Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company

This research paper explores the supplier selection ideas that Coca-Cola Company deals with during its operations in the competitive business marketplaces. It discusses the business model, key capabilities, strategy, and goals of the company. The paper also analyzes and discusses the value-adding concept on supplier selection and transaction cost economics of supplier selection of Coca-Cola Company.

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 1
SUPPLIER SELECTION OF COCA-COLA COMPANY
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Tutor:
Date:

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 2
Background: supplier selection of Coca-Cola Organization
Description of Coke Organization
Coke Bottling Organization remains to be a Multinational Corporation that deals with
processes of manufacturing of the non-alcoholic beverages or soft drinks. The successful
operations of this organization rely on its abilities to manage its supplier selection around the
international marketplace. The company has been serving the global society with soft drinks
since its establishment and this has made its supplies to be the leading brands in the soft drink as
well as beverage industry. Headquarter of Coca-Cola is based in Atlanta a city in Georgia
(Hartogh 2012, p. 12). The company also operates in over two hundred nations, and it markets
more than five hundred brands along with over three thousand and three hundred beverage
products. The management of the company believes its strength to be lying in their capacities to
have the global reach and at the same time have the local focus on the ideal process of selecting
its suppliers. In recent time, COKE Company manufactures and sells concentrates, bases of
beverages, together with syrups to different bottling operations, as they own the brands and
remain responsible for initiatives for their brand suppliers and marketing globally (Gupta 2011,
p. 23). Besides, vision of this organization is to be extremely proficient organization where
individuals can efficiently work while aiming to attain maximization of profit while serving
several people in the society. The principal target of this organization is to develop the worth that
creates distinction through refreshing global society as well as inspiring the happiness together
with the optimism of the world. Additionally, Coca-Cola Company has produced many other
products that include coke-zero, coke-vanilla, Fanta, coke cherry, diet-coke, Sprite, Caffeine-
free-coke, and coke cherry among other products (Sundar 2012, p. 2). Therefore, the principal

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 3
target of this research paper is to explore supplier selection ideas that Coca-Cola Company deals
with during its operations in the competitive business marketplaces.
The business model of Coca-Cola Organization
The operations of Coke Corporation operate with main priority of reaching their products
to targeted and esteemed customers globally. The company focuses on improving the suppliers
of products itself either by designing, tasting, adjusting size, ingredients, convenience, and other
more different factors (Wang 2015, p. 17). Besides, market or product focus of the Coca-Cola
Company target market by satisfying the wide variety of cultural clients around the
marketplaces. Therefore, the business model for supplier selection of Coca-Cola Company based
on the enduring targets, objectives, along with the vision that tends to declare its principal
purpose. All these factors that affect suppliers selection then serve as standards against that the
company uses in weighing its operational decisions together with decisions. About
diversification of business during the range of suppliers, the company outlines a specified
mission as well as strategic plans to help its operators to attain the economics through the process
of sharing activities during operations (Harper et al., 2016, p. 245). Therefore, model of action of
Coca-Cola Company aims at refreshing the entire international mind, body, and spirit by
providing quality products and services during supply operations. The company also has its
supplier's selection target set for the provision of inspiring moments of happiness and optimism
through the ideal arrangement of brands and actions of high quality in different markets.
Additionally, the company operates its management of suppliers’ selection by concentrating on
the vision that focuses on activities of attaining its underlined strategic objectives along with
goals (Gupta 2011, p. 3). Therefore, the business model of Coca-Cola Company as evolved from

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 4
sparkling beverage business to diversified business that comprises stills from now premium
beverages.
Key capabilities
The supplier and business partners remain to be the vital factor for the continued success
of operations of Coca-Cola Company. It helps the activities of the company to concentrate on
ideas of the refreshing world, more than one point seven billion times daily, by the process of
delivering vital service along with products for the business of the organization (Morkhov and
Ryabukhin 2018, p. 69) The need of value-adding concept in operations of this company plays
an essential function in triumph of its operations. It assists on improving valuation of Coke
products while decreasing wastage within the supply chain of the organization. Therefore,
critical capability of this corporation remains to focus on the ideal way of making supply chain
and its selection to be effective that it can result in the profitability of the organization. The
company’s capabilities focus on establishing appropriate visions and values to work together to
offer the supplier selection the winning culture that assists in defining the attitude and behaviors
towards the business operations (Gertner and Rifkin 2017, p. 168). These capabilities of the
company serve as the compass for its business behavior as well as actions that always revolve
around the passion, leadership, diversity, accountability, together with the improvement of
collaboration with different parties during supply.
The strategy of Coca-Cola Company
The company mostly focuses on operating through the processes that are tangible as well
as the intangible flow of materials and services in its operations. Different strategies that the
company uses include the focus on driving revenue and growth of its profit during its operations.

