An Analysis of Coca-Cola Company's Management and Leadership

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Coca-Cola Company, examining its historical background, mission, vision, core values, and organizational structure. It delves into the company's management functions, including planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, and explores various leadership and management styles employed by the company, such as democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire approaches. The report highlights Coca-Cola's strategic goals, marketing strategies, and the impact of its organizational design on its operational efficiency. Furthermore, the report discusses the company's culture, values, and the evolution of its management practices, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and responsiveness in meeting market demands. The analysis also covers the company's approach to employee engagement, communication, and its efforts to maintain a competitive edge in the global beverage market. This report offers insights into how Coca-Cola has maintained its market leadership through effective management and strategic decision-making.

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................................2
2.0 History of the Company........................................................................................................2
3.0 Mission and Vision...............................................................................................................3
4.0 Culture and values................................................................................................................5
5.0 Organizational Design..........................................................................................................6
6.0 Organization Structure..........................................................................................................8
7.0 Organizational goals.............................................................................................................9
8.0 Leadership Style.................................................................................................................10
8.1 Core Capabilities.............................................................................................................11
9.0 Management Styles.............................................................................................................12
9.1 Democratic......................................................................................................................12
9.2 Autocratic........................................................................................................................13
9.3 Laissez-faire management style......................................................................................14
9.4 Consultative democratic..................................................................................................14
9.5 Team Work.....................................................................................................................15
9.6 Employee Engagement..................................................................................................16
10.0 Management Functions of Coca-Cola Company................................................................16
10.1 Planning..........................................................................................................................16
10.1.1 Strategic Goals........................................................................................................17
10.1.2 Tactic Goals............................................................................................................17
10.1.3 Operational Goals...................................................................................................17
10.1.4 Decision Making.....................................................................................................18
10.2 Organizing.......................................................................................................................18
10.2.1 Departmentalization................................................................................................19
10.2.2 Work Specialization................................................................................................20
10.2.3 Delegation and Accountability...............................................................................20
10.2.4 Resource Allocation................................................................................................20
10.2.5 Organizing the Human Resources..........................................................................20
10.3 Leading............................................................................................................................21
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10.3.1 Motivation...............................................................................................................21
10.3.2 Communication.......................................................................................................22
10.3.3 Corporate Culture...................................................................................................22
10.4 Controlling......................................................................................................................22
10.4.1 Sales Person’s Reporting System...........................................................................22
10.4.2 Sales Person Evaluating System.............................................................................23
Reference.......................................................................................................................................24
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1.0 Introduction
The Coca-Cola Company, a retailer, manufacturer and marketer of non-alcoholic
beverages, is a market leader in its industry currently offering more than 500 brands in over 200
countries or territories. The company operates a franchised distribution system dating from 1889
where the Coca-Cola Company only produces syrup concentrate which is then sold to various
bottlers throughout the world who hold an exclusive territory. The Coca-Cola Company
headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia owns its anchor bottler in North America, Coca-Cola
Refreshments.
This behemoth has managed to maintain its position as a market leader for over a hundred years
and is still going strong. This paper explores the history, mission, vision, and organizational
structure and management functions of the Coca-Cola Company and tries to explain leadership
and some management styles applied by the company.
2.0 History of the Company
Coca-Cola is a multinational company who started its business on May 1886 in Atlanta as
a beverage (formal drink) industry. Dr. John Styth Pemberton made a cough syrup which he
named “coke” on 8th may 1886. Its price was 5 cent per glass and was available at the largest
pharmacy of Atlanta known by the name of Jacob’s Pharmacy. Later on it was purchased by a
well-known businessman Asa Griggs Candler who introduced it as a “carbonated soft drink” in
the market and hid marketing tactics led coke to Coca-Cola and it dominated the market of
carbonated soft drinks throughout the twentieth century.
In 1895 the company started to sell their product coke in bottles which was a strategy of the
company to be recognized well in the International market. Their strategy worked and the bottled
form of coke was successfully recognized all over the world in the beginning of 1896. Now a
day’s Coca-Cola is the most famous and highly consumed brand in all over the world
(Wikipedia, 2014).
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3.0 Mission and Vision
The company is facing a huge numbers of challenges from all over the world. Competitors are
coming up with brand new strategies that threaten Coca-Cola. The company’s mission is to
continue thriving as a business over the next ten years and beyond. The company is looking
ahead, understanding the trends and forces that will shape its business in the future and moving
swiftly to prepare for what's to come. That's what the company’s 2020 Vision is all about. It
creates a long-term destination for the business and provides it with a "Roadmap" for winning
together with its bottling partners.
Mission
“Our Roadmap starts with of our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a
company and serves as a standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions.
a. To refresh the world.
b. To inspire moments of optimism and happiness.
c. To create value and make difference.”
