PART I: INTRODUCTION OF THE TOPIC

The industry is all companies involved in processing raw materials, packaging, and distributing them. This includes alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. Any product meant for human consumption, aside from pharmaceuticals, passes through this industry. Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke (a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944). Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton, Coca-Cola was bought out by businessman Asa Griggs Candler, whose marketing tactics led Coke to its dominance of the world soft-drink market throughout the 20th century. The company produces concentrate, which is then sold to licensed Coca-Cola bottlers throughout the world. The bottlers, who hold territorially exclusive contracts with the company, produce finished product in cans and bottles from the concentrate in combination with filtered water and sweeteners. The bottlers then sell, distribute and merchandise Coca-Cola to retail stores and vending machines. Such bottlers include Coca-Cola Enterprises, which is the largest single Coca-Cola bottler in North America and western Europe. The Coca-Cola Company also sells concentrate for soda fountains to major restaurants and food service distributors. The Coca-Cola Company has, on occasion, introduced other cola drinks under the Coke brand name.

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PART II: BACKGROUND AND EXAMINATION OF PRINCIPLES

Being the worlds leading companies, it is necessary that they understand what is going on with their surroundings. They should be dedicated to their customers and should often take into consideration on how they will help the environment as well as giving back to society. In addition to this, The Coca-cola Company, is well-known in every country for producing carbonated drinks that we can all see sold in grocery stores and supermarkets. This can prove that they can influence people and can help in changing our society. They should be also aware of what their company is going to contribute to the environment nowadays whether they it is for the good or the bad. In May, 1886, Coca Cola was invented by Doctor John Pemberton a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia. John Pemberton concocted the Coca Cola formula in a three legged brass kettle in his backyard. The name was a suggestion given by John Pemberton's bookkeeper Frank Robinson. Being a bookkeeper, Frank Robinson also had excellent penmanship. It was he who first scripted "Coca Cola" into the flowing letters which has become the famous logo of today. The soft drink was first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886. About nine servings of the soft drink were sold each day. Sales for that first year added up to a total of about $50. The funny thing was that it cost John Pemberton over $70 in expanses, so the first year of sales were a loss.

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Until 1905, the soft drink, marketed as a tonic, contained extracts of cocaine as well as the caffeine-rich kola nut. In 1887, another Atlanta pharmacist and businessman, Asa Candler bought the formula for Coca Cola from inventor John Pemberton for $2,300. By the late 1890s, Coca Cola was one of America's most popular fountain drinks, largely due to Candler's aggressive marketing of the product. With Asa Candler, now at the helm, the Coca Cola Company increased syrup sales by over 4000% between 1890 and 1900. Advertising was an important factor in John Pemberton and Asa Candler's success and by the turn of the century, the drink was sold across the United States and Canada. Around the same time, the company began selling syrup to independent bottling companies licensed to sell the drink. Even today, the US soft drink industry is organized on this principle. Until the 1960s, both small town and big city dwellers enjoyed carbonated beverages at the local soda fountain or ice cream saloon. Often housed in the drug store, the soda fountain counter served as a meeting place for people of all ages. Often combined with lunch counters, the soda fountain declined in popularity as commercial ice cream, bottled soft drinks, and fast food restaurants became popular. On April 23, 1985, the trade secret "New Coke" formula was released. Today, products of the Coca Cola Company are consumed at the rate of more than one billion drinks per day. The Coca Cola Company has set their mission to the following:

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To refresh the world... To inspire moments of optimism and happiness... To create value and make a difference.

Their vision which serves as a guideline to their roadmap to success focuses on people, portfolio, planet, partners, profit and productivity. The company wants to be a good place to work wherein people are inspired to work as the best they can be, to be able to bring the world a portfolio of good beverages that the world can enjoy and be with in the moments of their lives, to be able to nurture a lasting relationship with their partners who will help them achieve their goals, to be a responsible citizen that will help make a difference by contributing in building and supporting sustainable communities, to be a highly productive and moving-towards-success company and most of all, to be able to maximize long-term return of shareowners while being mindful of overall responsibilities. Each employee is expected to the companys values such as: Leadership (The courage to shape a better future), Collaboration (Leverage collective genius), and Integrity (Be real), Accountability (If it is to be, it's up to me), Passion (Committed in heart and mind), Diversity (As inclusive as our brands) and Quality (What we do, we do well). The employees also have to focus on the market, work smart, act like the owners and be the brand.