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 5
The company also concentrates on effective ways of investing in its brands and business (Elmore
2013, p. 721). The choice of spending well in more as well as better marketing of its brands, help
in increasing both the quantity as well as the quality of the company’s advertising. The
management of company also becomes more efficient by taking different steps that aim at
rebuilding momentum by investing in more and better marketing while also increasing financial
flexibility of the company. Additionally, the company uses differentiation strategy to support its
operation so that it remains the leading beverage and soft drink marketer (Mubayi 2012, p.541).
Through differentiation strategy, products and other services offered by the company can then e
differentiated from those of its chief competitors such as Pepsi by their improved quality, taste,
packaging, pricing, ingredients, distribution and strategies for marketing. All the strategy of this
company focuses on choice, convenience, along with the consumer that uses their products and
services globally. Additionally, policy on segmentation, targeting, and positioning of the
company’s operations remain to be essential for its actions (You and O’Keefe 2017, p. 57). For
instance, segmentation helps the brand produced for supply to define the appropriate product for
the specifically targeted group of customers.
Goals of Coca-Cola Company
The principal goal of operations of Coca-Cola Company remains to be the need to give
back as much or where possible, more than they take in return. The company aims at maximizing
their profits as they aim at maintaining the long-term growth of sustainable operations within the
industries that deal with the beverage or soft drinks. The company works on different goals that
strive at efficiently refreshing the world, attaining inspiring moments of optimism and happiness
(Mubayi 2012, p. 541). The company also intends at creating appropriate value and makes the
difference in the place that the people reside in globally. The company as the goal of working

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 6
with different partners to recover and recycle different bottles together with cans equivalent to
seventy-five percent of those that they introduce into developed marketplaces (Foster 2014, p.
249). The company aims at the process of continuing to invest in various core brands while
focusing on critical sectors, clients, and geographies. Besides, the company has the goal of
improving competency in specific channels of marketplace such as On-trade, food service, along
with impulse while acquiring more brands where necessary.
Description, analysis, and discussion of supplier selection of Coca-Cola Company
The need of having a capable system of supplier selection make Coca-Cola Company
look at various adding ideas wile it then create appropriate plan to encounter increasing order for
the production in marketplace. Having been a chief marketer and supplier of non-alcoholic
beverages around global society, Coca-Cola Company still has to keep on the eye on the ever
changing era of the marketplace (Wilder 2015, p. 63). The company has to choose their
supplier’s accordance to different individuals or stores that can provide them with necessary
materials on the timely basis with particular quantity along with quality on the specified locality.
Therefore, it remains to be vital for the operators of corporation to recognize ideal process of
procurement to choose consistent supplier during their selection. The company also needs to
efficiently identify several risks that are involved in the techniques and processes of the supply
chain so that they can be capable of decreasing them while enjoying more profitability form their
operations (Chen et al., 2016, p. 1477). Besides, there is the need to have the appropriate duty
towards the society along with nature that they need to take care and make strategies to avoid the
waste of different resources during the process of supplier selection of products.
Value adding concept on supplier selection

