Premium Essay

What Happened at Coca Cola

In: Business and Management

Submitted By rando
Words 946
Pages 4
Question 1 Using the traditional change model the first step is unfreezing. In this situation recognizing the need for change should have become apparent when Rev. Joseph Wheeler the president of the local NAACP brought discrimination concerns to officials at the Coca-Cola Company. Rather than accepting this information and investigating on their own, they simply dismissed this information because the Reverend was not a lawyer. This was a perfect opportunity for the Coca-Cola company to begin the unfreezing process and begin some much needed changes but unfortunately it did not happen and a lawsuit followed. The actual unfreezing began when Ivestor was basically forced to resign his position. This was an important step because Ivestor seemed to be in a state of denial of any wrong doing whatsoever by the company. Once he was replaced by Daft the outlook for the company’s diversity challenges seemed to change. Daft brought a new perspective to the company that included “being seen as a model citizen.” This is important because Coca-Cola is a company that depends on its image. They sell products by associating their drinks with good feelings and happiness. A company that is seen as discriminating against minorities hardly produces any good feelings. The reshaping of the company’s culture further included implementation of the EEO task force and naming Ware Vice President of Global Public Affairs. Additional reshaping of the company occurred when the company finally accepted that they had made major HR mistakes. This was the first time they admitted there was a problem and would try to fix these issues. The re-freezing occurred when the company adopted new policies and programs that directly addressed their diversity issues. A very important quote by Chairman and CEO Daft was when he stated “Our commitment to diversity is not an endpoint but a

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

What Happened at Coca-Cola

...“WHAT HAPPENED AT COCA-COLA?” The mission of the Coca- Cola Company is to strive to refresh the world, inspire moments of optimism and happiness, create value and make a difference (www.coca-colacompany.com, 2009). The article, “What Happened at Coca-Cola” demonstrates that one of the world’s most recognized brands was not “walking the walk” but merely just “talking the talk” when it pertained to their expressed mission, vision and values. The undiversified actions of the top executives at Coca-Cola caused minorities of the company to file a lawsuit claiming unjust treatment of Blacks and other minorities through promotions, pay and other disparate actions. Issues In 1999, a lawsuit was filed against Coca-Cola for allegations stemming from discrimination against Black employees in promotions, evaluations, terminations and compensation. In addition, the Black ex-employees that filed the suit claimed that since around 1995, Coca-Cola systematically paid them lower salaries than whites for the same work and suffered from harassment on the job. The lawsuit brought to the forefront the companies lack of managing diversity and issues of addressing employee concerns. The Coca-Cola Company hired and retained minorities in their workforce; however, they “dropped the ball” when representing the correct percentage of minorities in top higher management positions. A major part of showing diversity in the workforce is having employees represented not only in the service capacity but...

Words: 1059 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Coca-Cola Storyboard Test

...DISCUSSION GUIDE COCA-COLA STORYBOARD TEST 1. Warm up and Introduction (10 min) Greeting respondents, “rules of the game”, recording, introduction of respondents • There are no good or bad answers, everything is possible • Discussion is video taped! Confidentiality! • Colleagues are taking notes! • Respondents Introduces him/herself! (Age, Main activity, Family, Hobbies) 2. CSD and Coca-Cola Consumption (5 min) • What kind of CSDs do you drink? Do you drink Coca-Cola? • When, how often and in what kind of situations do you drink Coca-Cola? • Which Coca-Cola advertisements can you recall? What kind of mood do they have? To whom are these ads addressed? • Can you recall any music of Coca-Cola advertisements? Likes/dislikes? Why? • What are the general characteristics of Coca-Cola? What does it provide you with? • Let’s make a list what Coca-Cola brings to you! MODERATOR PUTS ALL ATTRIBUTES MENTIONED ON FLIPCHART. PROBES FOR “very refreshing, energizes me, for people like me, favorite brand, great tasting, the best CSD, part of everyday life”. MARKS THOSE NOT RELEVANT TO BACKCHECK AFTERWARDS WITH STORYBOARDS. 3. Evaluation of storyboards (5x20 min) Executions are demonstrated on boards. Executions are rotated. Now I am going to show you several new advertising ideas for Coca-Cola. They are not ready TV spots but an approximate...