Coca-Cola has used the word “roadmap” which indicates that their mission statement is positive
and optimistic because they’re saying there’s a future to look forward to. Their mission is a
standard to which they create values and make differences in communities too poor to afford
even basic necessities. So Coca-Cola decides to fund these communities and in turn they create a
new place to generate profits (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
Vision
“Our vision serves as the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of our business
by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable quality
growth.
a. People: Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be.
b. Portfolio: Bring to the world a portfolio of quality beverage brands that anticipate and
satisfy people desires and needs.
c. Partners: Nurture a wining network of consumers and suppliers, together we create
mutual, enduring value.
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d. Planet: Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support
sustainable communities.
e. Profit: Maximize long term return to shareowners while being mindful of our overall
responsibilities.
f. Productivity: Be a highly effective, lean and fast moving organization.” (The Coca-Cola
Company, 2014).
Objectives
The main objectives for the Coca-Cola Company are to be globally known as a business that
conducts business responsibility and ethically and to accelerate sustainable growth to operate in
tomorrow's world. By having these objectives, it forms the foundation for companies in the
decision making process (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
By having objectives, the Coca-Cola Company can strive towards a goal and create new drinks.
With objectives, they can continue to plan for the next five to ten years. Coca-Cola can spend
more time in creating new ways to commercialize their product everywhere. Such as helping
local communities and supporting them financially so they can create more businesses and
maximize profit.
Strategies and Tactics
The Coca-Cola Company aims to be globally known, they do this by targeting different areas
across the globe with different products, gaining their brand name and popularity. All the
bottling partners work closely with their customers such as convenience stores, grocery stores,
movie theaters and street vendors to create and use localized strategies developed in partnership
with the Company. Their competition with other beverage companies are also narrowed down as
they own various brands that could be possible competition. For example, the company sells
Coke without the competition of other popular soft drink brands like Sprite and Fanta because
the company owns those brands as well. The company often reviews and evaluates their business
plans and performance to improve their earnings and analyze their competitive position in the
market. They make decisions in realigning their business models to match the objectives of the
company by using strategies and tactics in the analysis of their performance (The Coca-Cola
Company, 2014).
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4.0 Culture and values
Every business is made up of different cultures and the cultures that are present within the
business depend on the management style and the organizational structures that are used. The
different types of structures are:
 Role Culture- This is best suited to a hierarchy organizational structure. This type of
culture works best by every employee playing the role that he or she has been
predetermined and corresponds with the rules and regulations of the business
 Task Culture- This culture encourages people to work as a team; this works best in a
star structure.
 Power Culture- This works well in a matrix structure. It is based around one dominant
individual/leader.
 Person Culture- this culture focuses on providing administrative help and support and
close attention to one person in the organization (Wikipedia, 2014)
Role culture is the culture that Coca-Cola adopts. This is where all members have a defined job
or role to carry out. Role culture is normally split up into a number of functions that are
organized in a hierarchical way. Coca-Cola would divide themselves into various functions like
accounts, marketing and production. These also have hierarchical ordering of office examples of
these are production director, production managers, supervisors, technicians, operatives etc. This
type of culture works by logic and rationality. Role culture is mainly used in large organization.
In this culture position in the main source of power and rules and procedures are the main source
of influence.
Values
Coca-Cola’s values serve as a compass for its actions and describe how it behaves in the world.
These values include:
 “Leadership: The courage to shape a better future
 Collaboration: Leverage collective genius
 Integrity: Be real
 Accountability: If it is to be, it's up to me
 Passion: Committed in heart and mind
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 Diversity: As inclusive as our brands
 Quality: What we do, we do well” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
Focus on the Market
 “Focus on needs of its consumers, customers and franchise partners
 Get out into the market and listen, observe and learn
 Possess a world view
 Focus on execution in the marketplace every day
 Be insatiably curious” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
Work Smart
 “Act with urgency
 Remain responsive to change
 Have the courage to change course when needed
 Remain constructively discontent
 Work efficiently” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
Act Like Owners
 “Be accountable for our actions and inactions
 Steward system assets and focus on building value
 Reward our people for taking risks and finding better ways to solve problems
 Learn from our outcomes -- what worked and what didn’t” (The Coca-Cola Company,
2014).
Be the Brand
“Inspire creativity, passion, optimism and fun.” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
5.0 Organizational Design
Before the nineties the Coca-Cola company was having a centralize system of control, but after
sometime they realized that if they had to meet the demands of the customers they should adopt a
decentralized system in which the authority of decision making is distributed between different
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managers so that every sector can be managed effectively. This system was implemented in the
nineties by the company’s board of directors (Gilhuly, 2014). Now the organization is having
two groups who are responsible for operating:
 Bottling Investments
 Corporate
Operating groups are also divided by different regions i.e. Africa, Asia, Middle East, European
Union, Latin America, North America etc. All the divisions are further divided into
geographical regions. This allows the local market to involve in decision making, due to this the
organization responds quick to the changing demands of the market, this helps the upper level
managers to concentrate on the long term planning of the organization.
The company’s corporate division is filled with different departments which are as follow:
 Finance Department
 Human Resource Department
 Marketing Department
 Innovation Department
 Planning Department
Some of the above mentioned departments are in the lower levels in the regions of the company,
the decision making job is most of the times done by the top level management.
