I.

INTRODUCTION

Most of the successful businesses have faced numerous difficulties on their way
to success, but they have persevered and, in most cases, they use best practices in order
to achieve their objectives. Many firms take different approaches when it comes to
achieving a business objective. Despite being labeled as stagnant in the soft drinks
industry and health concerns that encourage healthy eating, the Coca-Cola Company
has undergone numerous changes in its management however it has managed to keep
its position. The company is guided by a mission to refresh the world, inspire joy and
positivity, and make a difference through creation of value. Furthermore, the company
puts its vision into action by implementing the 6Ps, which include providing a wonderful
working environment for its employees, delivering a diverse choice of drinking products
to the world, and meeting the demands of its customers.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how Coca-Cola became so successful.

And this paper aims to analyze all of the company's core functional areas and how they
are used to achieve the company's strategic goals. Also, to determine the best practices
that Coca-Cola uses in order to achieve its company objectives. It also aims to determine
the company's remarkable accomplishments.

II. ABOUT THE COMPANY

Coca-Cola is a total average company. It is considered as the largest non-

alcoholic beverages around the world with products sold in more than 200 countries.
The company makes over 500 different beverages that are divided into categories such
as sparkling soft drinks, juices, dairy and plant-based, coffee and tea, waters, sports
drinks, and hydration.

History

John S. Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist, invented Coca-Cola on May 8, 1886 at

his Pemberton Chemical Company. Frank Robinson, Pemberton’s bookkeeper, chose the
drink's name and scribbled it in the flowing font that became the Coca-Cola logo. In its
first year, Pemberton sold the first glass of Coca-Cola at Jacobs' Pharmacy in downtown
Atlanta which is offering nine drinks each day. Another Atlanta pharmacist, Asa Griggs
Candler had acquired full ownership of the company by 1891, and the Coca-Cola
Company was formed the following year. In 1893, the trademark “Coca-Cola” was
registered in the U.S. Patent Office. The Coca-Cola Company signed its first contract
with an independent bottling company in 1899, allowing them to purchase the syrup and
manufacture, bottle, and distribute the Coca-Cola drink. Licensing agreements like these
created the foundation of a unique distribution system that currently characterizes the
majority of the soft-drink business in the United States. In 1919, the Coca-Cola Company
was sold to a group of investors led by Atlanta businessman Ernest Woodruff for $25
million. Robert Winship Woodruff, his son, served as president and chairman of the
corporation for more than three decades. The Post-World War II years saw diversification
in the packaging of Coca-Cola. The trademark “Coke,” first used in advertising in 1941
and was registered in 1945. In 1946 the company purchased rights to Fanta while
purchased Minute Maid Corporation in 1960 which led the company to introduce new
products. In 1982 the company introduced its low-calorie sugar-free soft drink Diet Coke
(originally named Diet Coca-Cola). To combat its declining market share, the firm
introduced a new Coca-Cola flavor in April 1985, based on a formula created through
taste tests. New Coke, on the other hand, did not go over well. Due to public uproar,
Coca-Cola reintroduced its original flavor in July, rebranding it as Coca-Cola Classic. In
the early 1990s a lot of new markets opened up for Coca-Cola. The company developed
its first bottle made partially from recycled plastic in 1992. Coca-Cola created many new
beverages during the 1990s which were sold in more than 120 countries around the
world. Coca-Cola was accused of illegal land and water contamination, as well as
significant human rights breaches, in the early 2000s, and the issue got worldwide
attention, causing numerous American institutions to prohibit the sale of Coca-Cola
products on their campuses. Later, the case was dismissed. In 2005, Coca-Cola Zero, a
zero-calorie soft drink with the taste of ordinary Coca-Cola, was introduced by the
company. Energy Brands, Inc., as well as its variably enhanced waters, was bought by the
company in 2007. In the same year, Coca-Cola stated that it will join the Business
Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), a collection of firms working together to
create and implement corporate responses to human rights challenges affecting business.

