Management styles & Leadership practices at Coca-Cola

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction 2

2.0 History of the Company 2

3.0 Mission and Vision 3

4.0 Culture and values 5

5.0 Organizational Design 6

6.0 Organization Structure 8

7.0 Organizational goals 9

8.0 Leadership Style 9

8.1 Core Capabilities 11

9.0 Management Styles 12

9.1 Democratic 12

9.2 Autocratic 13

9.3 Laissez-faire management style 13

9.4 Consultative democratic 14

9.5 Team Work 15

9.6 Employee Engagement 15

10.0 Management Functions of Coca-Cola Company 16

10.1 Planning 16

10.1.1 Strategic Goals 16

10.1.2 Tactic Goals 17

10.1.3 Operational Goals 17

10.1.4 Decision Making 17

10.2 Organizing 18

10.2.1 Departmentalization 18

10.2.2 Work Specialization 19

10.2.3 Delegation and Accountability 19

10.2.4 Resource Allocation 20

10.2.5 Organizing the Human Resources 20

10.3 Leading 20

10.3.1 Motivation 21

10.3.2 Communication 21

10.3.3 Corporate Culture 21

10.4 Controlling 22

10.4.1 Sales Person’s Reporting System 22

10.4.2 Sales Person Evaluating System 22

Reference 24

1.0 Introduction

The Coca-Cola Company, a retailer, manufacturer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverages, is a market leader in its industry currently offering more than 500 brands in over 200 countries or territories. The company operates a franchised distribution system dating from 1889 where the Coca-Cola Company only produces syrup concentrate which is then sold to various bottlers throughout the world who hold an exclusive territory. The Coca-Cola Company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia owns its anchor bottler in North America, Coca-Cola Refreshments.

This behemoth has managed to maintain its position as a market leader for over a hundred years and is still going strong. This paper explores the history, mission, vision, and organizational structure and management functions of the Coca-Cola Company and tries to explain leadership and some management styles applied by the company.

2.0 History of the Company

Coca-Cola is a multinational company who started its business on May 1886 in Atlanta as a beverage (formal drink) industry. Dr. John Styth Pemberton made a cough syrup which he named “coke” on 8^th may 1886. Its price was 5 cent per glass and was available at the largest pharmacy of Atlanta known by the name of Jacob’s Pharmacy. Later on it was purchased by a well-known businessman Asa Griggs Candler who introduced it as a “carbonated soft drink” in the market and hid marketing tactics led coke to Coca-Cola and it dominated the market of carbonated soft drinks throughout the twentieth century.

In 1895 the company started to sell their product coke in bottles which was a strategy of the company to be recognized well in the International market. Their strategy worked and the bottled form of coke was successfully recognized all over the world in the beginning of 1896. Now a day’s Coca-Cola is the most famous and highly consumed brand in all over the world (Wikipedia, 2014).

3.0 Mission and Vision

The company is facing a huge numbers of challenges from all over the world. Competitors are coming up with brand new strategies that threaten Coca-Cola. The company’s mission is to continue thriving as a business over the next ten years and beyond. The company is looking ahead, understanding the trends and forces that will shape its business in the future and moving swiftly to prepare for what's to come. That's what the company’s 2020 Vision is all about. It creates a long-term destination for the business and provides it with a "Roadmap" for winning together with its bottling partners.

Mission

“Our Roadmap starts with of our mission, which is enduring. It declares our purpose as a company and serves as a standard against which we weigh our actions and decisions.

1. 
   To refresh the world.
   
2. 
   To inspire moments of optimism and happiness.
   
3. 
   To create value and make difference.”
   

Coca-Cola has used the word “roadmap” which indicates that their mission statement is positive and optimistic because they’re saying there’s a future to look forward to. Their mission is a standard to which they create values and make differences in communities too poor to afford even basic necessities. So Coca-Cola decides to fund these communities and in turn they create a new place to generate profits (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

Vision

“Our vision serves as the framework for our Roadmap and guides every aspect of our business by describing what we need to accomplish in order to continue achieving sustainable quality growth.

1. 
   People: Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be.
   
2. 
   Portfolio: Bring to the world a portfolio of quality beverage brands that anticipate and satisfy people desires and needs.
   