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PART III: DISCUSSION OF ISSUES AND PROBLEMS

Coca-cola, being the leading beverage company here in the Philippines, is one of the strongest corporations of our country. Having this kind of power, they encountered a lot of issues and problems in their corporation such as the controversial smuggling in Negros, corruption, labor issues, malpractices to its employees and many more. On May 29,2011, Batang Negros, a group advocating the safety and rights of the people in Negros Occidental, is involved in a province wide campaign against Coca-cola products. This is because Coca-cola is said to be engaged in smuggling and tax evasion schemes which is contributing to the damage being created in the local economy, jobs and planters in the province. As we all know, Negros is the sugar bowl of the Philippines and their province is very dependent in the sugar industry. Recently, the government agencies have found out that the said company has been deceiving them by importing millions of kilos of sugar which they intentionally labeled as pre-mix sugar so that they will not pay the sugar tariff. This has been the cause why our sugar industry is going down and will not only kill those planters business but also the whole provinces economy as well.

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The company is also said to be one of the great contributors of labor abuse in the world. Coca-cola Philippines utilizes outsourcing of multiple agencies in order to do their services needs like what they are doing in their Davao branch. They do this in order to avoid paying benefits that should be received by regular employees. This is step is also done in order to avoid the formation of unions in the company. They have been practicing this for a long time and if they can replace all of their employees into outsourcing agencies they surely will, as stated in killercoke.org. Smuggling is also common in other industries such as the car industry and the health industry. A lot of imported products does not undergo into proper process and are shipped in our country without proper documents and paying the right tariff. These happened in Talakag, Bukidnon last May 5 wherein the authorities discovered smuggled luxury cars. They ended up confiscating and destroying these cars and their investigation somehow showed that some politicians are involved in the smuggling activities here in our country. Who would also forget that our country became controversial for smuggling kidneys? Our fellow Filipinos were forced to sell one of their kidneys in order to earn some money for food. Another thing is that the company is also tolerating corruption practices by their employees. There are reports of serious cases of plunder and corruption and falsification of Company records and documents. It seems that the higher management is tolerating the wrongdoings of their employees because the bosses are the first one stealing and cheating. Corruption is worst in our government. A lot of our budget

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allocated for the citizens of our country would not reach its destined places. It seems that corruption is a part of every company here in the Philippines and we have fought a fight against corruption for a very long time. It seems that no matter how hard we try the corruption would never fail to exist in our country even in the smallest kind of business. A DTL can earn a million by just starting a penetration program without even starting a real one. Plaridel Ramos reported a morality decline in

cocacolaphilippines.weebly.com that they had once made a party in their company wherein they enjoyed the Coke way. They had drinks and materials that came from the merchandise of the branch. Their boss was engaged with infidelity with one of their co-workers that they could not stomach in the situation. Their boss and their co-worker would sometimes go out and shop during their time of work and their boss ended in promoting their co-worker. This is clearly an issue in almost every company that is why some companies forbid the existence of any romantic relationship within the company as this might cause conflict of interest among co-workers. It is also said that the promotion in this company is based on favoritism. They do not practice fairness and transparency. The favoritism method is clearly seen in the offices. If you are a son or daughter or in any relation with your boss, youll be promoted faster or be treated with favor even though you do not work that hard during working hours. Some of the said promoted employees do not really know how to handle their people, customers and other co-workers. They do not know their outlets because

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they do not go on route to check on things. They do not know how to make presentations during meeting or sales reviews. Worst of all, some employees encounter a boss who could not ever lift a cursor in the computer. The kumpadre system which is embedded in our cultures life is visibly seen in this situation. We, Filipinos, value our family that much that we tend to put these ties first before acknowledging other people who might actually be better that those we know. Their employees safety is also neglected when the supervisors and managers force those below them to use service vehicles wherein the motorcycle is not built to have a sidecar but they still use it to deliver products to their outlets. An account developer was fortunate enough to survive an accident on this service vehicle and they are not given any safety gears for the usage of these motors. The company is obviously overlooking the safety of those who work for them. In order to lessen down expenses, we degenerate our facilities and sometimes the degeneration of facilities are making the job risky and we overlook our safety.