Goal

The goal of The Coca-Cola Company is to be the world’s leading provider of

branded beverage solutions, to deliver consistent and profitable growth, and to have
the highest quality products and processes.

Mission

The company's mission statement describes the benefits and experiences it

provides to society. The management oversees the organization and effective operation,
ensuring that all stakeholders are aligned with the company's goals. As a result, they
contribute significantly to the company's success and growth.

The Coca-Cola mission statement is:

• To refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit.

• To inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and

actions.

• To create value for making a difference.

Strategies

For the company to be able to achieve their goals, it established six strategic
priorities and incorporated them into every area of its operations. Here are the six
strategies:

i. Accelerate carbonated soft drinks growth, led by Coca-Cola.

ii. Broaden the family of products, wherever appropriate.

iii. Grow system profitability & capability together with the bottlers.

iv. Creatively serve customers.

v. Invest intelligently in market growth.

vi. Drive efficiency & cost effectiveness by using technology and large-scale
production to control costs.

Tactics

Coca-Cola's tactical planners are indeed trying to figure out what new markets
the company should enter, how to steal market share from competitors and how to
encourage more consumers to use Coca-Cola's products. Also, the company pursues
increasing the volume of product that Coca-Cola customers purchase by introducing
new products, such as salty snack foods that can be perfectly paired with soda.
Operations

The Coca-Cola Company markets, manufactures, and sells beverage

concentrates, syrups, and finished beverages.

SWOT Analysis

 Strengths
 Strong brand identity
 Highest brand equity
 Extended global reach Greatest brand association and customer loyalty
 Largest Brand Valuation
 Dominant Market Share
 Unparalleled distribution system
 Acquisitions
 Weaknesses
 Aggressive competition with Pepsi
 Product diversification
 Health concerns
 Lawsuits
 Overdependence on Third-Party Technology Providers
 Environmentally Destructive Packaging
 Opportunities
 Introduce new products and diversify its segments
 Increase presence in developing nations
 Bring advanced supply chain system
 Packaged drinking water
 Expand through Acquisition
 Threats
 Water usage controversy
 Pollution Lawsuit
 Direct and indirect competition
 Economic Uncertainty
 Increasing Health-Consciousness

Functional Areas
 The Coca Cola Company has its main function areas are Accounting, Finance,
Marketing, Production, Human Resource Management, IT Support, Other functions,
Research and Development, Information Services. The Company’s very important
functional areas are Human Resource, Production and Administration.

Supply Chain

In all processes, the Coca-Cola Company minimizes their environmental impact

and considers sustainability in their value chain even from sourcing raw materials and
manufacturing the final product to distributing it to their customers.

III. BEST PRACTICES

Effective Planning

For strategic planning, Coca Cola's top management are engaged in formulating
their long-term plans and even their short-term planning for the following year or for
the near future. Since the vision of this company is to become the biggest and best
anchor bottler in the world and its mission is to refresh everyone, its management team
provides a flexible and adaptive strategy and continuous improvement to effectively
change according to the wants or demands of its external environment.
For tactical planning, this company's top management includes the middle
management to provide methods and actions to accomplish the strategies. Coca Cola
believes that employees are the first customers, that is why they tried the strategies
provided to their employees in order address the shortcomings or problems that may
occur to their strategies. They also asked for their employees and managers reviews
regarding the success and failures of their strategies. In this case, they would be able to
find the targets with the reasons provided.
Furthermore, Coca Company has good strategic and tactical planning, since their
supply chain is really working effectively and efficiently, by means of knowing their
specific works. They have good coordination and cooperation among the partners,
vendors, bottlers, and distributors.
Organizing

In organizing functions, Coca Company recognizes its employees' works and

working functions in order to group them together according to their similarities. In this
case, their employees would not have gaps in reporting and to avoid redundancies to
the reports being passed. Also, in every region, there are functional heads or managers
that are empowered to provide local decisions.

Even so, in order to avoid redundant layers in the hierarchy of organizational

structure, the company eliminated it. In this case, the layers of direct and dotted line
reporting ensure that information flows through the organization without the clogging
of the organizational arteries due to bureaucratic mindsets as well as blockages due to
communication gaps.