Words: 1316 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Evaluate the Influence Different Stakeholders Exert in One Organisation

...determines its stakeholders than a family business; it is therefore much more influenced and affected by the action, aims and objective of its stakeholders. In this report I will evaluate the influence of three stakeholders; Employees, Suppliers and consumers on Coca-Cola. Employees: Employee are very influential stakeholders of Coca Cola and they are one of the most important for the running of the organisation. Coca Cola has around 146,200 worldwide employees who have a high impact o the organisation. Satisfaction and performance of employees fully depends on the way human resources are managed in a company. Employee’s main interests are salaries, wages and job satisfaction; all these influence the company’s staff turnover, industrial action and the quality of the products and/ or services. Coca Cola must considers a lot of factors when employing new staff and managing the existing staff. Employees can affect and influence in various way and due to various reasons, some of which are skills and qualifications, personal views and opinions, employee performance, training and redundancy. Since employee are one of the main stakeholders and are the human resources of the company their performance highly affects Coca Cola. If employees are not satisfied with the wages or the working environment the product and the service will not be satisfactory quality either and this will result in poor publicity. Motivation is one of the methods used by HR to improve employees performance as...

Words: 1068 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Case Study

...University of Seattle Background In 1999, Coca-Cola was facing a serious lawsuit which was strongly testify Coca-Cola, because of Coca-Cola systematically discriminating against African-Americans in promotions, evaluations and pay lower salaries than whites. This was a famous racial discrimination lawsuit in the history (Winter, 2000). Plaintiffs At beginning, some workers of Coca-Cola Company were accused and terrorized those African-Americans who work in the same working environment. However, Coca-Cola didn’t make any solution to solve this problem; as a result, more than 2000 employees decided to sued Coca-Cola Company. Accused The salaries which Coca-Cola Company paid for their black workers were lower than white workers. They were doing the some work but the salaries ware totally different; consequently, white workers were earned more than $26,000 average a year. This racial discrimination lawsuit was a very serious problem in Coca-Cola Company’s history. Analysis Racial discrimination is a very serious problem for Coca-Cola Company; it can cause a severe damage on Coca-Cola Company’s brand image. It will affect their future sales performance. In the beginning, Coca-Cola Company can avoid this lawsuit, if they were cared about those black workers’ right. Coca-Cola made a wrong decision about this case which they choose to ignore their workers’ right; as a result, they going to the court. Everyone is born equal. No matter what color they are, they have their own right...

Words: 707 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Case “Strategic Leadership at Coca-Cola: the Real Thing”

...Exam case “Strategic Leadership at Coca-Cola: The real thing” Assignment questions: 1. Analyze personal characteristics of top managers of Coca-Cola. How effective was leadership of Coca-Cola executives? What theoretical background you may apply to identify leadership styles of each top manager? Goizueta This person could be identified as a strategic leader, because his style of leadership was in changing Coca-Cola financially, organizationally and culturally. He combined best elements of managerial and visionary approach. He was focused on ideas and the future of organization and was known as business philosopher and emphasized the need for leaders to establish the sense of direction. He felt comfortable to “define the character of the company from his office” and gave people responsibility and authority to get job done e.g. left operational work to his CEE when he was focused on his own role with regard to brand building, making deals and selling concentrate.Goizueta were ready to change things and he considered Coca-Cola as too conservative and wanted to change things. He said, “The world is changing and we are not changing with the world.” Goizueta was also ready to take risks e.g. when he decided to put Coca-Cola trademark on a new product. Goizueta emphasized the importance of relationships and encouraged speedier decision-making. Ivester His leadership style could be described as managerial, (with some elements od strategic) because he focuses on both day-to-day...

