Coca Cola: Change Management Strategies and Recommendations Report

This report examines the implementation of change management strategies within Coca-Cola, focusing on the company's current position, drivers of change, and the application of the Kurt Lewin Change Management Model. It analyzes Coca-Cola's operational environment, including its international presence, product offerings, and market competition. The report identifies key drivers such as evolving consumer health concerns, environmental impact, and labor issues. It then applies the Kurt Lewin model, including unfreezing, change, and refreezing stages, to guide the company's transformation. Furthermore, it leverages the McKinsey 7S framework to align strategies, structure, staff, shared values, style, systems, and skills, offering recommendations for enhancing the company's product portfolio, increasing CSR initiatives, and improving employee retention through an open-door policy. The report aims to provide a comprehensive analysis and actionable insights to help Coca-Cola adapt to market changes and sustain its competitive edge.

Running Head: Leading Organizational Change
[Company name]
Leading Organizational Change
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Leading Organizational Change 1
Contents
Purpose and Background Context..........................................................................................2
Current Position of Business..................................................................................................2
Drivers of Change..................................................................................................................3
Change Model........................................................................................................................4
Implementation of strategies for Change...............................................................................6
Recommendations..................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

Leading Organizational Change 2
Purpose and Background Context
The purpose of this paper is to enlighten the reader with the information about the
company Coca Cola and implementation of change management strategies in the given
organization. Based on changing trends in the international environment, the companies have
also started facing the need to implement changes in their internal as well as external
environment so as to satisfy the customers in a better way and initiate customer loyalty as
well. The given paper highlight the details about the current position of the company Coca
Cola, its drives of change and implementation of change management theory or model. The
change management strategies are then aligned with the 7S of McKinsey to strengthen the
strategies of the company. Through the analysis of this paper, the organization Coca Cola
would be able to find out the issues present in environment of Coca Cola that are making it
difficult for the organization to progress. Further, the organization would successfully be able
to work on such issues and provide effective measures to fight with the problems and
implement success for the business.
Current Position of Business
Coca Cola is an international brand that works in the beverages segment. The
organization provides carbonated soft drinks to the people in the worldwide environment.
The company was originated in the year 1886 in US by John Stith Pemberton which was
further bought by Asa Griggs Candler. Currently, the organization works with a number of
86200 employees present in different branches worldwide. Further, the company earned
revenue of US $ 31.85 billion in year 2018. Biggest competitor of Coca Cola is PepsiCo that
provide similar range of products in the business environment (The Coca Cola Company,
2020).

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It should also be noted that the company believes in innovation and perform several
tasks to innovate the functions of the company and products as well. This is one of the
biggest reason due to which the company is leading the international market of beverage
segment. The company served world’s first Coca-Cola at the Jacobs Pharmacy in Atlanta,
since then, the company has evolved with an exponential speed. The works with a group of
more than 500 brands working under them like Zico coconut water etc. and satisfying
customers present in the worldwide environment. Further, it should be noted that the
company explained about its services by stating that ‘they do the business in the right way
and not in just easy way’. The organization works to manage their CSR activities but still
they lay great impact on the environment and communities (Sharman, Larkin, Fernandez, &
Esteves, 2019).
Drivers of Change
 Growing health concern of people is one of the biggest driver of change for the
company Coca Cola in the worldwide environment. It should be noted that with the
depletion of environmental conditions, the customers have started thinking more
about their health and eating habits. Due to which they categorize their food as good
and bad, hence carbonated soft drinks comes under the category of bad products for
the customers (Cameron, & Green, 2019). Thus it can be said that the changing food
habits of the customers is acting as the biggest driver of change of the company Coca
Cola. It should be noted that due to this change, the customers are positioning this
brand as an organization that serves junk and unhealthy products in the environment
(Sundbo, 2016).
 The environment is another biggest driver of change for Coca Cola Company. As
mentioned above that the business actions of Coca Cola affect the environmental
conditions in bad ways due to which it becomes important for the organization to