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PART IV: IMPLICATION TO INDIVIDUAL STUDENT OF THE APPLICATION AND PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS AND COMMUNICATION

Being a big company, Coca-cola should have not overlooked these flaws and they are committing a big crime not only to our countrys economy but also to our fellow citizens morale and trust to their working environment. Their actions show how rotten they are in the core while they are shinning on their shells. It is really unbelievable that such crimes can be committed by a well-know company not only in our country but also internationally. Clearly on the case of smuggling sugar from Negros, the company is not showing Kantianism and Deontology which are the ethics and science of duty. Escaping the tariff pay in our country can be considered as stealing and this is not good. Good governance is doing the right thing and good management is doing things right [Immanuel Kant]. The company is committing into fraud and therefore they have bad management. They are also not practicing Veracity principle, wherein businesses should not be deceptive of their practices. Importing sugar as pre-mixed sugar is deceiving the countrys

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government and will not help in their image and reputation. Smuggling is not only committed by the Coca-cola Company but with other dealers too. Car smuggling is also one of the greatest problems in our country. The social responsibility of the business was also not seen in the recent activities of the company. A theory of social responsibility that says a corporation owes a duty to take actions that maximize profits for shareholders. But what the corporation is doing now makes the sales of the company down and thus lowering the profits of the shareholders. It also states that a companys duty is maximizing profit without causing harm to others but they clearly damaged the local economy of Negros when they smuggled sugar which also shows that they are not practicing this ethical theory. Consequentialism is also one of the theories that can be applied to this situation since no one notices that the company is doing it, the company continues to do it. Though someone notices, they tolerate it. Consequentialism maintains that the majority of an action depends on the non-moral consequences that the actions bring about. It consists of the ratio of being good to being evil. A person defines the good and evil and thus we all have different point of views as to what is evil and what is good. But we should also consider other peoples point of view in order to achieve living in harmony and so that we will not harm other people. Values clarification can be applied in the situation wherein the boss is having an affair with an employee. Values clarification teaches that the most important factor is not what one believes, but being aware ones own feelings, beliefs, and values systems.

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People thus consider alternative models of thinking and acting. By acting thusly and making ones own choices, one develops ones own values. The boss may want the employee feel that he wants her but they are, without a doubt, neglecting their work. It might be okay if the two of them will still be responsible and that their relationship will not mix with business but it did not. They might think that what they are doing is okay and is right but they clearly ignored the fact that there are other people around them when they are goofing around during their time of work. On the case of promoting someone that the boss knows, the boss clearly did not practice principle ethics. Principle Ethics states that principles are merely value states or guidelines to actions (as opposed to rules or laws). Thus when principles encounter each other in conflict it is not a conflict of norms, but rather an exercise in reasoning and logic. The one in the higher position promoted someone he knows even if he knows that that person is not capable of handling such responsibilities or is lazy enough not to learn things about his field of job. He just promoted that person without evaluating things and without reasons no logic. He did it just because he has the knowledge who that person is or out of the sheer fact that they are related to each other. This is unmistakably an act of favoritism. Ethical Relativism is overly practiced in some situations of the company. It is a moral theory that holds that individuals must decide what is ethical based on their own feelings as to what is right or wrong. They kept on considering their own feeling and neglected the logical way of thinking. They do what

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makes them happy and what helps them as a person but they did not consider other people. They kept on thinking that their decisions are right because they feel it is right. The corporate social audit states that corporate audits should be extended up to the moral health of the corporation. They should conduct social audits which will minimize or prevent any illegal conducts of the managers, employees and sales agents. They should analyze if the employees are still sticking to the code of ethics of the company. They should also see to it that they are promoting employment opportunities to all, the safety of the workers, environmental protection and consumer protection. Above all this, in every situation, I believe that the Cognitive Moral Development might be possible. Cognitive Moral Development (as espoused by Lawrence Kohlberg) states that ethics education is possible. Just as people develop mentally, physically, and emotionally, they develop a moral cognizance. Using critical thinking tactics such as the Socratic method, people can solve their ethical dilemmas. Thus, there is a positive chance that the company might point out their flaws in ethical dilemmas and correct them. They will learn how to handle things and will be able to make things right. This also assumes that the company and its management has natural goodwill hidden somewhere in the back of their minds which will awaken if they learn these things. They might just be affected by the situation and are not thinking clearly so there is a chance to clear things up and make up to the damages they have done.