Words: 1530 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Business Letter

...Which sodas have more Carbon Dioxide with salt? How will the salt react to the hot, cold, and room temperature sprite, and coca-cola gas bubbles? I think the gas bubbles from all 3 coca-cola rises higher, than the gas bubbles from all 3 sprites. WHEN THE SALT WENT INSIDE EACH COCA-COLA BOTTLES, AND EACH SPRITE BOTTLES, THERE WAS A MIXTURE REACTION, AND THE GAS IS PRODUCED.SINCE THERE WAS NO WHERE TO GO, BUT TO INFLATED EACH BALLOONS. 1. SIX BALLOONS 2. THREE SPRITE BOTTLES 3. THREE COCA-COLA BOTTLES 4. SIX TEASPOONS OF SALT 5. FUNNEL 1. PLACE THE 3 BOTTLES OF SPRITE, AND 3 BOTTLES OF COCA-COLA ON TOP OF THE TABLE. 2. THEN YOU FILL EACH BALLOON WITH 1 TEASPOON OF SALT. 3. THEN YOU STRECTH THE OPENING ENDS OF EACH BALLOONS OVER THE MOUTH OF EACH COCA-COLA BOTTLES, AND EACH MOUTH OF THE SPRITE BOTTLES. 4. FIRMLY HOLD THE ATTACHED END OF EACH BALLOON IN YOUR FIST. 5. IN YOUR OTHER HANH LIFT THE END OF EACH BALLONS, LETTING THE SALT FALL INTO EACH COCA-COLA BOTTLES, AND EACH SPRITE BOTTLES ONE AT A TIME. YES, MY HYPOTHESIS WAS RIGHT THAT THE GAS BUBBLES FROM THE 3 COCA-COLA BOTTLES WILL RISE HIGHER THEN THE GAS BUBBLES FRO THE 3 SPRITE BOTTLES. THE NEXT THING WAS NO MY RESULT WERE NOT THE SAME EVERY TIME THAT I TRIED IT, AND THEN IT NEVER HAPPENED LIKE THE WAY I THOUGHT IT WOULD HAPPEN. I KNOW THERE WAS A CHANGE , WHEN I USED DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEMPERATURE SODAS. ON MY SCIENCE PROJECT, I HAD NO PROBLEM WITH IT, AFTER...

Words: 398 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Racial Differences In To Kill A Mockingbird

...equal. Even now in 2016 there are still events in which people express their disdain of a person for their race. The transition to the tolerance we have today has been an onerous path for many especially for those who suffered an unfair trial. To Kill A Mockingbird, the Scottsboro Trial, the Emmett Till Murder Trial, the Coca-Cola lawsuit, and EEOC vs. Rizza Cadillac are clear examples of how it seems like the United States...

Words: 1675 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Coca Cola

...Current update of coca cola in India Celebrity endorsement to boost up their company name. Coca cola India has use Bollywood celebrity endorsement to increase their brand popularity, the use of celebrity as endorsement has been able to boost up their brand awareness and also their sales, consumer are more attracted towards coca cola as their favorite celebrity is also drinking the products, India is one country, which has always idolized the stars of the celluloid world. Therefore it makes tremendous sense for a brand to procure a celebrity for its endorsement. In India there is an exponential potential for a celebrity endorsement to be perceived as genuinely relevant, thereby motivating consumers to go in for the product. Among the celebrity that has been coca cola India endorser is Amir Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor. A quote from Aristotle said that, Beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of recommendation. The quote from Aristotle said that the use of an image or a person is better attraction or recommendation than any other sort of advertisement. Coca cola India uses celebrity as their endorser will attract more customer as the celebrity itself is their idol and they look up on their on their idol itself. The benefit of using celebrity endorsement is the establishment of credibility, ensured attention, and higher degree of recall. When a brand uses a celebrity as their endorser credibility is established, normally when a celebrity...