3. 
   Partners: Nurture a wining network of consumers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value.
   
4. 
   Planet: Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities.
   
5. 
   Profit: Maximize long term return to shareowners while being mindful of our overall responsibilities.
   
6. 
   Productivity: Be a highly effective, lean and fast moving organization.” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
   

Objectives

The main objectives for the Coca-Cola Company are to be globally known as a business that conducts business responsibility and ethically and to accelerate sustainable growth to operate in tomorrow's world. By having these objectives, it forms the foundation for companies in the decision making process (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

By having objectives, the Coca-Cola Company can strive towards a goal and create new drinks. With objectives, they can continue to plan for the next five to ten years. Coca-Cola can spend more time in creating new ways to commercialize their product everywhere. Such as helping local communities and supporting them financially so they can create more businesses and maximize profit.

Strategies and Tactics

The Coca-Cola Company aims to be globally known, they do this by targeting different areas across the globe with different products, gaining their brand name and popularity. All the bottling partners work closely with their customers such as convenience stores, grocery stores, movie theaters and street vendors to create and use localized strategies developed in partnership with the Company. Their competition with other beverage companies are also narrowed down as they own various brands that could be possible competition. For example, the company sells Coke without the competition of other popular soft drink brands like Sprite and Fanta because the company owns those brands as well. The company often reviews and evaluates their business plans and performance to improve their earnings and analyze their competitive position in the market. They make decisions in realigning their business models to match the objectives of the company by using strategies and tactics in the analysis of their performance (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

4.0 Culture and values

Every business is made up of different cultures and the cultures that are present within the business depend on the management style and the organizational structures that are used. The different types of structures are:

• 
  Role Culture- This is best suited to a hierarchy organizational structure. This type of culture works best by every employee playing the role that he or she has been predetermined and corresponds with the rules and regulations of the business
  
• 
  Task Culture- This culture encourages people to work as a team; this works best in a star structure.
  
• 
  Power Culture- This works well in a matrix structure. It is based around one dominant individual/leader.
  
• 
  Person Culture- this culture focuses on providing administrative help and support and close attention to one person in the organization (Wikipedia, 2014)
  

Role culture is the culture that Coca-Cola adopts. This is where all members have a defined job or role to carry out. Role culture is normally split up into a number of functions that are organized in a hierarchical way. Coca-Cola would divide themselves into various functions like accounts, marketing and production. These also have hierarchical ordering of office examples of these are production director, production managers, supervisors, technicians, operatives etc. This type of culture works by logic and rationality. Role culture is mainly used in large organization. In this culture position in the main source of power and rules and procedures are the main source of influence.

Values

Coca-Cola’s values serve as a compass for its actions and describe how it behaves in the world. These values include:

• 
  “Leadership: The courage to shape a better future
  
• 
  Collaboration: Leverage collective genius
  
• 
  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
  
• 
  Quality: What we do, we do well” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
  

Focus on the Market

• 
  “Focus on needs of its consumers, customers and franchise partners
  
• 
  Get out into the market and listen, observe and learn
  
• 
  Possess a world view
  
• 
  Focus on execution in the marketplace every day
  
• 
  Be insatiably curious” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
  

Work Smart

• 
  “Act with urgency
  
• 
  Remain responsive to change
  
• 
  Have the courage to change course when needed
  
• 
  Remain constructively discontent
  
• 
  Work efficiently” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
  

Act Like Owners

• 
  “Be accountable for our actions and inactions
  
• 
  Steward system assets and focus on building value
  
• 
  Reward our people for taking risks and finding better ways to solve problems
  
• 
  Learn from our outcomes -- what worked and what didn’t” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
  

Be the Brand

“Inspire creativity, passion, optimism and fun.” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

5.0 Organizational Design

Before the nineties the Coca-Cola company was having a centralize system of control, but after sometime they realized that if they had to meet the demands of the customers they should adopt a decentralized system in which the authority of decision making is distributed between different managers so that every sector can be managed effectively. This system was implemented in the nineties by the company’s board of directors (Gilhuly, 2014). Now the organization is having two groups who are responsible for operating:

• 
  Bottling Investments
  
• 
  Corporate
  

Operating groups are also divided by different regions i.e. Africa, Asia, Middle East, European Union, Latin America, North America etc. All the divisions are further divided into geographical regions. This allows the local market to involve in decision making, due to this the organization responds quick to the changing demands of the market, this helps the upper level managers to concentrate on the long term planning of the organization.

