Coca Cola Strategic Analysis

...

The initial portion of the vision addresses the most important aspect of any business; it’s human capital. It states that the company will “Be a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be” (Mission, n.d). This quickly alludes to the multitude of internal efforts that the company has put in place in order to improve the welfare of its employees. The second part of the vision refers to it’s product lines. Labeled as “portfolio,” the company lays out its vision for completing the first portion of its mission statement, i.e., “To refresh the world…” (Mission, n.d).

Beginning with “partners”, the rest of the vision statement briefly addresses the remaining components of its business operations, and what it generally needs to do in each category in order to makes strides towards its 2020 vision. “Partners” refers to the company’s distribution and retail networks. This is centered on fostering productive and mutually beneficial external relationships. For “planet,” the company states that being “... a responsible citizen that makes a difference by helping build and support sustainable communities” is a critical component towards reaching their 2020 vision. Obviously, this portion of the vision statement is referring to the company’s previous and ongoing philanthropic efforts, as well as environmental protection programs (Mission, n.d).

The vision statement’s second to last component, “profit,” evidently denotes the company’s intrinsic focus on monetary and transaction benefits. Yet, this brief statement clearly asserts the company’s interest and dedication to fulfilling the needs of its shareholders. The final portion of the company’s vision, “productivity,” is assumed to encompass everything on the company’s operational side of things. The brief statement uses words like “effective,” and “lean,” to denote the fast and efficient tempo the organization desires to operate under (Mission, n.d).

Alignment of Company’s Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals with Stakeholders’ Interests

Overview

In addition to the vision statements, the company has a number of values and goals/objectives that aid in enhancing the connection between the content of its mission statement and the interests of its internal and external stakeholders. These additional statements outline and specify the intent of the mission and its underlying vision statements. They serve to identify the specific ways in which the company intends to achieve its six-part vision (Mission, n.d).

Values

Coca-Cola states that “Our values serve as a compass for our actions and describe how we behave in the world” (Mission, n.d). The company has seven of these values, and each of them directly targets the internal stakeholders. These value statements essentially address every aspect of the internal environment. They are; (1) Leadership, (2) collaboration, (3) integrity, (4) accountability, (5) passion, (6) diversity, and (7) quality (Mission, n.d).

Leadership. This value statement essentially challenges the company’s leadership to be the invoker of change. Rather than act in a reactive manner, the company’s brass is “challenged” to be proactive in order to fashion a better future (Mission, n.d).

Collaboration. This value statement refers to the company’s needs to make the most out of their human resources. The statement, “Leverage collective genius,” implies that every member of the Coca-Cola team is critical component of the whole (Mission, n.d).

Integrity. This value exudes a sense of openness and transparency. It implies that the company is ready and willing to hear the ideas of any member of its constituency. The simple value statement, “Be real,” suggest that the company is not in the business of deluding others (Mission, n.d).

Accountability. This value speaks for itself in clearly establishing the position of the company as a responsible entity. The statement, “If it is to be, it’s up to me,” clearly places the burden of this responsibility upon every member within the company. This statement serves to empower each individual employee to look beyond their routine set of duties as well (Mission, n.d).

Passion. This value statement clearly speaks to the contents of the mission statement. In order to achieve those lofty goals, the company as a whole will have to exhibit an exorbitant amount of passion in everything they do. Therefore, the company places “passion” as a value that the must live by day in and day out (Mission, n.d).

Diversity. This value statement is assumed to allude to the company’s Equal Opportunity, Diversity, and Affirmative Action efforts and policies. At the same time, by also referencing its product line, it suggests that business success is also tied to the diverse nature of their workforce (Mission, n.d).

Quality. Finally, the company’s last value statement touches upon the caliber of their operations. Yet, this is not simply a reference to their products, but also to their everyday activities as well. The statement, “What we do, we do well,” clearly denotes that the quality of all operations, and not just of product, is of utmost importance (Mission, n.d).

Goals/Objectives

The Coca-Cola company has four general goals/objectives that serve to further describe the relevance of the mission and vision statements. These goals/objectives generally address both the internal and external environment in the form of guidance statements. These four goals/objectives are; (1) Focus on the market, (2) Work smart, (3) Act like owners, and (4) Be the brand (Mission, n.d).

Focus on the market. As the title implies, the goal/objective is squarely aimed at fulfilling the needs of the principal external stakeholder; the customer. The company’s constituents are encouraged to “...listen, observe, and learn,” as a way of ascertaining and meeting the needs of the company’s consumers, customers, and franchise partners. This five-part objective goes on to further stress the importance of market analysis by stating that internal constituents should always “Be insatiably curious” (Mission, n.d).

Work smart. This goal/objective is clearly aimed at the primary internal stakeholder; the employee. This five-part directive acts more as a set of standards that each of the company’s constituents should seek to live up to. They are encouraged to “Act with urgency,” “Remain responsive to change,” and “Work efficiently, all of which denote the company’s preference