Coca-Cola Essay, Research Paper
History
"Coca-Cola enterprises Incorporated, employees 66,199 operates, 444
facilities, 47,235 vehicles, 1.9 million pieces of cold drink equipment and sold
3.8billion unit cases in 46 states in the united states, all 10 provinces of
Canada and portions of Europe including Belgium, France, Great Britain,
Luxembourg and the Netherlands" (Coca-Cola facts 99). An, Atlanta
Pharmacist Dr. John Slyth Pemberton founded Coca-Cola on May 8, 1886. The carmel
colored ingredients, Coca leaves and kola nuts. Later the drink was striped of
narcotics. The drink was first designed as a drug that will help people feel
better. Pemberton sold his new drink for 5 cents a glass. Some time later
carbonated water was added to the syrup and that is how Coca-Cola was invented.
Dr. Pemberton sold Coca-Cola out of the pharmacy he worked at. The pharmacy was
owned by, a man named Frank M. Robinson. Robinson suggested
"Coca-Cola" as a name for Pemberton’s drink. The two men took an old
oilcloth sing and hung it in the window saying "Drink Coca-Cola". They
averaged nine glasses sold a day. In 1886 Pemberton became sick he sold some of
his portions of his interest too Asa G. Candler. In 1888 Pemberton died, and Asa
Candler began buying all the out standing shares of Coca-Cola. Candler was and
Atlanta druggist and businessman. Candler knew Coke was going to be something
big. He then had complete control by 1891 for $2,300. In 1892, Candler and his
brother John Candler, Frank Robinson and two other associates formed
"Coca-Cola Company" in Georgia. Candler was a master at marketing. He
handed out coupons for one free glass of Coca-Cola. He also promoted the
beverage by painted walls, Clocks, outdoor posters, serving trays and fountain
urns. Candler marketing stragety worked Coke was available everywhere. The sales
took off. People started calling Coca-Cola "Coke" They urged the
customers to call it by its full name, but "Coke" just stuck. "In
1894, the company opened its first syrup manufacturing plant outside Atlanta in
Dallas Texas. The following year plants opened in Chicago and Los Angeles. Three
years after the Coca-Cola Company’s incorporation Candler announced in the
annual report: "Coca-Cola in the now drunk in every state and territory in
the United States" (History of Coca-Cola Company). Joseph A. Biedenharn, of
Vicksburg, Mississippi installed bottler machinery in his candy store in 1894
and became the first Coca-Cola bottler in the United States. Benjamin F. Thomas
and Joseph B. Whithehead of Chatttanooga, Tennesse bought Coca-Cola from Asa
Candler for one dollar. He got all right to Coca-Cola he thn opened the first
bottling plant in Chattanooga that year. Candler sold the Coca-Cola Company in
1919 for $25 million to an Atlanta banker named Ernest Woodruff and investor
group he had organized. In 1923 E. Woodruff’s 33-year-old son Robert Woodruff
was elected president of Coca-Cola Company. "The Business was
re-incorporated as a Delaware corporation, and 500,000 shares of common stock
were sold publicly for $40 per shares." Robert Woodruff bought Coca-Cola
Company to even greater highs for more then six decades. "Fundamental to
his success was a commitment to the highest standards for product quality a
commitment that remains a hallmark for the Coca-Cola system today". 1981
Roberto Goizueta a Cuban born chemical engineers who rejuvenated the business.