The company’s corporate division is filled with different departments which are as follow:

• 
  Finance Department
  
• 
  Human Resource Department
  
• 
  Marketing Department
  
• 
  Innovation Department
  
• 
  Planning Department
  

Some of the above mentioned departments are in the lower levels in the regions of the company, the decision making job is most of the times done by the top level management.

Sharing the latest information with each other is very fast by all the departments and by such activities the organization appears to be doing their job effectively by balancing standardization and mutual adjustment. The organization has made the Code of conduct which is a guidebook for the employees on how they should act? The disciplinary actions are the main subjects of the code of conduct (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

The larger role in the organization’s success is played by the mutual adjustments due to the changes brought upon by the CEO and Chairman of the company 2004, Nevile Isdell. The turnover has been reduced because the employees feel more engaged in the work. The organization’s growth rates increased and the return of equity for stockholders went from a negative return to a 20 percent return. The changes brought by Isdell proved to be good for the organization and the employees were also happy with the change which is reflected by the end results of the company (Gilhuly, 2014).

Such balances are indispensible because due to them the employees feel some flexibility and it also gives some time to the organization to forecast their future plans about the organization. The structure of the Coca-Cola Company is made up of both “Mechanistic & Organic” models. The Coca-Cola Beverage Company mainly focuses on the responsiveness (Gilhuly, 2014).

All the complex integrating mechanisms are the characteristics of the organic structure. The company uses survey and interviews for the flow of information from bottom to up, latterly the information is exchanged over the intranet. The surveys have made the Coca-Cola Company to believe of simplification and standardization. Centralization and standardization are associated with mechanistic structure (Gilhuly, 2014).

The mix of the two structures looks to be ideal for the organization. When organization wants to appeal to a huge independent market, on one hand it requires to be flexible and on the other hand to be more efficient in production. Coordination is easy for the company when it uses complex integrating mechanisms. Due to centralization the organization goals and organizational choices are kept align. Now that the information in the company is flowing very easily, the top level of management will receive the information much faster due to the organization’s flexibility and responsiveness.

Recently there was a shift in the organization to make it more decentralized and organic which corresponded with quite uncertainty with organization.

6.0 Organization Structure

Coca-Cola is “Tall” in terms of organizational complexity. Coca-Cola is controlled through a vertical hierarchy, with decision-making authority residing with the company’s upper management. Daily and routine decisions are made by the line managers at the middle level (Narayan, 2010).

Coca-Cola has more than 700,000 system employees, including their bottling partners. The company’s operations reach over 200 countries worldwide, with six geographic operating segments. Coca-Cola’s head office is responsible for providing the company with an overall direction and support to the regional structure. The company’s Executive Committee makes key strategic decisions for the company. The Chair of the Executive Committee acts as a figurehead for the company and chairs the board meetings. He is also the CEO and is the senior decision maker (Narayan, 2010).

Each division of the company has a marketing manager, public affairs director, finance director, etc. When one of these divisions is planning to do something, an advertising campaign for example, the division has to communicate with their superiors to get approval. Since the company’s hierarchy is so tall, communication has to travel back to corporate headquarters in the U.S, where the Executive Committee has the final decision making power for activities the divisions have proposed. Below is an organizational chart of the company (Gilhuly, 2014).

7.0 Organizational goals

Coca-Cola is both effective and efficient, as they have made it their objective to succeed in these areas. Coca-Cola is more focused on efficiency than effectiveness, but they still achieve in both. Regardless of what they specialize in, their organizational goal is to maximize profits for shareholders by selling Coca-Cola products worldwide to a wide range of customers. They are able to do this by having a very vertically hierarchical organization that allows them to take advantage of a low cost strategy, limiting expenses and increasing revenues.

