Strategy Implementation for Coca-Cola Company - Research Paper Example

?Running head: STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION FOR COCA-COLA COMPANY Strategy Implementation for Coca-Cola Company Insert        Insert Grade Insert Tutor’s Name 11 January 2011  Strategy Implementation for Coca-Cola Company Introduction Throughout its history, Coca-Cola Company has gradually established some of the best market brands, which customers have identified it with for a long time. Coca-Cola Company satisfies billions of clients through its refreshment products that are found in over 200 countries across the world. Despite constant competition from Pepsi, Coca-Cola remains the favored market brands, more so when financial position of the company is analyzed as compared to the competitors. However, Coca-Cola Company cannot take anything for granted and ignore competition from its main rival and other increasing localized competitions. The company makes use of its key resources in the most efficient and productive way, a situation that has enabled the company to serve its customers with exceptional quality and satisfaction. As a result, the company has constantly strived to maintain growth, perform excellently, and increase shareholders’ value through constant adoption of strategic management policies, which further should be implemented effectively. Strategy Implementation Coca-Cola’s strategic management has for a long time been facilitated through resource-based strategy. Through this strategy, the company perceives its success to lie largely through effective use of key resources such as brands, systems, capital, and people (Pearce and Robinson, 2009). The understanding of the company is that, by utilizing these resources, Coca-Cola has been able to create competitive advantage and edge over its competitors. Strategic management at Coca-Cola Company remains one of the tenets the company has been able to navigate challenging environments and realize its objectives and vision. Such strategic decisions include initiating goals for fair returns on shareholders’ value and serving the community. At the same time, Coca-Cola Company has been able to realize its objectives through innovation and diversification of products to different markets around the world. Implementation of strategy in an organization is a multi-layered process that incorporates multiple strategic initiatives (Heracleous, 2003). In this way, no particular single method can be adopted to implement strategy and succeed successful. At the same time, strategy implementation in an organization should involve multi-disciplinary team guided by efficient management team. Organizational Design In order to implement a strategy more effectively, an organization cannot ignore critical aspects of organizational structure, people, culture, and control systems (Hill and Jones, 2009). A successful strategy that has ability to achieve goals and objectives set has to integrate these aspects. For example, there has to be the right people in an organization to implement the strategy, from the management perspective and employee perspective (Hill and Jones, 2009). At the same time, a supportive culture has to be in place to facilitate strategy implementation, which has to provide the right environment for the success of the strategy. Moreover, critical structures must be present to support and enhance strategy implementation (Hill and Jones, 2009). Structures are particularly effective in coordinating and ensuring goals of the strategic process are realized. Lastly, efficient systems must be present to measure the progress and success of the strategy (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2010). The people Coca-Cola Company has a mission, which facilitates the desire of the company to provide unique refreshment to the world thorough its diversified beverages, and at the same time to inspire moments of optimisms by promoting its brands and actions, and lastly, to create unique and exceptional value in the market all the time (Coca Cola, 2011). To achieve this exemplary position, Coca-Cola Company has invested extensively in having the right people on its side. The Company has created a workforce team that is highly motivated and inspired in key areas it operates. The company goes for the best talents in the market and progressively works effective personnel management system to retain and motivate these talents (Coca-Cola, 2011). For instance, the company has a workforce of over 140,000 people in around 70 countries the company conducts its activities. With the changes being witnessed in the workforce in different industries, Coca-Cola’s objective is to sustain its productivity level and remain highly competitive by having in place an effective, lean, and fast-moving workforce (Coca-Cola, 2011). The guiding philosophy in the company is that, the organization should foster a workplace environment that encourages exploration, creativity, professional growth, and interpersonal relationships, all geared towards enabling the company to build and produce exemplary brands in the market (Coca-Cola, 2011). As a result, the company has continuously aimed to create a workplace that is characterized by constant motivation and inspiration, which fosters and encourages skill development, knowledge acquisition, and growth of experience and passion for the company (Coca-Cola, 2011). Organization Structure In order to ensure the strategic implementation of the company succeeds, Coca-Cola has endeavored to create an organizational structure that is leaner and shorter and has capacity to make decisions faster and effectively. The structure of the company is organized into divisions, which further have project managers. Roles in the organization seem to work well through delegation of duties to different managers in the company who are located in different divisions of the company around the world (Smit, 2000). The current organization structure of the company is perceived to resonate positively with decision-making process in the company and management needs for the company. Moreover, the established structure has the ability of creating and assigning roles and tasks in a way that fulfills and satisfies the diverse needs of the company (Smit, 2000). In this way, Coca-Cola organizational structure is perceived to be efficient, quality in nature, innovative, and