Coca Cola Strategic Analysis

Coca Cola Strategic Analysis

Executive Summary

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's’ largest and leading beverage company. As a multinational organization that operates in over 200 countries, they are dedicated to creating a sustainable and thriving long-term destination for their organization. This is what their 2020 Vision is all about. The Roadmap towards that vision begins with the initial phase of the Strategic Planning cycle. This report evaluates the organization’s mission, vision, value and goal/objective oriented statements. Their three-pronged mission statement clearly denotes the company’s economic and philanthropic purposes, and provides the foundation for the 2020 Roadmap. Their vision statements serve as the framework for this Roadmap, and addresses each and every aspect of the company’s internal and external environment. While their value statements facilitate the creation of a “winning” culture, the lack of any discernable or measurable goals and objectives muddle the guidance of the mission statement, and rob the vision statements of their effectiveness. The organization could realize the power of their mission and vision statements if a clear, concise, and measurable set of goals/objectives were established.

Introduction

        The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO), established in 1984, is the world’s largest and leading beverage company. It is a multinational organization that specializes in the manufacturing, distributing, and marketing of nonalcoholic and ready-to-drink beverages. The company owns and/or licenses over 500 brands of sparkling and still beverages. The company is also the proud owner of the world’s most valuable and profitable beverage product portfolio. The Coca-Cola system, the name given to the combination of the actual company and its bottling partners, comprises the world’s largest beverage distribution system and serves consumers in over 200 countries. The company encourages positive growth and overall sustainability by focusing on initiatives that reduce its environmental footprint, support healthy and active lifestyles, creates safe and inclusive work environments, and enhances the welfare of the communities in which they operate (2014/2015 sustainability report, 2015).

        One of the primary ways in which an organization of this size and stature continues to thrive and adapt is through strategic planning. Strategic planning is a foundational business practice that allows managers and leaders to set priorities and provide a general sense of direction within an organization. This is a disciplined and collaborative effort designed to focus energy and resources, establish agreements, align goals, synchronize operations, and generally shape and guide the development of the entire organization. It is an essential process that is performed by large and stakeholder oriented organizations like Coca-Cola (McNamara, n.d; What, n.d).

For the most part, the strategic planning activity begins with a definition of the organization’s purpose (McNamara, n.d). This report is mainly centered on evaluating the purpose of The Coca-Cola Company. This will be done through an analysis of the multinational beverage corporation’s mission and visions statements, as well as its associated values and goals/objectives. These statements will be evaluated in terms of their effectiveness in aligning the interests of the company and its stakeholders. Recommended changes, if any, will also be discussed.

Company’s Mission Statement and Analysis

Overview

An organization’s mission statement is ultimately a declaration of it’s core purpose and focus. It describes what type of industry the organization operates in and what type customers it serves. These statements are usually unchanged overtime, and should be enduring. An organization would likely change the type of business that it is in before it ever changes it mission statement. The mission statement is essentially a guide for top level management and leadership, and it communicates an intended sense of direction for the rest of the organization (Kenny, 2014).

Analysis

The Coca-Cola mission is three-fold statement: (1) To refresh the world, (2) to inspire moments of optimism and happiness, and (3) to create value and make a difference (Mission, n.d). The company goes on to note that this three-part mission statement provides the foundation of their “Roadmap” towards their 2020 Vision. This refers to a general series of profit, people, portfolio, partners, planet, and productivity related end goals that the company hopes to achieve by the year 2020 (Roadmap, n.d).

For the most part, the company’s mission statement accomplishes its task of generally describing the company’s primary undertaking, its overall goal, and general philosophy. The first portion of the mission statement serves to clearly define the organization’s purpose. As a beverage company, it makes sense that the organization’s primary role is in providing refreshments for its customer base. Yet, at the same time, this simple statement also describes the scope and magnitude of that role. By indicating that they intend to provide refreshments for the entire world, the company also defines the extent of that role (Mission, n.d).

The second portion of the mission statement expands upon the first by giving it a more meaningful purpose. While the first portion of the mission statement generally details the company’s functional and literal purpose, the second portion generally hints upon the organization’s secondary efforts, that is to say, those that go beyond the act of selling refreshments. The third portion of the mission statement further expands upon this notion by stating the organization's humanitarian intent. Obviously this is a signal towards the organization’s philanthropic efforts, those that complement and support their business ones.

Company’s Vision and Analysis

Overview

        An organization’s vision statement is supposed to define and expand upon its mission statement. A vision is an ideal or method that describe and company’s desired future state. Depending on the size of the organization, and the number of functions that it performs, it may have multiple vision statements that generally describe the manner in which they wish to accomplish various goals and objectives (Arline, 2014; Rasmus, 2012)

Analysis

        If Coca-Cola’s mission statement acts as the foundation for the Roadmap towards their 2020 vision, then the vision statement acts as its individual lanes. Nonetheless, the company readily refers to its vision as the framework for their Roadmap. This vision statement addresses and guides every aspect of their operations, and describes what needs to be accomplished in each of those areas in order to sustain growth and continue the march towards their 2020 vision. The areas addressed by the cumulative vision statements are people, portfolio, partners, planet, profit, and productivity (Mission, n.d).