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 7
The idea of using value adding notion in supplier selection within operations of Coca-Cola
Company plays a vital function. It performs an essential function in the success of business
operations that deal with safe, fast, and quality delivery of COKE’s products and services to
targeted clients. The concept assists in improving value of different products while decreasing
wastage in the chain of supply of this corporation (Powell and Gard 2015, p. 861). The
fundamental idea of value-adding during supplier selection by the company concentrates on how
to create the process of supplier selection to be real that it can then leads in profitability of the
organization. Therefore, the concept of value-adding help in making the process of selection of
supplier of Coke Corporation to be more precious by sustaining firm relations with different
dealers or by utilization of advanced skill on usage of technology. The method of using value
adding concept in supplier selection by Coca-Cola Company adds the cost of its operation of the
supply chain while transforming it into the value chain. The service or products offered by the
company for supply can only be valued when it effectively fulfills the necessary needs along
with the expectation of different targeted and esteemed customers. For the Coca-Cola Company
to be the great provider of value during supplier selection process, it needs to evaluate different
expectations and needs of the targeted clients as well as tailor its products or services in
accordance to such needs of customers (Aggarwal and Singh 2015, p. 1711). Besides, in this
instance of Coca-Cola Company, there are various factors that relate to value adding concept
during supplier selection that have the significant influence on the process of chain supply of the
organization (Gupta 2011, p. 4). Some of these factors include;
 Different needs of customers
 Taste of customer
 Reliability

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 8
 Costs of production
Need of customers
The demand for different clients remains to be the first factor that influences the process
that deals with supplier selection of the Coca-Cola Company. In most cases, the company has to
develop different demand for the product and people that the organization deals with leading to
demand the product in different marketplaces globally (Sundar 2012, p. 3). Coca-Cola Company
has concentrated on the need to boost its supplier selection operations. It had achieved such ideas
by making the strategy to set up different vending machines for the product of Coke after every
five hundred meters. The approach makes people develop different tastes of Coke’s products
instead of going to some other product such as Pepsi (Zhou and Li 2011, p. 763). Therefore, such
kind of strategies that deal with needs of clients helps the organization in making the demand in
the marketplace that has the positive influence on the process of selecting suppliers of the
corporation.
Taste of targeted customers
The company has to develop the ideal strategy during its supplier selection to ensure that
it can be capable of reaching huge customer base. It is evident that the organization has emerge
with diverse tastes that consist of Fanta, coke-vanilla, Sprite, coke cherry, and caffeine coke free
among other products that come with the variety of flavor (Hartogh 2012, p. 31). The variation in
taste on offered products by the organization provides the best opportunity to customers to
choose their produce by their flavor along with on accordance to their necessary desires. As
corporation that deals with food and non-alcoholic beverages, it needs to concentrate on things

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 9
that go with estimate by staring to different flavor of clients that they effectively handle during
the supplier selection.
Reliability
Reliability during the selection of supplier selection of Coca-Cola Company remains to
be one of the essential factors that have its influence on the process. In this scenario, company’s
suppliers and contractor have to be reliable on each other for practical selection. The reliability
of collection exertions on hypothesis that dealer has adequate raw resources to encounter
necessary needs of the outworker on needed days (Fraser et al., 2017, p. 41). Besides, the
contractor has the practical work through which the management can efficiently utilize the
resources without ensuing in departing large amounts of resources on process of selecting
suppliers.
Transaction charge economics of supplier selection of Coca-Cola Company
The transaction cost that affects supplier selection of Coca-Cola Company remains to be
the cost involved in making any economic trade when dealing or participating in different
marketplaces. Transaction costs help in setting up various rules that the company uses to support
and improve processes of selecting different suppliers to achieve the set objective and mission of
the company (Sidorick 2016, p. 953). These costs during operations of selecting suppliers by this
company help in addressing various questions relating to why its services exist in the first place
such as how to minimize transaction costs. The cost also helps in defining different operational
boundaries and how management of the company ought to effectively govern its operations
about the selection of the supplier.

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 10
In the last years, the increase rising in charges of food along with beverage organization
has led to increases the values of main ingredients in the industry that deals with non-alcoholic
beverages and soft drinks. Cost of the production during the selection of suppliers by Coca-Cola
Company has the significant impact on the alliances of strategies used in the process (Meena and
Sarmah 2016, p. 267). It also impacts the prices of cost-cutting and mergers of the supply chain
that resulted in that employee faces the continuous cutting of cist and restructuring, and
sometimes the organization can turn to purchase of cheaper ingredients. However, Coca-Cola
Company as the leading brand in the soft drink supply in the global community by focusing on
the best way of exerting pressure in maintaining the prices down by keeping their image of the
brand and similar taste for the targeted clients. (Uchida 2013, p. 843) Therefore, during the
selection of suppliers, Coca-Cola Company has the responsibility of maximizing the profit of
their operations while reducing operational wastage while fulfilling different customers’ needs. It
is vital to reduce the wastage as well as having the effective system of supplier selection to
ensure that the product reaches to different customers within the scheduled time. The process of
making different Coke’s products to reach targeted clients in time has further made the company
to enjoy more returns.
The resource-based view of supplier selection of Coca-Cola Company
The resources used by Coca-Cola Company for its supplier selection during operations
are divided into different assets that include tangible as well as intangible assets. Assets of this
company are primarily intangible while dealing with suppliers’ selection. However, these assets
are exclusively tailored to competing in the industry that deals with the non-alcoholic beverage
(Gurecka et al., 2015, p. 98). The functional strength of the company concentrates on its
activities to deal with leadership, innovation, marketing, and human resource departments that