Sharing the latest information with each other is very fast by all the departments and by such
activities the organization appears to be doing their job effectively by balancing standardization
and mutual adjustment. The organization has made the Code of conduct which is a guidebook for
the employees on how they should act? The disciplinary actions are the main subjects of the code
of conduct (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
The larger role in the organization’s success is played by the mutual adjustments due to the
changes brought upon by the CEO and Chairman of the company 2004, Nevile Isdell. The
turnover has been reduced because the employees feel more engaged in the work. The
organization’s growth rates increased and the return of equity for stockholders went from a
negative return to a 20 percent return. The changes brought by Isdell proved to be good for the
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organization and the employees were also happy with the change which is reflected by the end
results of the company (Gilhuly, 2014).
Such balances are indispensible because due to them the employees feel some flexibility and it
also gives some time to the organization to forecast their future plans about the organization. The
structure of the Coca-Cola Company is made up of both “Mechanistic & Organic” models. The
Coca-Cola Beverage Company mainly focuses on the responsiveness (Gilhuly, 2014).
All the complex integrating mechanisms are the characteristics of the organic structure. The
company uses survey and interviews for the flow of information from bottom to up, latterly the
information is exchanged over the intranet. The surveys have made the Coca-Cola Company to
believe of simplification and standardization. Centralization and standardization are associated
with mechanistic structure (Gilhuly, 2014).
The mix of the two structures looks to be ideal for the organization. When organization wants to
appeal to a huge independent market, on one hand it requires to be flexible and on the other hand
to be more efficient in production. Coordination is easy for the company when it uses complex
integrating mechanisms. Due to centralization the organization goals and organizational choices
are kept align. Now that the information in the company is flowing very easily, the top level of
management will receive the information much faster due to the organization’s flexibility and
responsiveness.
Recently there was a shift in the organization to make it more decentralized and organic which
corresponded with quite uncertainty with organization.
6.0 Organization Structure
Coca-Cola is “Tall” in terms of organizational complexity. Coca-Cola is controlled through a
vertical hierarchy, with decision-making authority residing with the company’s upper
management. Daily and routine decisions are made by the line managers at the middle level
(Narayan, 2010).
Coca-Cola has more than 700,000 system employees, including their bottling partners. The
company’s operations reach over 200 countries worldwide, with six geographic operating
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segments. Coca-Cola’s head office is responsible for providing the company with an overall
direction and support to the regional structure. The company’s Executive Committee makes key
strategic decisions for the company. The Chair of the Executive Committee acts as a figurehead
for the company and chairs the board meetings. He is also the CEO and is the senior decision
maker (Narayan, 2010).
Each division of the company has a marketing manager, public affairs director, finance director,
etc. When one of these divisions is planning to do something, an advertising campaign for
example, the division has to communicate with their superiors to get approval. Since the
company’s hierarchy is so tall, communication has to travel back to corporate headquarters in the
U.S, where the Executive Committee has the final decision making power for activities the
divisions have proposed. Below is an organizational chart of the company (Gilhuly, 2014).
7.0 Organizational goals
Coca-Cola is both effective and efficient, as they have made it their objective to succeed in these
areas. Coca-Cola is more focused on efficiency than effectiveness, but they still achieve in both.
Regardless of what they specialize in, their organizational goal is to maximize profits for
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shareholders by selling Coca-Cola products worldwide to a wide range of customers. They are
able to do this by having a very vertically hierarchical organization that allows them to take
advantage of a low cost strategy, limiting expenses and increasing revenues.
8.0 Leadership Style
For effective leadership, there can be no substitute for strategic thinking and tireless, relentless
execution. There can be no alternative for attracting and retaining the absolute best people to lead
and creating a dynamic environment for them. And there can be no job more important than
communicating effectively with your customers and all your key stakeholders. Coca-Cola
achieves this by formulating a clear and compelling vision, getting their system aligned behind it,
executing and constantly communicating intentions.
Let's face it; vision without execution is merely daydreaming. And execution without vision is
like running in the dark - you're moving but probably not in the right direction. Coca-Cola
understands that capturing new opportunities is going to require both vision and execution across
the company and its wonderful system of bottling partners. That's where the company’s vision
which they call Vision 2020 comes into play. It's a look at where the company and its bottling
partners need to be heading in the future. The vision is centered on capturing unprecedented
opportunities emerging in future within the global non-alcoholic beverage industry (The Coca-
Cola Company, 2014).
The company’s vision is to harness new wealth, new beverage requirements and new innovations
to accelerate growth and create the world's most respected consumer goods system. Leaders at
Coca-Cola have created a clear and compelling vision for their organization, and work to inspire
their people to achieve that vision. Equally important is getting the bottling system leadership
and company employees aligned behind the vision.
Muhtar Kent is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company.
Mr. Kent joined The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1978 and has held a variety of marketing
and operations roles throughout his career. In 1985, he was appointed General Manager of Coca-
Cola Turkey and Central Asia. From 1989 to 1995, he served as President of the Company's East
Central Europe Division and Senior Vice President of Coca-Cola International, with
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