Furthermore, the responsibility of the functional head in every region is to report

to the global functional heads and the accountability taken care of as is the aspect of
transparency or depending on the company's policy or regulation.

Leading

Although Coca Cola Company has various functional heads in different

geographical locations, they are still practicing transformative leadership, whereas the
company's country heads are free to decide as long as their strategies are relying on the
norms and policies of global organization.

This company actually emphasizes the importance of democratic and laissez faire
in which the business is really dependent on the macro level vision and mission that
need to be translated and transformed into micro level execution.

The General Managers are at the top of the regional hierarchy and they have
subordinates which are the managers. These managers are responsible for giving the
incentives based on the system to the salespersons, so that these salespersons would be
motivated to reach their sales targets.

These incentives include monetary incentives like hikes, bonuses, and

commissions.
Controlling

Coca Cola's controlling function is dependent on the periodic reviews and

evaluation of managerial and employee performance. It ensures that the performance
development is prepared according to the sales person's meeting the targets such as
growth in sales, market development, completion of customers' calls and partner calls.

Importantly, Coca-Cola’s controlling function follows a Global approach wherein

the performance measures vary according to the local conditions of the markets in
which it operates.

Environmental Friendly

In achieving a world without waste, there are different strategies and practices
that this company has provided. The Coca Cola Company has three strategies in
reaching the world without waste, such as design, collect, and partner. In order to
achieve this goal, this company provides different plans to give an effective solution and
address externalities.

For the design process, Coca Cola Company makes their packaging a hundred
percent recyclable and by 2025, they will make it globally. They are engaged in reducing
the usage of new virgin plastic, making new bottles from old bottles, returnable and
refillable packaging, packaging innovations, advancing sustainable packaging around the
world, and sustainability in their secondary packaging.

For the collecting process, they collect bottle cans and recycle them. They are
supporting recycling co-ops during COVID-19, transforming plastic bottles into personal
protective equipment (PPE), and they also have waste pickers.

For the partners, this company decided to bring people together for a healthy
and debris-free environment. They are having partners that are rethinking and recycling,
and keeping waste out of the world’s waterways. They partnered with different
organizations that would help them to care for the environment.

They are also engaged in Plant-Based Sources, which they promote to reduce,
recycle, and replenish. In addition, they are manufacturing their products like bottles
and tin cans through the use of plants. Coca Cola Company ensures that they will use
water efficiently since this is the most important part of their production. This business
committed that they used water efficiently, replenished the water it uses, treating the
wastewater produced, they value the water, and use it wisely.
Order Qualifier and Order Winner

They have become an order winner and qualifier because they have the
characteristics that meet the minimum perception of customers and also, they meet the
organization's standards that would be able to compete in a perfect market.

According to Heidirch (2018), Coca Company became an order qualifier because

of its standard bottle and beverage. In addition, their bottles are made from plants while
their beverages reduce its added sugar to address obesity. Furthermore, they also
became an order winner because of its low costs, changeover flexibility, and delivery
speed. This company has a good distribution process wherein they are able to produce
products in different locations, while having different varieties of drinks.

Health Concerned

Coca Cola Company tried to address global obesity through reducing added
sugar from its beverages.

Distribution Model

Coca Cola Company is at its best because of its distribution model. The Coca Cola
Company is the largest non-alcoholic beverage company, reaching more than 200
countries. Also, it produces 500 beverages grouped into soft drinks, juices, sports drinks,
tea, coffee, and energy drinks.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Coca Cola Company practices racial equity at their company and
communities, wherein they assembled a diverse group of employees from different
functions in order to create an intelligent plan that will drive their company toward their
purpose to make a difference. They provided an enhancing recruiting program,
promoting allyship to increase their spending in diverse suppliers. Furthermore, in
making a plan, they are looking for a different approach in order to create different
results. This company collects information from various groups for innovative thinking.
Valuing People

Coca Cola Company is also a user-based management, wherein they value their
customers and evaluate them in order to provide products that would satisfy the
market. In addition, while valuing their customers they also value their people or their
employees. They are following human rights and workplace rights, they commit to
supplier diversity, they are promoting Global Women’s Leadership, and practices
inclusivity of LGBTQ employee community.