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perform CSR strategies in the environment so as to rectify the cause. The company
was accused of dehydrating several communities because they used the water
resources for manufacturing drinks in the environment. The company dried farmer’s
wells that destroyed the agricultural activities in several nations including Russia,
India and Turkey (Tardieu, Daly, Esteban-Lauzán, Hall, & Miller, 2020).
 Thirdly, it should be noted that labor issues acts an another biggest driver of change in
the functions of the company Coca Cola. People are the biggest asset for any business
and if these people are not satisfied with the company then the company cannot
succeed in the competitive environment. Labor issues in Coca Cola makes the
employees suffer because the organization does not let them rest in times of high
demand due to which they subsequently breach employees right as well (Wood,
2019).
Change Model
Considering the drivers of change and current environment conditions of Coca Cola,
the company should make use of Kurt Lewin Change Management Model in the business
environment. Below mentioned is the explanation and implementation of 3 step Kurt Lewin
Model of Change management for Coca Cola:
 Unfreeze: under this phase of change management, the organization gets to initially
unfreeze the environment so that the management could implement changes in the
business based on the trends prevailing in the environment. Therefore, the company
Coca Cola would focus on making the environment comfortable in such a way that
the employees start to adopt these changes in a positive manner. It should be noted
that the company would communicate with the employees regarding the change they
want to implement in the workplace environment (Schein, & von Ameln, 2019). On
initial level, the organization would introduce CSR functions in the business that the

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employees need to inculcate in their day to day activities so that the business could
easily satisfy the communities. Secondly, the organization would start day and night
shift so as to manage the external demand without increasing pressure on the
employees (Pugh, 2016). Lastly, the company would change the promotion strategies
in such a way that the customers do not think Coca Cola as an unhealthy brand. Thus,
in this way, the flexible environment of Coca Cola would be able to adopt given
changes as well (Cummings, Bridgman, & Brown, 2016).
 Change: during the implementation of changes in the business, many time, employees
resist towards change either because they have threat of being incompetent or lost; or
because they are comfortable in the current environment of business. However,
change management is important for companies like Coca Cola that are facing
difficulties in the competitive environment. Therefore, this stage will let the
employees to resist in the business environment while adopting changes (Galli, 2018).
Under this stage, the organization would make use of transformational as well as
participative leadership style in the business so as to let the employees resist, then
understand and then work towards adopting changes in the environment (Herremans,
& Nazari, 2016). This is the phase were the business is on a testing period where the
employees adopt change and look for the issues related to new strategies implemented
in the environment. Under this stage, the organization would focus on resolving
changes while eliminating resistance and making the employees comfortable with the
new strategies as well (Hussain, Lei, Akram, Haider, Hussain, & Ali, 2018).
 Refreeze: this stage appears when the employees have successfully adopted the
change in the business environment. Now comes the time when the management of
Coca Cola again freeze the environment so that there is no scope of employees to
make changes in the current strategies implemented in the environment. Under this

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stage, the organization gives effectiveness to current change management activities of
the company by making it fixed in the business environment (Hassan, 2018).
Implementation of strategies for Change
7 S McKinsey refers to the framework that helps the business to attain a strategic
vision and work on it to achieve growth in the competitive environment. This framework
works on seven segments of the business that are structure, staff, strategy, shared value, style,
system and skills. Further, below mentioned is the implementation of McKinsey 7S
framework for the adequate functioning of the company Coca Cola based on the Kurt Lewin
Change Management plan implemented for the business:
 Structure: the fact should be noted that current structure and all other functions of the
company are efficient, but order to eliminate the issues from the business, it is
important for the organization to make changes in several areas of the business. Under
this phase, the company would build the portfolio in such a way that the customers
could segregate the healthy drinks like coconut water, coffee etc. from carbonated
drinks of the business. Secondly, the company should also think of asset expansion
Unfreeze
Communicated with
employees.
Make them understand
the importance of
change
Change
Implement changes in
the business through
leadership
eliminate resistance
Refreeze
stop initiating more
changes in business
once desirable change
comes in action