8.0 Leadership Style

For effective leadership, there can be no substitute for strategic thinking and tireless, relentless execution. There can be no alternative for attracting and retaining the absolute best people to lead and creating a dynamic environment for them. And there can be no job more important than communicating effectively with your customers and all your key stakeholders. Coca-Cola achieves this by formulating a clear and compelling vision, getting their system aligned behind it, executing and constantly communicating intentions.

Let's face it; vision without execution is merely daydreaming. And execution without vision is like running in the dark - you're moving but probably not in the right direction. Coca-Cola understands that capturing new opportunities is going to require both vision and execution across the company and its wonderful system of bottling partners. That's where the company’s vision which they call Vision 2020 comes into play. It's a look at where the company and its bottling partners need to be heading in the future. The vision is centered on capturing unprecedented opportunities emerging in future within the global non-alcoholic beverage industry (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

The company’s vision is to harness new wealth, new beverage requirements and new innovations to accelerate growth and create the world's most respected consumer goods system. Leaders at Coca-Cola have created a clear and compelling vision for their organization, and work to inspire their people to achieve that vision. Equally important is getting the bottling system leadership and company employees aligned behind the vision.

Muhtar Kent is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company.

Mr. Kent joined The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1978 and has held a variety of marketing and operations roles throughout his career. In 1985, he was appointed General Manager of Coca-Cola Turkey and Central Asia. From 1989 to 1995, he served as President of the Company's East Central Europe Division and Senior Vice President of Coca-Cola International, with responsibility for 23 countries. Between 1995 and 1998, Mr. Kent served as Managing Director of Coca-Cola Amatil-Europe, covering bottling operations in 12 countries (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

In an interview with Management Paradise.com, the CEO states, “my job is to create a climate of success for our people and inspire them to achieve the vision we have created for our business. That's really the true essence of leadership”. At the end of the day, it all comes down to execution. For The Coca-Cola Company, execution involves focusing on three core capabilities of:

• 
  Consumer marketing - which generates that bond and emotional connection with consumers.
  
• 
  Commercial leadership - which involves all the strategic actions taken with over 20 million retail customers who sell Coca-Cola brands around the world each day.
  
• 
  And franchise leadership - which is working with its 300 bottling partners around the world to create greater system alignment (Shetty, 2011).
  

8.1 Core Capabilities

Consumer Marketing

Marketing investments are designed to enhance consumer awareness of and increase consumer preference for Coca-Cola brands. This produces long-term growth in unit case volume, per capita consumption and the company’s share of worldwide nonalcoholic beverage sales. Through relationships with bottling partners and those who sell Coca-Cola products in the marketplace, the company creates and implements integrated marketing programs, both globally and locally, that are designed to heighten consumer awareness of and product appeal for brands.

Commercial Leadership

The Coca-Cola system has millions of customers around the world who sell or serve their products directly to consumers. The company focuses on enhancing value for these customers and providing solutions to grow their beverage businesses. Coca-Cola’s approach includes understanding each customer's business and needs, whether that customer is a sophisticated retailer in a developed market or a kiosk owner in an emerging market. We focus on ensuring that our customers have the right product and package offerings and the right promotional tools to deliver enhanced value to themselves and the Company.

Franchise Leadership

The Coca-Cola Company must continue to improve its franchise leadership capabilities to give the company and its bottling partners the ability to grow together through shared values, aligned incentives and a sense of urgency and flexibility that supports consumers' always changing needs and tastes. The financial health and success of bottling partners are critical components of the Company's success. The company works with the bottling partners to identify system requirements that enable them to quickly achieve scale and efficiencies, and the company shares best practices throughout the bottling system. Coca-Cola’s system leadership allows it to leverage acquisitions to expand its volume base and enhance margins (USSEC, 2009).

Under the leadership of Muhtar Kent, its dynamic Chairman and CEO, Coke has made a strong commitment to inclusiveness. Since Muhtar Kent took the helm of Coca-Cola, in July 2008, he has set a course for ambitious, long-term growth with the goal of doubling revenue by 2020. Kent has tried to rejuvenate an inward-looking, “arrogant” corporate culture and has reinvested cost-cutting dividends in brand development.

