Coca-Cola Strategic Management

1. Background

Coca Cola was founded by Dr. John Pemberton, a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia in May, 1886. (inventors.about) Coca Cola has achieved a strong and substantial growth in the past 120 years. The table below details the rapid growth of Coca Cola from a small glass of soda beverage to the most popular can of drinks all over the world.

(Coca Cola Company, 2009)

2. Vision, Mission, Goals and Values

Mission and vision

Similar to other multi-national companies, Coca-Cola aims to maximise their profits while maintaining a long-term sustainable growth within the beverage industry. The company’s mission statement states that the company aims to:

 refresh the world,

 inspire moments of optimism and happiness and

 Create value and make a difference in the place that we all live in.

In order to put the company’s mission into perspective, the organization conducts their business in a unique fashion and is quite distinguished from its competitors. Rather than going through direct marketing programs and traditional channels to the consumers, Coca-Cola utilizes various bottling partners in order to focus more on beverage creation and marketing.

It is called “The Coca-Cola system”. The company starts by manufacturing the concentrates, beverage bases and syrups then distribute them to their bottling partners while keeping ownership of the brands. The company itself is more involved in the marketing activities such as print and television advertising, retail store displays as well as contests and package designs.

The bottling partners on the other hand, comprise of many different entities. They include international and publicly traded businesses and even some small family businesses. These partners are usually responsible for the producing, packaging and distributing of the company’s products.

3. External Analysis

The company is able to identify its opportunities and threats in their operating industry, by analyzing the external industry...