Change Management in Coca Cola

Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN COCA COLA
CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN COCA COLA
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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1.1 Introduction
As opined by Albers, Wohlgezogen and Zajac (2016), Change management can be
defined as the approach that is implemented in order to drive the effective usage and adoption
of the changes so that the initiatives are helpful in delivering the expected outcomes and
results. Change management is always based on an altered framework that is focussed on the
transition or transformation of the set of processes, results or acts that lead to different
organizational operations. Change requires the employees to engage themselves in different
ways of thinking and achieving transformation levels as well. The proper implementation of
organizational change is based on the changes that can take place in the subsystems and work
based processes as well (Albrecht et al. 2015).
The essay will be based on the analysis of the change that had been implemented in
Coca Cola and the failure that was experienced by its product named New Coke. The
dimensions that are related to effective changes implementation will be analysed in the essay
in detail. The alternative change strategy that could have been implemented by Coca Cola
will also be discussed in the essay. The changes based activities of the organization will be
analysed with respect to different aspects of operations of Coca Cola and the development of
its product name New Coke (Coca-cola.com 2019).
Three main dimensions of change
The process of change management is based on different components that are able to
affect the changes that are implemented in the organizations. The change implementation is
initiated by different factors like, motivation and processes. The environment mainly contains
elements that are based on success levels of change management (Al-Haddad and Kotnour
2015). The three major dimensions of change are as follows,

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1st dimension – The reasons for change – The reasons that are related to
implementation of change mainly contains three elements like, customers, competition and
industry. The changes that take place in the industry and introduction of technologies are
considered to be important factors that are able to affect the operations of organizations. 2nd
dimension – Influences of the change – This dimension is based on the areas in which
changes can take place (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). The characteristics related to the
organization that include, work ethics, processes and attitudes that have direct influence on
the successful change implementation. 3rd dimension -environment – The environment in
which changes are targeted have a huge influence on the rejection and acceptance. The
motivation based on change in the environment and culture where the change can take place
is able to play a major role (Bertram, Blase and Fixsen 2015).
Types of organizational change applicable in Coca Cola
Coca Cola had developed its position as a major brand in the soft drink based market
since its launch. The organization has been able to develop a connection with the customers
with the help of its products. Coca Cola had however faced major competition from its arch
rival Pepsi. The competition that has been developed between the two organizations is not
healthy in nature and has an impact on the ways by which the consumer base can be
developed. Pepsi had always planned to provide competition to Coca Cola by implementing
offensive marketing methods (Bird and Mendenhall 2016). As discussed by Burke (2017), the
organization has always targeted Coca Cola directly with the help of its products. The
development of a young brand image of Pepsi among the customers had reduced the gap
between the revenues of the two organizations. Coca Cola had thereby aimed to tackle this
issue with the help of the development of a product named “New Coke”. This change that has
been implemented by Coca Cola can be termed as developmental change. Developmental
change is mainly based on the ways by which improvements are made in the organization in

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the existing situation. The change has been planned with respect to the ways by which the
company can improve the revenue levels in comparison to its competitors that operate in the
industry (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown 2016).
1.2 Change strategies that can be implemented in Coca Cola
The change management strategies are mainly based on the ways by which the goals,
objectives of change process can be outlined in an effective manner. This is able to allow the
manager to identify the responsibilities, deadlines and activities that are based on change
management. Change management is able to provide directions and decision making process
is also informed with the help of proper implementation of change process (Engert, Rauter
and Baumgartner 2016).
Coca Cola also could have implemented effective change strategies in order to operate
profitably in the industry and to face the competition provided from its arch rival Pepsi.
Simplifying the communication - Coca Cola could have developed efficient communication
based process in order to introduce the product to the market. The communication could play
an important role in the ways by which the customers can be made aware of the features of
the product and its attributes (Feng, Huang and Zhang 2016). Not underestimating the power
of emotions - The emotions of customers that are related to the products that are offered by
Coca Cola could have been taken into consideration by the organization in order to develop
the products. The lack of attention that is provided by Coca Cola to the emotions of
customers can have a major negative impact on the revenues that can be gained by the
company with the help of sales of the new product. The failure of New Coke has been able to
depict that Coca Cola had not provided effective attention to the levels of emotions that are
related to consumers (Goffin and Mitchell 2016). This had led to major levels of negative
responses that had been received by the organization based on its new product “New Coke”.