Strategy implementation at Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola: Strategy Implementation
The Coca-Cola Company's organization is a double-edged sword. The Company's structure is one of global decentralization in which the Company manufactures and sells concentrates, bases and syrups, owns the brands and conducts marketing initiatives, while its global "partners" manufacture, package, merchandise and distribute the final products. This business model involves a "tall hierarchy" of at least 5 levels in which daily operations are apparently left to lower levels while long-term planning and extended-vision is handled by higher levels. The Company also employs committees to handle vital functions such as audit and budget, while using task forces to study unusual-but-possible repetitive problems that may arise for the Company. The management style is apparently very culturally adaptable, optimistic, passionate, responsible and rewarding, having lower level management handle day-to-day operations while upper management focuses on long-range objectives. The Company's conflict-resolution style is also quite adaptable, using Ombudsmen who are confidential, neutral and independent, so employees can freely voice concerns about essentially any employee concern.
Taking all organizational elements into consideration, Coca-Cola's organization is at once highly beneficial yet a hindrance to its mission, vision and strategy. The Company's global decentralization has allowed the company to readily establish, enhance and maintain its presence worldwide, adapt more easily to different cultures and free higher corporate management to concentrate on "the big picture." Simultaneously, global decentralization has harmed Coca-Cola's mission, vision and strategy by decreasing coordination between divisions, increasing miscommunication up and down its "tall hierarchy," increasing the uncertainty of the Company's business environments, and increasing the Company's vulnerability to suppliers of raw materials.