responsive to diverse needs of the company and market at large. As the company delegates duties and gives relative powers to divisional managers, it should be remembered that the company still fosters the centralized structure, especially with regard to making critical decisions for the company. This is largely to ensure strategic goals of the company are promoted in a unified manner for effectiveness and efficiency. Centralized organizational structure at Coca-Cola is largely associated with decisions to do with marketing strategies, customer service and management, innovation and brand promotion, advertisement and expansion. As a result, the overall organizational structure of Coca-Cola aims to ensure better management practices at the company, which at the same time provide basis for the implementation of strategy. Organization Systems Coca-Cola Company recognizes that, for its strategy to succeed and achieve desired objectives, it has to have effective and superior systems that operate efficiently. The company has therefore consistently pursued strategies that aim at instituting systems in the company, which subsequently help the company to achieve its objectives. Systems in the company have largely promoted acquisition of sophisticated technology in product innovation, production, distribution, and recycling (Coca-Cola, 2011). For instance, Coca-Cola Company prides itself in having one of the best distribution systems in the world. The goals of Coca-Cola systems are based on creating value for its customers and consumers, while establishing a unique market position as compared to its competitors. At the same time, in order to maintain the growth and sustainability of the system, Coca-Cola depends on collaboration, partnerships, support and shared values with key partner stakeholders (Coca-Cola, 2011). Coca-Cola system is a long-chain of strategies that can be evidenced in key areas of the company such as information technology, finance, marketing, product innovation and development, brand creation, and distribution. Each of this area has superior and exemplary system that has been created. Moreover, various systems in the company do not operate in isolation; rather, they depend on each other, hence inter-dependency of the systems. Culture Coca-Cola prides in successfully creating the ‘Coke’ culture that is characterized by inspiration, creativity, optimism, performance, and people concern. The culture at the company is premised on the foundation of winning attitude, which later has defined the specific attitudes and behaviors that the company has been able to create in the organization. The culture at Coca-Cola is one that can be said to promote integrity, performance, open communication, and productive interrelationships, diversity, and respect for everyone (Coca-Cola, 2011). At Coca-Cola, diversity is encouraged and workforce is supposed to remain visionary, innovative, and passionate about what they do. More so, teamwork is encouraged and major decisions are generated through effective teamwork. Therefore, Coca-Cola has managed to establish a unique culture that resonates well with stakeholders, and at same time promote and encourage learning experiences. Conclusion Strategy and strategy implementation in the modern world is inevitable, and organizations keen on winning will require the right tools, coupled with the right environment to realize their strategic goals. Coca-Cola is one of those organizations that strategy implementation requires thorough analysis of the organization’s internal and external environment. Thereafter, the company should have in place a clear strategy implementation plan that addresses key tenets of strategy implementation: people, structure, systems, and culture. Emphasis should not be put on any particular single tenet but all tenets should be considered important and critical to the success of the implementation process. References Coca-Cola. (2011). Growth, leadership, sustainability. The Coca-Cola Company. Retrieved January 11, 2012, from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/index.html. Heracleous, L. T. (2003). Strategy and organization: realizing strategic management. London: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved January 11, 2012, from http://books.google.com/books?id=Dgu4VnWTeeYC&pg=PA83&dq=implementing+strategy+for+the+company&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lHEOT5j5IciYhQfntaWHAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=implementing%20strategy%20for%20the%20company&f=false. Hill, C., & Jones, G. (2009). Strategic Management Theory: An Integrated Approach. OH: Cengage Learning. Retrieved January 11, 2012, from http://books.google.com/books?id=CzIK9ELsyYwC&pg=PA380&dq=implementing+strategy+for+the+company&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lHEOT5j5IciYhQfntaWHAg&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=implementing%20strategy%20for%20the%20company&f=false. Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2010). Strategic Management: Competitiveness & Globalization, Concepts. OH: Cengage Learning. Retrieved January 11, 2012, from http://books.google.com/books?id=aVnhnRh2NWEC&pg=PA318&dq=organization+structure+and+strategy+implementation&hl=en&sa=X&ei=b5wOT6vSO8yAhQfk4MSYAg&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=organization%20structure%20and%20strategy%20implementation&f=false. Pearce, J. A., & Robinson, R. B. (2009). Strategic Management: Strategy formulation, implementation, and control. NY: McGraw Hill/Irwin. Retrieved January 11, 2012, from https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:q5cXpz6SdkIJ:www.webs.ulpgc.es/sistrat/english/casos/cocacola.doc+Strategic+Management:+Formulation,+Implementation,+and+Control:+Coca+Cola&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgMshAzaB5q-_Yi2WNyaAOqQe6kyhlbAp6HVZRgaZ6AuFWb2f6widL0edvyIFGz0jsl2zwcb0PEf5MQAjaXAzxAZ9f5sWjxVem6f3LKZPUGNq1mZZmqtUmS2nde0FJ5Wk1TPV_y&sig=AHIEtbS-4dAFJVJhXe_PYu8hoFlWI4jthA. Smit, P. J. (2000). Strategy Implementation: Readings. Johannesburg: Juta and Company Ltd. Retrieved January 11, 2012, from http://books.google.com/books?id=VNQN5Q8UWwsC&pg=PA1973&dq=organization+structure+and+strategy+implementation&hl=en&sa=X&ei=b5wOT6vSO8yAhQfk4MSYAg&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=organization%20structure%20and%20strategy%20implementation&f=false. Read More