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 11
are all well suited to the competition that it faces during supplier selection process. As a result,
the organization consists of more strengths than weakness in the process of selecting its suppliers
to distribute its products to different targeted and esteemed clients from different nations around
the global community (Pitchipoo et al., 2015, p. 2061). While there appear to be very few
chances for operations of Coke’s company, the organization always succeeds in its operations
since it geared wholly towards activates that deal with exploitation of whatever chances that do
rise and to developing other opportunities where perhaps there exist none to boost activity so
supplier selection.
The company uses the different managerial framework in determining the strategic
resources with the potential in the selection of suppliers as a way of delivering comparative
advantage to its operations. The use of resource-based remains to form the model that helps in
utilizing resources as an essential factor to the superior performance of the firm (Dowlatshani et
al., 2015, p. 1142). The resource-based view that deals with procurement in the management of
supplier selection within the company helps in improving the sales of services and goods. The
perspective makes it vital for people to purchase products and services to be up to spot at
appropriate probable economic charge that convenes amount, time, and quality, along with site
needs of clients (Linnander et al., 2017, p. 11). The use of procurement in the management of the
chain of suppliers assists in following the detailed process while choosing the appropriate
supplier for the customer within the set duration.
Conclusion and Recommendations
It is evident from above discussion that process of suppliers selection in operations of
Coca-Cola Company remains to form a vital section of its operations. Supplier selection is the

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 12
critical element of the success of the company as the process of distribution of goods, and its
services are incomplete without the successful process of choice of the supplier. Therefore, with
appropriate application of strategies of supplier selection, Coca-Cola Company can select the
best as well as reliable supplier along with managing the risk related to supply chain of its
operations. With such, this company should focus on taking care of the environmental issues that
can affect its process of supplier selection. Besides, there is a need for Coca-Cola Company that
operates in the present competitive marketplace to focus on the regular check on their operations
of supplier selection and keep improving process with the ever-changing business era. The idea
can help in capturing the competitive advantage they must maintain innovative new products and
services and try their operations in different sectors that deals with food, soft drinks, or non-
alcoholic beverages. Besides, the company has to concentrate on the performance of different
reforms to attain greater sustainability in ensuring that process of selecting supplier is conducted
as per guidelines of department of human resources. Various modes of supplier selection need to
be applicable to the process. The supplier selection needs to be efficiently managed to decrease
costs as well as delivering products timely along with productively. The management of Coca-
Cola Company needs to have appropriate design and placed so that different suppliers,
customers, together with intermediates all get benefited from such system for supplier selection.

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 13
List of References
Aggarwal, R, & Singh, S 2015. 'Chance constraint-based multi-objective stochastic model for
supplier selection', International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 79(9-12), pp.
1707-1719. Available from: 10.1007/s00170-015-6916-6. [9 May 2018].
Chen, A, Hsieh, C, & Wee, H 2016. 'A resilient global supplier selection strategy-a case study of
an automotive company', International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 87(5-
8), pp. 1475-1490. Available from: 10.1007/s00170-014-6567-z. [9 May 2018].
Dowlatshahi, S, Karimi-Nasab, M, & Bahrololum, H 2015. 'A group decision-making approach
for supplier selection in configuration design: A case study', International Journal of Advanced
Manufacturing Technology, 81(5-8), pp. 1139-1154. Available from: 10.1007/s00170-015-7242-
8. [9 May 2018].
Elmore, B. 2013. Citizen Coke: An Environmental and Political History of the Coca-Cola
Company. Enterprise and Society, 14(4), pp.717-731.
Foster, R. 2014. Corporations as Partners: “Connected Capitalism” and The Coca-Cola
Company. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 37(2), pp.246-258.
Fraser, L, Hall, M, Michel, R, Paisley-Smith, D, & Whitted, T 2017. '50 Best Companies For
Diversity. (Cover story)', Black Enterprise, 48(3), pp. 38-44.
Gertner, D. and Rifkin, L. 2017. Coca-Cola and the Fight against the Global Obesity Epidemic.
Thunderbird International Business Review, 60(2), pp.161-173.