Although Coca-Cola had dabbled on several industries over the years, Goizueta
engineered the largest of this diversification, the $700 million acquisition of
Columbia pictures in 1982. In 1985, Coke changed its original recipe for a
"New Coke". Market shares had fallen so Guizueta thought that
Coca-Cola needed a change his change was "New Coke" the consumers
rejected it. The company changed back to the original recipe. In 1986, it
consolidated the U.S. bottling operation it owned into Coca-Cola Enterprises and
sold 51% of the new company to the public. In 1960, the Coca-Cola Company
purchased minute Maid Corporation; adding frozen citrus juice concentrates and
adds, along with the trademarks minute maid and Hi-C, the company’s beverage
line. The company later acquired Duncan foods, a coffee producer, and formed the
Coca- Cola company foods Division in 1967, now known as the Minute Maid
Company". From 1977-1983 the company produced and marketed wine in the
United States. In 1982 Coca -Cola company bought Belmont Spring Water company
Incorporated. Coca- Cola thought the Entertainment business would be good for
them so in 1982 the company acquisition to Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc,
which joined Tri Star Pictures in 1987, to form the independent corporation
Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. Coca-Cola then sold Belmont Springs Water
Company, Inc. 1989, closing out a decade of accelerated growth and change. In
1997, Robert Goizueta died of lung Cancer. While Robert was in the company the
value rose from 4 billion dollars to 145 billion dollars. Douglas Ivester, the
architect of Coca-Cola’s restructured bottling operations, took over the company
when Guizueta past away. Coca- Cola and Investor ran into some legal problems
when Invester took over. In 1997, the French government blocked the company
tried to buy Orangina from Peknod Ricard. Then in 1998, an antitrust lawsuit
from Pepsi – Cola challenged Coca-Cola’s dominance in the U.S. fountain -drink
business. In June of 1999, products bottled where shut down for two weeks
because some of the bottles where contaminated in Belgium and France. This was
the company largest product recall in the company’s history. Corporate Culture
The Coca-Cola Company provides assistance to American Red Cross and Big Brother
Big Sister. These are just a few of the noble acts the Coca-Cola Company has
become involved in over the years. Coca-Cola is a leading company, which will
continue to grow in all respects. Most importantly, it will grow because of the
company’s value system, and quality for not only its product but also life.
Benefits 401k Company Paid Coverage Coca-Cola offers a full range of benefit
options. The first benefit that may attract an employee to work for Coke is
their company-paid coverage. This would include basic life insurance, basic
long-term disability and health insurance. Retirement, Pension, and Other Post
Retirement Benefit Plans For retirement, the company offers a 401(k) savings
plan with matching company contributions, an employee pension plan, and retiree
medical and life insurance. Paid Time Off The company offers all of their
employees some paid time off. This time off would include sick pay or short-term
disability, vacations, and holidays. Flexible Benefits The company also provides
an opportunity for employees to receive flexible benefits. These options would
be medical coverage, including vision and prescription drugs, dental coverage,
health care and dependent care reimbursement accounts, supplemental long-term
disability insurance and supplemental and dependent life insurance. Coca-Cola
also provides educational assistance and employee assistance programs. Employees
have access to a variety of health management programs such as on site health
club, cholesterol/blood pressure screenings and other wellness programs. Pension
Coca-Cola provides a variety of benefit pension plans covering all of its
employees in North America and Europe. Additionally, the company is involved in
a number of multi-employer pension plans worldwide. Coca-Cola also sponsors a
post-retirement plan that covers substantially all of American and Canadian
employees who qualify before retirement or terminated. In European Countries,
primarily government-sponsored programs cover retired Workers. The total pension
expenses for all benefit plans, including post-retirement health care and life
insurance benefit plans, amounting to approximately $119 million in 1998. In
addition, they also contribute to a voluntary beneficiary association trust,
which will be used to partially fund health care benefits for future retired
employees. Seeing how Coca-Cola employs 30,000 people worldwide, they try to
increase scouting their young employee’s talent for potentially higher
positions. These people start their jobs in front line beverage sales,
distribution, production, or service positions. "The biggest thing Coke is
looking for is long term thinkers," says one insider, "They don’t want
cowboys. They want conservative people who are into adding shareholder
values" (Coke insider, Investors Business Daily Coca-Cola). In 1994, the
Coca-Cola Company was awarded the Optimas Award for global outlook in success
for developing the standardized corporate culture. The company maintained a
long-standing commitment to equal opportunity, affirmative action, and valuing
the diversity of their consumers. The company’s aim to create a working
environment free of discrimination and harassment with respect to race, sex,
color, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, being a
special disabled veteran. They also have commitment to make reasonable
accommodations in the employment of men and women who are qualified with
disabilities In addition, to trying to create a working environment free of
discrimination and harassment with respect to sex and sexual orientation, to
prohibit such discrimination and harassment provide a complaint mechanism to
ensure compliance. Even more important, the company maintains an open door
policy where employee related issues could be raised freely. The whole idea of
the open door policy is to provide an effective and timely means for all company
associates to find solutions to work related questions, problems, and concerns
that may effect the culture of the organization. The company has management
programs for potential management and people already in the management program.
Managers and associates work together on the development process. This process
includes determining development needs and agreeing on the development methods.
