Give analysis of the Coca-Cola Company………………..
INTRODUCTION
The Coca-Cola Company is one of the main global players in the soft drinks industry enjoying presence in over 200 countries in the world and some of its brands are market leaders. The company’s mission is to offer refreshments to a large global population, inspire optimism and happiness and also create value and optimism to its global clientele. It aims to do this through continuously improving the quality of its brands to ensure customer satisfaction. The company’s vision targets six main areas; inspiring its workforce by making the working environment conducive, balancing its portfolio by bringing a wide range of brands to satisfy customer expectations, develop a network of suppliers and customers for mutual benefit, nurture global communities through growth, maximize returns to shareholders through realization of profits and also making the company lean and efficient.
OPERATING STRATEGY
The company has endeavored to remain competitive in the market by providing a wide variety of brands that ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty. Due to their wide presence in many countries, they have established more than 275 bottling partners to ensure the availability of their products at all times. They have also continued to widen their product range which stands at over 3,000 varieties of teas, waters, juices, energy drinks, coffee and sports drinks (Thompson, 2012). This has made the company be in a league of its own in the provision of these services. The company in doing this has maintained the highest quality standards throughout its bottling plants. The mother plant in Atlanta, Georgia manufactures the concentrates that are then sold to the bottling partners throughout the world. This ensures the quality of their products is maintained and this enhances customer and brand loyalty. The presence of many quality brands ensures the company has a competitive edge against its competitors and also the overall supervision of the bottling partners all over the world to ensure there is no compromise on quality makes the company enjoy wide acceptance worldwide.
The company in efforts to realize its mission and vision will require a strategy that will act as the guide in all its efforts. The company is recognized as the major provider of non alcoholic drinks and therefore it must embark on an aggressive phase of brand development. This will be attained through the use of technology and brand development policies that are relevant to the industry. The company should ensure the price value of its products is maintained. This means that the price will be affordable to many of the customers and also will guarantee profitability to the company so that it can meet its operational expenses. In addressing this company must analyze the risks that are inherent in the many countries it operates. The rates of inflation are rising and the company must devise strategies of how their bottling partners could limit their exports and imports and concentrate in the local jurisdictions. The company should also ensure that it continues to increase the preference of their brands especially among the non alcoholic segments. This is because the majority of the world populations are realizing the dangers posed by alcohol especially in causing cancer related ailments. There should therefore be development of more and more product varieties to suit the ever growing customer requirements. This is being seen by the emergence of Starbucks coffee company and Pepsi who want a share of the market by providing portable and low priced products. This will only be possible through investing in more research activities and the use of technology. The company should also adopt the pervasive penetration of its products in all the markets it operates in. This will enable all the markets to grow simultaneously leading to increase in the market share. The growth of the current markets will result to higher revenue growth and profitability. The firm will have more capital to invest and this is what will guarantee expansion into other markets where the company has yet to venture.
VALUE CREATION PROCESS
The company must ensure there is value creation for the customers, employees and the investors. The customers must be supplied with good quality products that are affordable and within the reach of the majority. The company must therefore invest in a lot of research and market surveys to be able identify the specific customer needs in the various geographical areas they operate. They should provide more products to serve the various demographic groups in the society. They should also endeavor to expand into other new territories and serve the customers who are located there. The employees of the company must be rewarded for their strategic work in their various capacities in the organization. The company should provide opportunities for the different levels of employees in the various regions world wide to interact, communicate and share their ideas. This will create team work, cohesion and internal competition among the various levels of the employees. This will in the end enhance the company’s performance in the global scene due to increased productivity. There should be devised methods for measuring each employee’s performance to enhance development and also recommend areas that require further training through implementation of training programs. There should also be value addition to the share holders. They should be rewarded for having been loyal to the company by increase in their dividends so that they can get a return on their investment. This will call on the company to review its policy on the retained earnings which mainly finance the expansion into other territories and also hedges against inflationary pressure. The results of these initiatives will be measured through market reports that will analyze the market share of the product and also the customer satisfaction levels.
THE SUPPLY CHAIN
The company trades through locally owned subsidiaries that mainly do the packaging for the product. The concentrates and syrups used for the making of the products are centrally produced by the mother plant in the USA. The local subsidiaries usually import and then dilute the products as per the recommendations and then pack the products into bottles ready for sale in the local markets. They have distributor chains that are strategically located all over the country to ensure they fully serve the market; this ensures that the respective market is fully served for total customer satisfaction. This is in line with the mission and vision of the company that aim at ensuring the products are within an arms length reach to the customers. They have also ensured that there is quality workforce to push forward their strategy. This is done by recruiting competent staff at all levels of operations. The subsidiaries partner with qualified human resource recruitment agencies that engage the best in line with the global demands and requirements. There is various sections of the value added process that the company can outsource. They can outsource the market survey programs to known marketing organizations that are competent and fully equipped. This will ensure subjectivity in the reports and they will be more reliable. There should also be outsourcing in the supply activities of the subsidiaries. They should contract known logistics companies like DHL to distribute their products to the various retailers. The company will have their staff on the ground to ensure the consumers are getting the products at the recommended rates and also in time. This will reduce the costs associated with freight maintenance and personnel in the affected departments. This additional savings on costs can be redirected to other activities like more marketing drives; advertising and sales promotions.
CONCLUSION
The Coca-Cola Company aims at being present allover the world by the year 2020. For it to achieve this ambition it must maintain the good quality of its products so that the high levels of customer satisfaction it currently enjoys can be maintained. The company must also increase the supply of all its products in all the countries it operates in. This will give the consumers a wide range of products to select from in line with their tastes and preferences. Therefore the subsidiaries must expand their capacities to enable them handle the additional production lines. The staff morale must also be high due to the critical role they continue to play in meeting the goals and objectives setout by the company. They should be regularly trained to equip them with modern technology to ensure efficiency and quality.
References
Thompson, R (2012) “Analysis of the Coca-Cola Company” (Online) Available from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ (Accessed on 1st May 2002)
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