9.0 Management Styles

A management style is an overall method of leadership used by the manager. The success that the management team at Coca-Cola has in motivating its employees to meet their objectives is based on the management style they adopt. There are three main management styles democratic, autocratic and the laissez-faire style.

The Coca-Cola Company uses the following management styles, but each one in different departments. There are three main types of management styles used in businesses:

9.1 Democratic

The democratic leadership style consists of the leader, sharing the decision making abilities with the group members by promoting the interests of the group members and by practicing social equality.

This emphasizes on group agreements to generate new ideas. There are two types of democratic management styles; democratic and consultative democratic. Democratic is where all the managers, junior managers and employees are involved in the ideas and final decision process. Out of all the workers, no-one has a higher level than the others in this management style.

Democratic style is the management style that Coca-Cola adopts. This sort of management style involves empowerment. In this management style individuals and teams are given responsibilities and decisions to make, usually within a given framework. If anything wrong happens then the individuals and teams are then held responsible for the decisions that are chosen. With this type of management style it allows the manager to feel comfortable with other people in the organization making some of the decisions. Democratic managers will often want feedback from their employees on decisions being made. Democratic leaders listen and act on the opinions of the group. This type of management is good as it makes the employees happy and productivity is high. This is a very good method because employee's thoughts and suggestions are listened to by the business. This makes the employees seem as if they are respected and that their thoughts are valid.
Feedbacks from managers at Coca-Cola’s bottling system across the globe provide vital information that is incorporated in their strategies.

9.2 Autocratic

The authoritarian leadership style or autocratic leader keeps strict, close control over the followers by keeping close regulation of the policies and procedures given to the followers. To keep main emphasis on the distinction of the authoritarian leader and their followers, these types of the leaders make sure to only create a distinct professional relationship.

Where the leader makes all the decisions, there is no negotiation and is very prescriptive and there is little job satisfaction. However, the job gets done quickly and there is less conflict between different ideas. This style is hardly used among the company as they believe that the lack of input could lead to poor results. Autocratic does save a lot of time as quick decisions can be made and there is no time wasted on discussion resulting in the business saving time and money.

On the factory floor at Coca-Cola, there is an autocratic system of management where the employees are controlled by the managers and follow their procedures.

9.3 Laissez-faire management style

The Coca-Cola Company has a culture that is run in the laissez-faire style meaning the ‘hands off’ approach. The laissez faire style is sometimes described as the "hands off" leadership style because the leader delegates tasks to their followers, while providing little or no direction to the followers.
If the workers are meeting their Key Business Indicators, then the managers and the directors of the company take this relaxed style of coordinating their business. They have a vision to ‘refresh everyone everyday ’and the values ‘to take pride in their work , to be honest , fair and determined to win and have a passion for their actions’.

9.4 Consultative democratic

This is where the managers allow the employees to make the ideas but the ideas are forwarded to the executive's or the manager consults their team to make the final decision. Coca-Cola applies consultative management style to the company more as there can be less conflict for what the final decision is. The advantage of this is that it helps to motivate staff as they are aware that they have a say in the company to some extent. The disadvantages of this that the process is very time consuming and effort will be needed by a manager to do this.

Management encourages employees to set goals in line within the organization aims. There are reviewed regularly in performance appraisals. The advantages of this style are that it will increase efficiency of individuals and help to motivate them and train them so they are productive.

The world's premier marketer and beverage industry leader for more than 118 years, Coca-Cola are focused on the strategic workplace programs that help assure the success of their commitment to embracing the similarities and differences of the people, cultures and ideas. The strategies Coca-Cola uses to achieve these objectives include the use of certain mechanisms that facilitate such communication to take place. These mechanisms include the use of:

Diversity Advisory Council

The Company’s corporate Diversity Advisory Council consists of the representative group of employees from all the levels, functions and business units of the organization. The Council develops recommendations for all the senior management on advancing the company's efforts, towards achieving its diversity objectives.

Employee Forums

Coca-Cola believes that the sense of community enhances their ability to attract, retain and develop diverse talent and ideas as the source of competitive business advantage. Through employee forums, the employees can connect with their colleagues who share similar interests and backgrounds.