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PART V: ANALYSIS

The Coca-Cola Company is clearly engaging in demoralization acts towards their employees, corruption, plunder and a lot more. These should not be committed if they want to keep the companys good reputation and lose their customers trust. Though they can still change, it will be difficult to earn trust again. It is hard to get back once the company has lost it and it might be the cause of the downfall of the company. Every company would want to maximize their profit but they should not take a toll on making profits and neglecting their social duties to their customers and employers. After all, a company with a rotten top management will be rotten all the way to its lowest employees. They may be earning big time but there will come a time when the nature will balance out any excess and what they have done will go back to them.

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PART VI: CONCLUSION

The Coca-Cola Company is clearly engaging in demoralization acts towards their employees, corruption, plunder and a lot more. These should not be committed if they want to keep the companys good reputation and lose their customers trust. The ethical theories are clearly not show in such actions and they are neglecting their duties as a employer to their company, as a citizen of the world and as a good producer to their customers.

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PART VII: RECOMMENDATION

The Coca-Cola Company should start straightening their curved path starting by facing the problems in the tariff allegation. They should live up to their companys slogan which is Open Coke, Open Happiness but the damage they are doing are bringing up harm and not happiness not only to the customers but also to their environment. They should not forget their duty to the public, the government and the environment. The case filed by the Batang Negros last August 2011 could not be stopped anymore but instead they should show their sincerity in asking for forgiveness to those people they had done damage to. They should also give back to the province and help those people in order to gain back their trust and will also help in cleaning up their name. They should show what they are really importing and not to commit such crimes again. Second, they should hire regular employees and give them proper

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benefits in order to achieve a higher employee satisfaction which would also give them higher customer satisfaction and might increase their sales. Third, they should counsel with their managers and supervisors in cleaning up corruption inside their company. If the corruption will be minimize, if not thoroughly eliminates, the companys sales will go up and the employers morale will increase. Fourth, if possible, the company should prohibit having affairs or relationships between the employees inside the company for this will undoubtedly affect their works. If someone wins the favor of the boss due to their relationship, it will be completely unfair to those people who work as hard or harder for their jobs. Finally, the safety of their employees must be on the list of the managers. Making sure their employees are safe while working will make the employees trust the company more and will work harder. If they feel neglected, they will have the tendency to be lazy about their work and will not work to their full potential. The problems that the company is encountering nowadays can be put into halt if not tolerated and should receive punishment and attention. This will make the company better and will achieve a much higher goal if they do not just think of the profit but also think of their customers and employees. Greed is not a good thing. It only brings up a shadow in the light and you will lose sight of your real goal which is to bring happiness to people. For me, the secret to success is being successful in your management strategy and will help build up good image which will eventually lead up to much higher sales.

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REFERENCES

http://cocacolaphilippines.weebly.com http://killercoke.org/ http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/index.html http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~dgs2/theories.pdf http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Bre-Cap/Business-Ethics.html http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/ http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/mission_vision_values.html

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Favorite Quotations
"No one lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train. It can't run anywhere except where its rails take it." -Cloud, Final Fantasy VII When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. -Shinichi Kudo, Detective Conan I will never give up... I never go back on my word... thats my way of the ninja! - Naruto Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of equivalent exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth. -Alphonse Elric (Full Metal Alchemist) Humans are things that don't know the true vlaue of something precious until they lose and if somehow, they get thet precious thing back, they'll forget its value again. -Midou Ban (GetBackers)

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"It is always sad to part with those whom you love but your companions will help you bear that sadness." - Erza Scarlet, Fairy Tail "It's a basic truth of the human condition that everybody lies. The only variable is about what." -Gregory House, Dr. House "The treatments don't always work. Symptoms never lie." -Gregory House, Dr. House "When do you think people die? When they are shot through the heart by the bullet of a pistol? No. When they are ravaged by an incurable disease? No. When they drink a soup made from a poisonous mushroom!? No! It's when they are forgotten." -Dr. Hiruluk, One Piece "The past is the past. We cannot indulge ourselves in memories and destroy the present." -Ken Murata, Great Sage, Kyou Kara Maou "Nothing is destined, you can change your own life, don't just believe in destiny as it is unchangeable, believe it as it is changeable." -Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto "What's really important, is not the fact that I was weak, but the will to become stronger." -Yuki Sohma, Fruits Basket

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