The approach to development may include on-the-job experience, specific training
programs, and other approaches to the development of the company. Feedback is an
essential factor in the appraisal process. It will prepare the associates for
future business needs. This is all part of there equal Opportunity Policy,
Employees are trained extensively nation wide. Coke provides its South African
divisions with programs to university students with the opportunity to learn new
business skills by working within the company. These specific programs allow
employees to further build new skills, while it also allows employees to build
skills for the first time. The skills the employee’s posses aid the company in
shareowner value National Distribution The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s
largest bottler of liquid nonalcoholic refreshment in which they produce,
market, and distributes their products in nearly 200 countries throughout the
world. Each day these countries consume 100 billion servings of Coca-Cola
products which stresses the importance of the invaluable service that
Coca-Cola’s distribution and bottling centers provide for the company. The
World’s most effective and pervasive distribution system is broken up into two
different sectors which are then divided even further into subunits such as the
following: 1.) The North American Sector – Coca-Cola USA [which operates in the
U.S.] – Coca-Cola LTD [responsible for soft drink operations in Canada.] -
Houston Base Coca-Cola Foods [produces and markets juices and juice like
drinks.] 2.) The International Business Sector – The Greater Europe Group
[manages the regions that are part of the European Union.] * Central &
Eastern Europe * Scandinavia * Soviet Union – The Latin American Group Overseas
* Mexico * Central & South America – The Middle and Far East Group * Asia
& Pacific Rim * Middle East – The Sub Sahara African Group * Manages any
countries below the Sahara Desert. This distribution system provides the
backbone needed to support the company and help them remain competitive in the
cold-beverage industry. The company is always striving to maintain quality
products while maximizing customer satisfaction. Distribution has become an
intricate part of the companies success in being able to successfully produce
quality products that are delivered and sold around the globe in a cost
effective and time efficient manner. Coca-Cola’s North American Distribution
Sector deserves to be mentioned first, because this is the region in the world
where the Coca-Cola empire first evolved and continues to prosper and grow. Coke
has become an American icon that has managed to transform itself from a
profitable fountain soda into a generational product that Americans have grown
to love. The North American Sector operates under DSD policies (Direct Store
Delivery) inwhich the products are delivered to the store directly from the
distribution center. This is in an effort to maximize profits and maintain a
quality image for their products "freshness". "By contract with
the Coca-Cola Company or it’s local subsidiaries, local businesses are
authorized to bottle and sell company soft drinks within certain territorial
boundaries and under conditions that ensure the highest standards of quality and
uniformity". This affiliation is being created by Coca-Cola’s "Project
Infinity", which is being implemented by upper management to consolidate
independent bottlers in an effort to cut costs, pool resources, generate more
buying power, improve overall communication throughout the organization, and
increase profits. This strategic alliance allows the company to produce products
that taste consistently good, contain the same amount of ingredients, are
packaged interchangeable, and are stocked and served to the customer in a
systematic way all across the country. One of the main components of Project
Infinity is an application for sales and distribution that Coca-Cola built for
the bottling companies years ago, called Basis (Beverage, Analytical, Sales,
Information, Systems), which is used for routing delivery trucks and determining
specific customer needs in terms of volume. In addition Basis serves other
functions as well including such responsibilities as accounting, logging in
order entries, and payments. Basis is the central piece of Coca-Cola’s
distribution center because it is used primarily as their dispatching and
replenishing system. Without Basis Coca-Cola would be unable to keep track of
their inventory and supplies, which would eventually have a dissolving effect on
their overall internal structure. Unfortunately, Coke realizes that their
dominance in the cold-beverage industry will not continue unless they come up
with new innovative ways to remain competitive in a global market. Therefore
Coca-Cola is installing a massive integrative system called SAP Applications
(Strategic Alliance Program) which will eventually replace the outdated Basis.
This program is designed to share knowledge with each bottler and set up common
systems and applications that are integrated with each and every bottler within
the Coca-Cola organization. SAP is in the beginning stages of development, but
Coca-Cola plans on using SAP for multi purposes which include keeping track of
their financial data, purchasing, human-resources management, project-management
applications, production and materials management, quality management and plant
maintenance, as well as sales and distribution management. Initially around
5,000 users will have access to SAP applications which will eventually increase
to 25,000 users throughout Coca-Cola. Rick Engum, VP of Information Services at
Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. in Atlanta states the following in regards to SAP :
"These applications will speed the process of doing business with our
suppliers and give us better management of our overall supply chain. By using
common applications all of us in the Coca-Cola system will provide a consistent
level of service [such as timely deliveries] to customers. We could do this to
some extent with the old systems, but it’s far easier to do with shared
technology". SAP Applications provides Coca-Cola Enterprises and it’s
management even further incite on understanding the business on a daily basis