The Coca-Cola Corporation

Atlanta, Georgia serves as the global headquarters of the American soft drink business The Coca-Cola Corporation. The company is most known for its flagship product, Coca-Cola, which was created in Georgia in 1886 by John Pemberton. Since 1889, the company has run a franchised distribution network. The Coca-Cola Company only produces syrup concentrate under the terms of the agreement, which is then sold to various bottlers that own exclusive rights to markets in various areas of the world. The stock of the company is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. This essay examines many aspects of the Coca-Cola Corporation from the company's perspective. There is the general overview of the organization in terms of leadership, background, past and present experiences, and the various obstacles that it faces. SWOT analysis in regard to the firm has been conducted in the paper hence looking into the financial and market performances of the organization.

Key Leadership

Since the first soda fountain sales of the year 1886, the organization has pushed for marketplace invention, innovation, and investment in local economies. Currently, Coca-Cola leads the global beverage industry with about 500 beverage brands inclusive of the global top-five sparkling brands. The success is attributed to the management and leadership practices that advocate for commitment to the consumers and societies in which the firm operates (Wilson 2017).

Muhtar Kent

Kent is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. He leads the firm with the commitment to the spirit and values of the leading global brands. In the journey to becoming sustainable, he recognizes that growth in profitability and the management structure has changed to sharpen the external focus on the market with more effectiveness, productivity, and speed (Wilson, 2017).

James Quincey

James is the organization’s President and Chief Operating Officer. As the head of operations, James has developed into a proven leader who has the passion for building strong teams, developing people, and creating winning cultures in the course of his work. His ideal combination of experience, skill, and ability has been instrumental in his success as the head of operations in the organization. In December 2016, the Coca-Cola Corporation announced that the Board of Directors had approved the recommendation of James Quincey to succeed Muhtar Kent as the new Chief Executive Officer of the organization (Wilson, 2017).

Background Information

Coca-Cola has a history of acquisitions; in the year 1960, it acquired Minute Maid with another subsequent acquisition of Thums Up and Barq’s in the years 1993 and 1995 respectively. In the year 2001, Coca-Cola purchased the Odwalla smoothies, fruit juices, and bars. The organization further acquired Fuze Beverage in the year 2007. The bid to acquire the Chinese juice producer, Huiyuan Juice Group, was rejected on the basis that there could be a virtual monopoly in the sector. In the year 2015, Coca-Cola acquired a minority interest in the juice producer, Suja Life LLC (Donkor, 2015).

The Coca-Cola Corporation produces, markets, and distributes nonalcoholic beverage syrups and concentrates and it owns up to 500 different brands. The firm has ownership interests in various canning and bottling firms to which it distributed finished beverage products having the Coca-Cola trademarks (Donkor 2015). It sells its products to more than 200 countries mainly in Africa; European Union, East, South Asia and Pacific Rim; North America; Latin America; the Middle East and North Asia, Eurasia.

Coca-Cola’s operations straddle throughout all the soft drink industry sectors. In the global trade, the firm leads in value and volume carbonates, vegetable/fruit juice and the ready to drink coffee sectors. The firm is also among the leading players in the Asian specialty and functional drinks as well as in the bottled water segment.

Past and Present Issues

The Coca-Cola Corporation operates in more than 200 countries around the world; supplying hundreds of products. It means that the organization adopts a global status and due to this reason, it has experienced global issues both in presently and in the past. World issues are caused by different variables in different geographical regions. For example, there are the issues of legal statuses of operations such as licensing, differing tastes and preferences of the customers, cultural beliefs, economic and political conditions, and so forth.

Low-calorie Cola Performance

In the past, governments across the world in conjunction with the media have publicized obesity worries and sugar content in the soft drinks. Coca-Cola was on high alert because the entirety of its market base in founded on the soft drinks that were targeted by the media and public administration around the world. In response to the upcoming concerns, the organization developed zero and low-calorie beverages. The newly developed drinks are currently top-ranked brands in various categories. It was a strategic response that saw the organization cater for the interests of the governments, customers, and the larger public while still maintaining the wide market share that the firm had already acquired (Gertner and Rifkin, 2017).

Competition

Coca-Cola dominates the upcoming markets, but it has experienced stiff competition from the domestic players as well as global players such as Pepsi Co. The soft beverages industries are growing at a fast rate where many firms are developing from all around the world. In the developing countries such as those in Africa and Asia, the economies are at the take-off stage and hence investors are keen to seize any potential opportunities in such countries. There is the massive development of new firms that offer cheaper soft drinks that could act as substitutes for the Coca-Cola products (Wilson, 2017). In order to cope with the competition, Coca-Cola has maintained the unique nature of its beverages, and hence the customers appreciate the differentiation that comes with the firm’s drinks.

Counterfeiting

The organization has had to deal with the issue of counterfeit drinks for a long time. Unscrupulous business persons especially in the developing countries usually make plastic bottled beverages and then brand them with the Coca-Cola trademark. These business persons then go ahead to supply these products to the supermarkets and shops. Such illegitimate practices deny the organization’s authentic products to reach to the customers. The firm is denied the sales revenues, while the customers do not consume the original beverages that they intend to consume. Coca-Cola has tried to tackle the counterfeiting issue through liaising with the local administrations in order to seize the counterfeit Cola and apprehend the offenders (Wilson, 2017). The organization has also tried to combat fake beverages through implementing a unique and anti-counterfeit packaging system through the regional bottlers.

Conclusion

It is evident that the Coca-Cola Corporation is a veteran organization in the soft beverages industries and it is a global leader in the sector. From the background information, the organization is founded on and has the structure of a franchise. It is through massive acquisitions that the firm has grown into a single and large entity. The key leaders in the organization are the Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of Board of Director, and the Chief Operations Officer. Both leaders believe in continued profitability for the organizational financial health and the establishment of a winning culture that results in continuous improvements. Over the years, the organization has faced numerous global issues including competition, health concerns, and the emergence of counterfeit soft beverages. The firm has managed to deal with the issues decisively and comprehensively in a manner that has left it in a stable condition. However, the issue of counterfeit beverages remains a major obstacle to the firm’s sales revenues and profitability especially in the developing countries.

References

Donkor, S. (2015). Organizational change as a tool for enhancing organization development. A case study of Coca-Cola Bottling Company Limited (Doctoral dissertation, Department of Marketing and Corporate Strategy, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology).

Gertner, D., & Rifkin, L. (2017). Coca‐Cola and the Fight against the Global Obesity Epidemic. Thunderbird International Business Review.

Wilson, R. E. (2017). Coca-Cola Amatil: A Bottler Recharging Growth With Energy Drinks. Kellogg School of Management Cases, 1-15.