Words: 1148 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Star Bucks

...PROJECT ON COCA COLA ASSESSING THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SUBMITTED BY * *RYAN MARTINS * REGNO*: 634 Contents DEFINATION OF RESOURCE MANAGMENT The process of using the company’s resources in the most efficient way possible this resources can include tangible resources such as goods and equipments and financial resources and also labour resource such as employees. Resource management can include ideas such as making sure one has enough resources for the business but not an overburden so that products won’t get used. INTRODUCTION The Coca-Cola Company is the world's leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. Along with Coca Cola, the world's best known brand, The Coca Cola Company markets four of the world's top-five soft drink brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. Throughout the world, no other brand is an immediately recognizable as Coca Cola. Any company to be successful need to use it resources very efficiently. the emergence of HRM as a universal remedy for integrating business strategy and people management has exposed personnel practitioners to a fresh set of role challenges and managerial expectations that have stressed out the gaps between the HR language and reality. The goal of human resource management is to help an organization to meet strategic goals by attracting, and maintaining employees and also to manage them effectively. Coke achieved great...

Words: 1280 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Enviro Scann

...into an environmental scan is, Coca Cola and Pepsi. Both companies have been around for over 100 years and still counting. For a company to stay up and strong for that amount of time must conclude to be doing something right. As in many organization, there are up’s and down’s, how a company comes out of its failures allows you the ready to understand and learn. Coca Cola has been in business since 1886, and has had several modifications to its product. People are magnetized to just the name alone; it is an iconic soft drink that has a grasp onto its consumers. Coca Cola seems to be one to hold onto an older generation. Compare its self to some other top brands that many are accustom to, such as; Microsoft, Starbucks, Pepsi, and Apple. Coca Cola has value within its customers because of its history, ask someone when they hear the word Coca Cola, many will use such terms as, Polar bear, and Santa. Coca Cola has used many ways to remind people to purchase Coca Cola. Coca Cola uses such as in their mission statement alone, “To refresh the world, to inspire moments of optimism, and happiness, and to create value and make a difference” (The Coca Cola Company, 2013). Coca Cola’s mission statement takes a new outlook to where and how people feel and how they mark their consumer. Coca Cola holds itself within a balance of the upper most selling soft drink brands. Coca Cola sustains itself within a saturated market of popular soft drink brands. Coca Cola uses many forms of media, such...

Words: 994 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Coca Cola in India

...Coca Cola in India: Managing Cultural Differences Written By Kristina DeLong Jones International University March 14th, 2014 Americans value time. This means they believe keeping appointments and deadlines are very important. EDiplomat (2014) says that people who miss deadlines in America are viewed as irresponsible and undependable. Indians have a more relaxed sense of time. Unfortunately that causes some American business people to look at them as lazy. According to Compare Business Products (2010) Indians are not particularly renowned for their punctuality; they are perceived as laid back people who only watch the clock when it’s close to quitting time. When it comes to Americans they seem to live by “if it wasn’t documented, it never happened.” That means they feel the need to document most things on paper. Americans also use a lot of emails and text. This is very different in India because they don’t keep proper records. They also don’t usually know how to use proper email etiquette. However, they are very good at picking up any new technique. Numerous American companies push for large corporate meetings. Americans express their feelings and opinions much more freely than Indians. Indians are not used to much public speaking, but that is done frequently in America. Indians usually are more apt to express opinions in smaller groups than in large ones like it is done in America. Coca Cola should be concerned when doing business in India because they have expirations...

Words: 668 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Diversity at Coca Cola

...Diversity at Coca Cola Karrie McHugh Managing Global Diversity/Keller Coca Cola thought they had it all. Their product was selling rather well when they first started. They found through studies that one in every four people were drinking a soft drink and most of this early on was Coca Cola. In 2002, they were still doing great with over $3.9 billion in netted profits. They not only sold in the United States but in over 200 countries all together. They even diversified their product to where it was not just coke. They sold sprite, Diet Coke, and many others. The biggest hardship that they ran across was when they started their marketing trying to become diverse to who they sold to. That is when they started to sell their products in Africa, Europe, Asia, etc. But the problem was with the workforce and not who they were selling to. In 1999, they received a lawsuit that they were discriminating against their black employees. They did not get reasonable promotions, pay and evaluations. This was really a big strike against Coca Cola and began to affect them negatively because their consumers were largely made up of African Americans and Latinos. Coca Cola thought they were diverse because they aided Nelson Mandela’s fund raising tour and helped the South African’s with the antiapartheid cause. But the big problem was they did not do for their employees. The idea of diversity seemed to be...