In these forums and elsewhere, the employees support each other's personal and the professional growth and enhance their individual and collective ability to contribute to the company. The success at Coca-Cola is due to their laissez-faire culture and the culture is important because it can affect the people and the things to do with the business.

The company’s culture is generally inviting and managers get along well with the staff. Staff members have less stress to deal with and a friendly environment to work in, thus work is done more efficiently.

9.5 Team Work

Team work is a sub culture within the Coca-Cola Company. Teams are accountable for activities like:

• 
  Quality
  
• 
  Utilization and
  
• 
  Yield
  

Within the system, there needs to be a balance of Utilization, speed the factory works at, and the Yield. Working together in teams provides the cooperation necessary to achieve this smoothly.

9.6 Employee Engagement

Another part of the culture and the management style at the Coca-Cola Company is its employee engagement. Employee engagement consists of the following five points:

• 
  Realizations that delivery of the hard stuff is simply not enough.
  
• 
  Openly acknowledging this to the workforce.
  
• 
  Doing what it takes to engage every employee in the space of 16 days.
  
• 
  Involving everyone in the design of the management style consistent with vision and the values.
  
• 
  Identifying talented individuals across the operation to act as the internal facilitators to train out the new behavioral standards (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
  

10.0 Management Functions of Coca-Cola Company

There are four major functions of management of the Coca-Cola Company which are as follow:

1. 
   Planning
   
2. 
   Organizing
   
3. 
   Leading
   
4. 
   Controlling
   

10.1 Planning

The Coca-Cola Company consists of just a three layers of flat hierarchy. Due to this the top level management has the duty of setting the goals and objectives of the company. Planning is also done by the upper level managers.

10.1.1 Strategic Goals

In most of the companies the strategic goals are made for long term but Coca-Cola Company’s goals are set for only three years, they change their strategies after every three years. The goals are set by the Managing Directors of the company after getting the clearance from the headquarters. Every year in the annual meeting they have a review of their strategy to make sure they are moving with the changing environment in the market.

The following are the strategic goals of Coca-Cola Company:

“

• 
  To continue to be an organization providing the quality products to the valuable customers.
  
• 
  To select and retain the professional people for the organization.
  
• 
  To project an outstanding corporate image.
  
• 
  To satisfy the customer through extra ordinary service and an excellent service
  
• 
  A along with the complete tactical and operational support.” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
  

10.1.2 Tactic Goals

Tactic goals are set at the end of the year at annual basis. The top level management decides these goals with the consultation of the lower level employees. The following are the tactic goals of the company:

”

• 
  To increase the revenues by 20% as compared to last year.
  
• 
  To increase the total retail customers by around 10%
  
• 
  To increase the market share by 5%
  
• 
  To reactivate the discontinued customers by 30%” (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).
  

10.1.3 Operational Goals

The operational goals are also set by the Managing Director of the company. Before implementing these goals the manager consult them with lower level employees and after convincing them they implement the goals officially. In this type of goals the company uses Management by objectives (MBO). Every employee assigned is told about what the organization is expecting from him/her and then his evaluation is done on the basis of organization’s rules and regulations (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.1.4 Decision Making

Decision making process is centralized in the company. The classical model is used, the top level managers take their time in making the decisions and all the possible alternatives are kept in mind before going for the rationally economic solution.

The top level managers don’t consult with any employee in case of programmed decision making. The ordinary routine decisions are made by the line managers of the middle level management after getting the permission from the general manager.

The following are the decisions which are taken by the top level of management in the Coca-Cola Company:

“

• 
  The package positioning
  
• 
  Trade discounts
  
• 
  Advertisements
  
• 
  Price reductions
  
• 
  Distribution.”
  