Consumer Driven Focus

Coca Cola Company is helping the community by providing relief to those in need
and 1.9% of its operating income was given back to the community. Helping people
especially during natural calamity or disasters. During challenging times like COVID-19,
Coca Cola Company is helping to provide new solutions and working with local
communities.

Financial Rewards

Coca Cola Company used to give rewards to its employees for excellence
performance. This program used to give rewards like scholarships for their children, car
discounts, and employee discounts. In addition, they also provide training and
development, company car, pension plan, medical insurance for the employees and
families, shared purchased plan, and flexible working time. It is also giving an annual
bonus to its employees.

The monetary incentives include pay hikes, bonuses, and commissions based on
the sales achieved whereas the non-monetary incentives include vouchers for vacations,
travel, and discounted holiday packages for the employee and his or her immediate
family.

Empowering Women Entrepreneur

In the year 2010, Coca Cola Company announced its goal 5by20, which means
they established a Coca Cola Foundation that supports 5 million female entrepreneurs
to reach their goal in businesses. It provides business skills training, mentoring
networks, financial services, and other services that may help women. Fortunately, in
 2020 they were able to surpass their goal into 6 million female entrepreneurs across 100
countries, to provide training.

Values-Based Management

Coca Cola Company had this practice wherein it is a powerful tool that increases
shareholder value and to address the concerns of their stakeholders holistically. It is to
emphasize that value over time. This was conducted for the employees to know the
consequences of proposed actions and how it will make the organization successful.

IV. REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

The Coca-Cola Company, founded in 1892, is an American company currently

engaged in the manufacture and sale of Coca-Cola syrups and concentrates, primarily
sweet sodas. As time passes by, the company keeps evolving and upgrading their
product. The company today, now offers a wide variety of flavors and types of drinks to
the market, and it is now the largest beverage manufacturer and distributor in the
world. Here are some of the remarkable achievements that the Coca Cola company has
made.

 In January 2020, Coca-Cola information security awarded iso certification.

ISO certification covers the design, implementation, support, and maintenance

of information systems and infrastructure. This is a sign of approval that the company
meets all the requirements of standardization and quality assurance.

 The Coca-Cola receives association for talent development “excellence in practice”

award in June 2020.

Association for Talent Development recognizes clear, measurable results

practices that help reach business goals, meet demonstrated needs, have the right
design values, and work clearly with other performance improvement initiatives. The
Fast Forward programs of Coca-Cola have prepared the leaders for the next level of
 leadership by building skills and readiness by combining soft skill development,
mentality changes, and key experiences.

 Coca-Cola receives 2020 excellence in risk management award from ferma in January
2021.

These awards recognize and award best practices and innovations between risk
managers and to the broad community of industry professionals who support them.

 Coca-Cola ranked #8 in the refinitiv diversity & inclusion index in September 2021.

The Coca-Cola have made an inclusive leadership program, they have also
focused on the development of the HR function to disrupt unconscious bias and the
focus on women role models through their stories and panel discussions, as well as the
#nojobhasagender campaign. The company ensured that every person in their business
feels like a valued member and that their opinion matters.

V. CONCLUSION

Putting up a business is not as easy as it seems. Successful companies start from

the bottom, little, face a lot of circumstances and challenges. Based on the
aforementioned above, as the world's leading soda beverage, the Coca Cola Company
applied the Total Quality Management (TQM) where it helps to design the processes,
and ensures a proactive work system ready to respond to deviations from the ideal
state. Since 1896, Coca cola has built a strong foundation of customers to set itself apart
from its competitors. Furthermore, the coca cola company achieved its own market
niche and changed its strategy in order to gain a stronger share of the market,
maintained market share in all regions, and the strategy is sophisticated and in-depth.
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