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 14
Gupta, S. 2011. MIR talks to Stan Sthanunathan, Vice President of Marketing Strategy and
Insights, Coca-Cola Company. GfK Marketing Intelligence Review, 3(1).
Gurecká, R, Koborová, I, Janšáková, K, Tábi, T, Szökő, É, Somoza, V, Šebeková, K, & Celec, P
2015. 'Prenatal dietary load of Maillard reaction products combined with postnatal Coca-Cola
drinking affects metabolic status of female Wistar rats', Croatian Medical Journal, 56 (2), pp.
94-103. Available from: 10.3325/cmj.2015.56.94. [9 May 2018].v
Harper, L., Bettinger, J., Dismukes, R. and Kozarsky, P. 2016. Evaluation of The Coca-Cola
Company Travel Health Kit. Journal of Travel Medicine, 9(5), pp.244-246.
Hartogh, M. 2012. It's Still the Real Thing: A Profile of the Coca Cola Company. SSRN
Electronic Journal.
Linnander, E, Yuan, CT, Ahmed, S, Cherlin, E, Talbert-Slagle, K, & Curry, LA 2017. 'Process
evaluation of knowledge transfer across industries: Leveraging Coca-Cola’s supply chain
expertise for medicine availability in Tanzania', PLoS ONE, 12(11), pp. 1-16. Available from:
10.1371/journal.pone.0186832. [9 May 2018].
Meena, P, & Sarmah, S 2016. 'Supplier selection and demand allocation under supply disruption
risks', International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 83, (1-4), pp. 265-274.
Available from: 10.1007/s00170-015-7520-5. [9 May 2018].
Mokhov, V. and Ryabukhin, M. 2018. Sustainable development program «COCA-COLA HBC
RUSSIA». Investment and innovation management journal, (4), pp.68-72.

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 15
Mubayi, S. 2012. Alexandra Chreiteh, Always Coca-Cola [Dāʾiman Coca-Cola]. Trans. Michelle
Hartman. Northampton, MA: Interlink Books, 2012. Pp. 121. Journal of Arabic Literature, 43(2-
3), pp.540-542.
Pitchipoo, P, Venkumar, P, & Rajakarunakaran, S 2015. 'Grey decision model for supplier
evaluation and selection in process industry: a comparative perspective', International Journal of
Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 76(9-12), pp. 2059-2069. Available from:
10.1007/s00170-014-6406-2. [9 May 2018].
Powell, D, & Gard, M 2015. 'The governmentality of childhood obesity: Coca-Cola, public
health and primary schools', Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(6), pp.
854-867. Available from: 10.1080/01596306.2014.905045. [9 May 2018].
Sidorick, D 2016. 'Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism', American Historical
Review, 121(3), pp. 951-952.
Sundar, D. 2012. Unleashing the Entrepreneurial Potential of Women:initiative of Coca Cola
Company. Global Journal For Research Analysis, 3(8), pp.1-3.
Uchida, K 2013. 'Letter: Coca-Cola can dissolve gastric phytobezoars', Alimentary
Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 37(8), pp. 842-843. Available from: 10.1111/apt.12263. [9 May
2018].
Wang, M. 2015. Brief Analysis of Sports Marketing Strategy Adopted by Coca Cola Company.
Asian Social Science, 11(23).
Wilder, K 2015. '40 Best Companies For Diversity', Black Enterprise, 46(2), pp. 60-67.

Supplier Selection of Coca-Cola Company 16
You, X. and O'Keefe, S. 2017. Binding of volatile aroma compounds to can linings with
different polymeric characteristics. Food Science & Nutrition, 6(1), pp.54-61.
Zhou, L. and Li, H. 2011. Study on Green Supply Chain Management Based on Circular
Economy. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 84-85, pp.761-764.