In recruitment of new employees the top level management approves the vacancies and the Human Capital Department is asked to conduct a written test such kind of tests are conducted for the employees of lower level. The prospective applicants are shot listed through the interview process. After taking the interview of the applicant the operation manager and the general manager make the final decision of selection of the employee (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.2 Organizing

Organizing is the second management function. The following steps are taken by the Coca-Cola Company in organizing their goals and objectives:

• 
  Departmentalization
  
• 
  Work Specialization
  
• 
  Delegation and Accountability
  
• 
  Resource Allocation
  
• 
  Organizing the Human Resources
  

All the steps are discussed below in detail:

10.2.1 Departmentalization

On the basis of functional approach the Coca-Cola Company is divided into different departments. Grouping of employees is done on the basis of their common skills and work activities. Such kind of approach helps the company in solving their problems and it also make the less the need of training the employees specially. The general manger is head of all the departments all the department have to report to the general manager in the Coca-Cola Company. There are five major departments in the company which are as follow:

• 
  Production Department
  
• 
  Industrial Relations Department
  
• 
  Sales and Marketing Department
  
• 
  Human Capital Department
  
• 
  Finance Department
  

Production Department: This department looks around all the production of the company. All plants in the country are in under its control.

Industrial Relation Department: This department deals with the problems of the employees. The department listen the problems of the employees and send them to the high authorities for settling them up and stop them from becoming a hurdle in the work progress of the company.

Sales and Marketing department: This department makes sure that the product is easily available in the market for the customers to buy and deals with the issues of advertisement, promotion, and distribution of the product.

Human Capital Department: This department takes care of the efficient workers of the company, they select some efficient workers of in the company recommend their names for promotion in job so that the workers remain happy and don’t leave the company. Management level employees are dealt by the department.

Finance Department: The department is concerned with cost and price of the products produced by the company. It also tackles with import related issues of the company. Finance department is assisted by the sales and marketing department in making invoices and payroll entries (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.2.2 Work Specialization

There is a high percentage of work specialization in the Coca-Cola Company because every manager is appointed in the function in which he is expert so there is no boredom or monotony. All the promotions of the employees are based on their performances. No favoritism is allowed in the company (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.2.3 Delegation and Accountability

There is a high percentage of delegation in the company. The work is done with proper authority and responsibility. Every manager is made accountable for the actions of his subordinates. All the subordinates are guided very keenly by their respective managers at the time of accomplishing some goal. Keeping the delegation process on the other side the managers also motivate their subordinates to boost up their energy and make them more effective by using different methods. They make their subordinated think that they have to give their best to their managers which increases their performance, quality of work and satisfaction of the customers (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.2.4 Resource Allocation

When the issue of resource allocation comes into action the Coca-Cola Company has given the authority to managers to use the resources of the company where ever and whenever they are needed. Only they are required to get the approval from the manager if those assets belong to his department. The resources can be capital, labor, machinery or anything else (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.2.5 Organizing the Human Resources

The company does the recruitment process when there is a position empty and the recruitment is always done on permanent basis in Coca-Cola Company.

Recruitment is done when the manger needs the employee under him and he send the request to the general manager and after the approval of the general manager the request is sent to the Human Resource Department.

In Coca-Cola firstly all the vacancies are announced within the organization so that if there is someone who can fulfill the requirements can get him/herself promoted or can refer someone of his relative to join if he is capable of that job. If there are no suitable persons than the company searches its bank where there are huge amount of application of the applicants. If there also they find no person suitable for the job then at last they give the advertisement in the newspaper etc. (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.3 Leading

The third management function is “leading”. The following major steps are taken by the Coca-Cola Company in the leading function:

• 
  Motivation
  
• 
  Communication
  
• 
  Corporate Culture
  

10.3.1 Motivation

Coca-Cola Company gives high attention to the motivation of the employees. Promotions of hardworking employees are a part of the company’s policy. Promotions of employees are done on the performance basis which is a great motivation for the employee that higher his performance there is more chance of his promotion.

Beside from promotion strategy the Coca-Cola Company also uses the compensation strategy to motivate the employee; Coca-Cola is paying industrial average in compensation. Not only this different campaigns and competitions between the employees itself are also used to motivate the employees.

Managers play a very important role in the motivation of the employees in Coca-Cola Company. They help them in all their problems either they are personnel or professional. They give them feedback on their performance which makes the employee feel good. Working environment and a challenging milestone are a major factor in employee motivation in the company (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.3.2 Communication

There is an open environment in the Coca-Cola Company which allows the employees to communicate with each other and it allows the information to flow inside the company and discourages the barriers between members to share information. Before making the decisions the top level managers discuss it with the middle level managers and before decision making it is shared till the end of the hierarchy. The Coca-Cola Company allows the employees that anyone of them can meet the general manager if he/she is facing any kind of difficulty.