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activities in different parts of the world where demand of the products is less (Njeru,
& Kariuki, 2019.
 Staff: the business should make use of effective employee retention facilities in the
business in order to motivate them and make them stick to the business. They should
also provide career development pathways to the employees so as to make them loyal
and work with the business in long run (Putra, Syah, Pusaka, & Indradewa, 2019).
 Strategy: the HRM strategies of the company are weak, therefore, the company should
implement talent management activities in such a way that they hire more efficient
employees for the business. Secondly, the business should exploit cost synergies
across its production and bottling facilities so as to ensure efficiency for business
(Gökdeniz, Kartal, & Kömürcü, 2017).
 Shared value: the vision of the company is to double the revenue that the business
earned in 2010 while satisfying the communities at large. The main aim is to satisfy
the stakeholders and the business will grow eventually.
 Style: the culture of the organization should be made forward look and innovation
driven. The business should emphasize on the concept of oneness by inducing One
Team. One Passion and One Company (Shaqrah, 2018).
 System: the business should make use directional system so as to cut down the
pressure laid on the employees and make the work manageable. The day to day
management system of the company should analyze daily functions of business and
the management should provide feedback to the employees based on that.
 Skills: based on the change management plan, the business should make use of
innovative strategies in the environment. This S should be applied on all other ‘S’ of
the framework (Cox, Pinfield, & Rutter, 2018).

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Recommendations
Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned event, it is recommended to the company
Coca Cola that the business should eventually focusing on building their product portfolio in
such a way that more health conscious customers attracted towards the brand. This change in
the portfolio will also help the organization to upraise their position in the environment. In
this way, the business would also be recognized as a brand that serve healthy products in the
environment. Also, it is recommended to the organization that they should increase the CSR
actions in the worldwide environment. The company should start forming relations with the
framers and providing aid to them as these are the people who that faced most issues because
of factory setup of Coca Cola in their area. In this way, the business would be able satisfy the
communities at large. Thirdly, the business should also make use of open door policy in the
workplace environment so as to retain the employees in the business environment. The open
door policy will help the employees to resolve their issues in a faster way as implement
change management plan in the business effectively. Thus, in this way, the company Coca
Cola would be able to manage the issues but implementing above mentioned strategies in
their business environment.

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References
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to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cox, A. M., Pinfield, S., & Rutter, S. (2018). Extending McKinsey’s 7S model to understand
strategic alignment in academic libraries. Library Management.
Cummings, S., Bridgman, T., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps:
Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. Human relations, 69(1), 33-
60.
Galli, B. J. (2018). Change management models: A comparative analysis and concerns. IEEE
Engineering Management Review, 46(3), 124-132.
Gökdeniz, İ., Kartal, C., & Kömürcü, K. (2017). Strategic assessment based on 7S McKinsey
model for a business by using analytic network process (ANP). International Journal
of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(6), 2222-6990.
Hassan, A. T. (2018). Organizational change management: A literature review. Available at
SSRN 3135770.
Herremans, I. M., & Nazari, J. A. (2016). Sustainability reporting driving forces and
management control systems. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 28(2),
103-124.
Hussain, S. T., Lei, S., Akram, T., Haider, M. J., Hussain, S. H., & Ali, M. (2018). Kurt
Lewin's change model: A critical review of the role of leadership and employee
involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 3(3), 123-
127.

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Njeru, K. N., & Kariuki, P. (2019). Influence of Mckinsey Framework on Competitive
Advantage of Firms in the Telecommunication Industry in Kenya. Journal of
International Business, Innovation and Strategic Management, 2(1), 68-81.
Pugh, L., 2016. Change management in information services. UK: Routledge.
Putra, R. P., Syah, T. Y. R., Pusaka, S., & Indradewa, R. (2019). Human Resources
Implementation Using the McKinsey 7S Method for Business Startup: Duck Nugget
Frozen Food. Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic, 3(3), 11-14.
Schein, E. H., & von Ameln, F. (2019). Relationships as a key to change. Ed Schein on the
legacy and future of Change Management. Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation.
Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO), 50(2), 141-144.
Shaqrah, A. A. (2018). Analyzing business intelligence systems based on 7S model of
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63.
Sharman, A., Larkin, J., Fernandez, I., & Esteves, G. (2019). The Diversification of Coca-
Cola: Globalization & Strategic Fit. Journal for Global Business and Community,
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Sundbo, J. (2016). Food scenarios 2025: Drivers of change between global and regional.
Futures, 83, 75-87.
Tardieu, H., Daly, D., Esteban-Lauzán, J., Hall, J., & Miller, G. (2020). Technology Trends
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Springer, Cham.
The Coca Cola Company, (2020). Our Company. Retrieved from < https://www.coca-
colacompany.com/company>

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Wood, W. (2019). Drivers for Change. In Migrating to MariaDB (pp. 1-14). Apress,
Berkeley, CA.