The Coca Cola Company: Diversity and a Global Presence

The Coca Cola Company: Diversity and a Global Presence

You do the Research:

1. I don't think that Coke can stay up with changing tastes for non-cola drinks. I believe that Goizueta did have the right idea to develop new products, but Coke fell behind after some embarrassing problems within the company, such as the 1999 contamination scare, their slowing unit growth, ugly class action racial discrimination suit (which result in a $195.2 million settlement with 2000 employees), and an aborted takeover offer for Quaker Oats and its Gatorade Sports drink brand. Losing out to PepsiCo in the Gatorade battle left the company with a weakened strategy of beefing up its "fizless" soft drink products. Daft plans to launch coke's first U.S. coffee brand, Planet Java, but the problem now is that they have not dominated this market at all yet. The competition (Pepsi and Starbucks) are well established companies with very well recognized brand names. I think at this point, the most he can expect is for Coke to take half of the market share. For example, Sony came out with the first 'walkman' portable tape player. If apple had come out with a walkman as well they could have expected to take over half the market at most. By creating the ipod, a completely original and different idea, they were able to take over the entire market. The difference here is that people personalize food and drink. It is hard to introduce new products because people become accustomed to what they like. When they consistently enjoy a certain product, there is a certain comfort level they have to that food or drink, and therefore people usually reject new products.

Review Questions:

1. Mr. Goizueta used important management functions during his time working for Coca Cola, such as planning and leading. He was the Chief Executive Officer and recognized the problems in the company and challenged the new Chief Operating Officer to rejuvenate the coke brand. By noticing what was going on (i.e. consumers showed interest in clear flavored water and seltzers) he was able to plan ahead and lead the company to success. Mr. Hunter also used an important management function: Controlling. Mr. Hunter was the regional manager in the Philippines and noticed that relying on local bottlers to distribute and market Coke products was not working as well as planned. To ensure the success of Coke, Hunter asked Goizueta to consider becoming an active partner in the Philippine bottler, which had been neglecting Coke and concentrating on the beer it bottled. Lastly, Mr. Ivester was a leader, another important management function in business. He was the Company President and Chief Operating Officer. Under his direction, Coke's advertising agency was given the freedom to develop different messages and marketing campaigns aimed at different groups of consumers. However, these three important business men's responsibilities differed greatly. As CEO, Mr. Goizeueta was always looking at the "big picture", while Mr. Hunter was a regional manager and only responsible for a specific area. Before Mr. Ivester became CEO (After Goizueta's death in 1997), he was more responsible for the actual operations of the company, and he basically carried