Interdepartmental communication is done in the form of formal and informal manners. To get the feedback of the employees and get the view of the employee about the manager the grapevine is used (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.3.3 Corporate Culture

The top management of the Coca-Cola tries to follow the prescribed culture of the organization. Coca-Cola has formal and documented values that are communicated to all the employees. The top level manager acts as role models to make sure that the rules and regulations are been applied in the company and closely administrator review their employee’s behavior.

10.4 Controlling

The last and the most crucial function of management are “Controlling”. In this function the company evaluates that either they have achieved the goals which they had set before. If the answer is “yes” then the employees and managers are rewarded with bonuses and other ways and vice versa. In the following we’ll come to know that how the Coca-Cola Company performs its controlling function?

10.4.1 Sales Person’s Reporting System

Sales person had to report to the market developer area every day about his activities. He give him record of the per day sales and he can get any kind of assistance by the area market developer anytime on any matter.

Attendance of the sales person is taken with the punch card system, with the help of which the entry and exit time of the sales person is recorded.

Every sales person is given a route card in which there are details of the visit of the outlets, how much time he spent on the outlets, number of sales made on the outlets, the time taken during travelling from one outlet to the other, name of the loader and sales person and the entry and exit time of the vehicle.

Apart from this the sales person is also given a forum to fill up for the orders of the next day to be loaded in the truck. This makes the managers know that how much sales of which brand and the size of the product are been done by the sales person. The information is useful for the human resource department because they have to evaluate the total performance and calculate the total salary of the sales person (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

10.4.2 Sales Person Evaluating System

Evaluation of all the sales person is done on quarterly basis. Evaluation helps in the promotion of the people to higher levels in the organization. The evaluation is a great motivator for the sales person because due to this he works hard to get promotion or at least the monetary reward. Monetary rewards are not only given to the best sales person, they are also given to the best market developer and the best sales manager of the year.

Performance development plan is kept as base to evaluate the performance of the employee. The measurement of performance is done on the basis of achievement of targets which were set and communicated at the start of the year in front of each sales manager, each quarter to market developer and monthly to ever salesperson.

This performance develop plan evaluates the sales made by the salespersons on the basis of call slips, route calls, call completion, effective and productive call, attendance of the salespersons, growth in sales done by the sales man, market development and the punctuality of the sales person (The Coca-Cola Company, 2014).

Reference

The Coca-Cola Company: (2014). Mission, Vision & Values. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values.

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The Coca-Cola Company: (April, 2009). Code of Conduct: Acting with Integrity Around the Globe. Retrieved on 17 July, 2014 from http://assets.coca-colacompany.com/45/59/f85d53a84ec597f74c754003450c/COBC_English.pdf

The Coca-Cola Company: (2014). Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer: Muhtar Kent. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from:http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/board-of-directors-muhtar-kent

Gilhuly, J. (2014, March 1st). Coca-Cola Organizational Complexity. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from http://juliegilhuly.wordpress.com/2014/03/01/coca-cola-organizational-complexity/

Vicky, N. (2010). The Coca-Cola Company 2010: Organizational Structure of The Coca-Cola Company. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/37483762/Organizational-Structure-of-The-Coca-Cola-Company

Shetty, N. (May 4th, 2011). Leadership Style at Coca-Cola Company. Retrieved July 16, 2014 from http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/foundation-human-skills-f-h-s/221096-leadership-style-coca-cola-company.html#post453091

USSEC (2009). Annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the securities exchange act of 1934. Retrieved 17 July, 2014 from http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Coca-Cola_Company_%28KO%29/Filing/10-K/2010/F46738191

The Coca-Cola Company: (2014). As Inclusive As Our Brands: 2009 U.S. Diversity Stewardship Report. Retrieved from http://assets.coca-colacompany.com/51/ba/c9ddc22646ca9660ee4d8f309c01/2009_Diversity_Report.pdf

Wikipedia. (2014). Organizational culture. Retrieved on 17 July, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_culture

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Management styles & Leadership practices at Coca-Cola.