving high performance from the new employees

Incentives

TCCC’s approach towards a high-performance environment builds up on a rewarding scheme

with a clear definition of payment, benefits and development programmes. The strategy is to
differentiate from the market with a compelling package, which is constantly updated to
provide new motivation and stimulation fitting to the employees’ needs. It also includes short
term assignments avoiding a repetitive work experiences and challenging the employee on a
constant basis. The incentives are relying on the Peak Performance System, where associates
and their managers regularly discuss development, movement and succession in an
interactive atmosphere.(Wilson 2015) The main incentives are categorized into:

• Base salary
• Annual incentives
• Long-term incentives
• Benefits

Exemplary for benefits within TCCC the recently introduced Paid Parental Leave can be
named, which was developed by the internal group ‘Millennial Voices’, taking care of the
employees’ interest and bringing up innovative proposals to extend the company’s spectrum
of services. Paid Parental leave is provided by only 30-35% of large U.S.-companies, which
gives TCCC a certain advantage in the industry.

Well-Being
In 2015 a survey among U.S employees found out that 79% of the participants would prefer
additional or new benefits or perks over a pay increase. Therefore, TCCC took an
introspective look at its health and well-being offerings, which span the physical, emotional,
social, and financial support. Work platform, workplace health and vitality has recently
become a core for companies to create the best possible setting for employees to 7 be happy
and to encourage their performance. (Food and Drink Federation 2012) In TCCC’s case it
starts with unique Co-Working offices, which are providing open spaces to enhance group
meetings and discussions in an unformal atmosphere. Nutritious & fresh food choices in the
cantina combined with initiatives and free in-house gyms are giving the employees all
opportunities to have a healthy lifestyle. In order to solve any of the employees’ concerns,
TCCC even introduced a credit union, giving financial advice and easy access to credits.

Achieving affective commitment from the new employees

Employer Branding

Whereas incentives and benefits are definitely necessary features, the overall performance of
a company correlates heavily with the engagement of the employees, due to positive attitude
and commitment it is in the best interest for the company to enhance these two factors in
particular. As commitment is described as the degree of identification and involvement that
individuals have with their organization’s mission, values and goals, it is the first step build
such a strong connection. The entire process of creating a unique and meaningful working
experience with a sense for the bigger purpose for the employee refers to Employer Branding.
The triangle starts with the underlying mission statement of TCCC:

• To refresh the world...

• To inspire moments of optimism and happiness...
• To create value and make a difference.

‘We are the brand’- One company, One Team, One passion. This is the slogan of TCCC
describing the company’s culture, where every employee can make the difference with ideas
and their creativity to make the company better every day. Combined with Corporate Social
Responsibility activities to support local endeavours and protecting the environment, TCCC
creates a community feeling among its employees. In addition, the values are representing
another layer to find a common ground for the employees’ actions and behaviour.

Employee Development

An elevated working experience also includes the opportunities to improve the individual
position in the company as well as being respected and appreciated in the current one.
Companies with dynamic career models outperform their peers by providing continuous
learning opportunities and a deeply embedded culture of development. (Deloitte 2017) TCCC
follows the strategy and slogans of ‘Ability to Grow’ and to ‘Grow from Within’, as it puts a
lot of effort in to the development of its current employees. This includes inter alia the
internal Coca Cola University (CCU) offering a variety of virtual and physical trainings and
workshops to improve specific skills or to develop the knowledge about other business fields
within the company. Another field is the implementation of a rewarding culture, where goals
are transparent and have an increased focus on team achievements with regularly feedback.
The performance indicators are based on skills and abilities rather on job titles, which is
giving the employee a feeling of appreciation and freedom.

Conclusion
TCCC understands the challenges in the global HR-management and can create a wide range
of measures and initiatives to respond. The rewarding incentive system and environment
paired with the strong ‘ONE’-company culture ensures a healthy relation to the employees,
their motivation and commitment. However upcoming topics need to be assessed and
implemented throughout the entire organization on a constant basis. This involves the change
in demographics among the workforce, the related new expectations towards the company
but also new technologies. As the ‘war for talent’ won’t be less intense among the industry
leaders in the future, it is vital for TCCC to retain the image of an attractive employer by
encouraging innovative structures and unique career opportunities
References

1. https://www.coca-colacompany.com/company/purpose-and-vision
2. https://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/organizational-theories
3. https://www.coca-colacompany.com/company/leadership
4. https://www.researchgate.net/