Words: 1061 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

N/a, N/a

...The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company with numerous of brands. Currently, there is more than 200 countries who enjoy their beverages (History of bottling , 2015 ). Coca-Cola is evidently the oldest beverage company, it was born in 1886, in fact, just a year after Dr Pepper was first made available (What is the oldest soft drink in the world , 2011). In addition, it controls all of 42.8% market share in the carbonated drinks market (Bhasin, 2011). On Coca Cola’s main website shares their mission, vision and values. Their mission statement contains three points, first, to refresh the world, then, to inspire moments of optimism and happiness, and finally, to create value and make a difference (mission vision values, 2015). They have committed themselves to improve the quality of life in the communities where they do business (Community Requests - Guidelines & Application, 2015). Making a unique and sustainable difference by; water stewardship, active healthy living, community recycling, and education (Community Requests - Guidelines & Application, 2015). Water Stewardship is recognized as a global ethical responsibility for Coca Cola. Here are some several ways Coca-Cola fulfil their ethical responsibility, they provide access to clean water and sanitation, including educating and creating awareness that promote water conservation within communities and industry (Global Pillars, 2012). One example is the Danube River, the longest non-Russian river...

Words: 886 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Managing Change Paper

...the Coca Cola Company as its example within the organization of what needs to change. The Coca Cola Company has had its formula and been in business since 1889 and like many Fortune 500 companies may not feel the need to make any changes or fix something that isn’t broken. The team has decided that the diet soft drinks and the natural soft drink division should be expanded upon. Coke was last in developing its Diet Coke product leaving the soft drink TAB to do the work for them. Their competitor, Pepsi was way ahead of them as well as RC Cola. Although marketers and developers continually asked Coca Cola to develop a Diet Coke product, they did not wish to use their name for this kind of beverage. The product TAB is now 50 years old and still takes a huge percentage of the market place. The Diet Coke product is number three in the US for overall beverages; clearly the Coca Cola Company has the overall market share and needs to change by expanding into new products that do not have the fructose corn syrup and heavy sugar contents or chemical sweeteners. So what types of contrast continuous and discontinuous change will that mean in this scenario? Every large corporation that has ever existed has gone thru many types of changes along the course of its existence. Coca Cola Company has many years in business in which its consumers have experienced several product changes: some of them well accepted and some of them rejected. The types of changes implemented within the Coca Cola...

Words: 1468 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Coca-Cola Ethics

...company, and the facts and issues of the case. According to Ferrell, the Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company, and markets four of the world’s top five leading soft drinks. The company operates the largest distribution system in the world, which enables it to serve customers and businesses in more than two hundred countries. The Coca-Cola Company estimates that about 85 percent of its sales come from outside the United States (Ferrell). Former CEO Roberto Goizueta once said “Coca-Cola used to be an American company with a large international business. Now we are a large international company with a sizable American business” (Ferrell). According to Ferrell, Coca-Cola is the most-recognized trademark and brand name in the world today with a trademark value estimated to be about $25 billion. Coca-Cola’s vision for sustainable growth is fostered by being a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be, by bringing the world a portfolio of beverage brands that anticipate and satisfy peoples’ desires and needs, by being a responsible global citizen that makes a difference, and maximizing return to share owners while being mindful of their overall responsibilities (Ferrell). While Coca-Cola’s vision statement may sound ethical, they have had several unethical issues come about in the past decade. According to Ferrell, in the early 2000’s Coca-Cola was involved in racial discrimination, misrepresenting market tests and manipulating...

Words: 2304 - Pages: 10