Human Resource Management at Coca-Cola Amatil Limited - Case Study Example

COCA-COLA AMATIL L.T.D REPORT Student’s Name: Grade Course: Instructor’s Name: Date: Table of Contents eXecutive Summary 3 1.0 Introduction 3 1.2 History of Coca-Cola Amatil L.t.d 4 1.3 Special Activities Harmonized by Coca-Cola Amatil L.t.d……………………...……4 Discussion 5 2.0 Introduction to H.R Planning 5 2.1 Internal Business Environment 5 2.2 External Business Environment……..……………………………………………...…5 2.3 Recruitment and Employee Training……………………………………………….6 2.4 Safety Management……………………………………………………………..6 2.5 Technology…………………………...………………………………….......7 2.6 Competition……………………………………………………………….7 2.7 Pollution Concerns…………….…………………………………….....8 2.8 Imports and Exports…….…………………………………………...8 3.0 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………9 4.0 RECOMMENDATIONS……………………………………………………………………9 5.0 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………..10 6.0 APPENDICES……………………………………………………………………………12 Executive Summary Coca-Cola has had humble beginnings since its inception. Starting from a low sale of nine bottles a day, to date, Coca-Cola has managed to boost its sales to over 800 million bottles a day; hence popularizing itself as the leading brand worldwide. The introduction of the brand ventured into the Australian markets in the 1930’s. However, this initiative led to the creation of Coca-Cola Amatil, a subsidiary company, which has the rights to manufacture and sell products related to Coca-Cola in Australia since 1990. Coca-Cola Amatil has a key strategy, which entails the growth of the Australian beverages market through sourcing for new outlets; hence improving returns within the hub of the business. In addition to this, Coca-Cola Amatil focuses on heavy investments on fridges to Indonesia. This is because of the strong growth of the Gross Domestic Product coupled with the large population and low penetration, which suggest the long-term potential for growth. 1.0 INTRODUCTION As the name goes, Coca-Cola Amatil is among the largest bottling company manufacturing nonalcoholic beverages within the Asia-pacific region employing about 15200 employees. It also boasts of being one of the five top manufacturing industries associated with the Coca-Cola brand worldwide. In addition, it has an operation base within five countries; Australia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, New Zealand and Indonesia, which are responsible for the manufacturing, selling and the distribution of a range of diversified product portfolio such as Water, sports drinks and carbonated drinks (COCA-COLA AMATIL, n.d.). The company entered a joint venture with SABMiller and holds a 50/50 stake (Coca-Cola Amatil, n.d). The Coca-Cola Company is its main shareholder owning 30% of the shares, with two directors among the eight of the Coca-Cola Amatil board. Coca-Cola Amatil has its location in Sydney, 40 Mount Street and lists among other companies on the Australian Securities Exchange. The company’s market capitalization stands at A$8 billion and stands out as one of the 50 top listed companies in Australia (Coca-Cola Amatil, n.d). 1.2 History of Coca-Cola Amatil L.t.d The history of the company dates back to 1904 while still operating under the title “British Tobacco” (Australia). Later, it ventured into the production of soft drinks in 1964 after the purchase of Coca-Cola Bottlers (Perth). Later on in 1972, the company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. After venturing into the production of beverages and foods, in 1977 the company’s name changed to Amatil Limited. The company underwent significant changes over the years until the Coca-Cola Company purchased about 30% of its shares. The company operates a significant number of operations, which include SPC Ardmona and Coke Tunes, which is an online music store (“Financial Review”, n. d.). 1.3 Special Activities harmonized by Coca-Cola Amatil L.t.d As an independent charitable trust, the Coca-Cola Australia Foundation aims at improving the livelihood of youths subjected to marginalization. Coca-Cola Amatil also has a project dubbed the Coca-Cola Foundation Indonesia established in August 2000 by Coca-Cola Bottling Indonesia. Its main aim and objectives are to boost education levels and quality of human resources in Indonesia. Lastly, there is the Coca-Cola PNG foundation, which funds a whole range of initiative in the quest of HIV/AIDS prevention. This program helps by donating a percentage of funds from the sales bottled products such as “Natures Own”, towards the Coca-Cola Amatil campaign (“Coca-Cola Amatil”, n.d). Discussion 2.0 INTRODUCTION TO H.R PLANNING Human resource planning is a procedure undertaken within an organization to ensure the right numbers of persons working within the organization are strategically positioned at their right places and the right time; hence having the ability to effectively and efficiently execute duties assigned to them, with an aim of meeting the organization’s goals. Human resource planning is at the heart of any organization thus it entails an approach based on analyzing organizational needs. This includes the management, and attitude of members of staff, and the amount of resources involved in foreseeing the organization attain its goals. As a strategic aim, human resource planning should effectively be used to assess and determine current efforts and in addition, it should be of much consideration in all future prospects. 2.1 Internal Business Environment The influence of the internal business environment at Coca-Cola Amatil is positioned within the bottling control business. With notice to this, Coca-Cola Amatil’s has attributed its internal environment through efficacy in production, management skills and the right communication channels. For this purpose, Coca-Cola Amatil focuses on monitoring and controlling the internal business environment in an affective manner. This is achieved through conducting continual appraisals within the business operations; hence act upon any factors that hinder the efficiency of production in the production phases and consumer process. 2.2 External Business Environment The influences accompanied by the external business environment are known to have direct effects on the industry and the economy as a whole. These changes are responsible for the creation of opportunities or threats within Coca-Cola Amatil’s market place. Therefore, Coca-Cola Amatil must be informed about such threats to avoid failures. However, certain variables such as the economy, changing of customers’ beliefs and values, and the demographic patterns marginally influence the success of Coca-Cola Amatil’s products on the market and in return; reception received from customers. 2.3 Recruitment and Employee Training Coca-Cola Amatil runs its own National Recruitment Centre that comprises of a team of over 20 recruitment professionals. This team provides specialized recruitment services to all areas of production including manufacturing, supply, customer service, finance, sales and marketing. Each member of the team has a mandate to deliver a human resource plan that correspond to the company’s strategy, which mainly focuses on building organizational capability, providing a healthy and safe working environment, creating a great place to work and motivating efficiency. The company also incorporates learning and organizational development strategies. In addition, the Human Resource department utilizes a talent management program that strives to retain talent and keep employees motivated, through awards and promotions. 2.4 Safety Management The Coca-Cola Amatil Human Resource personnel have a responsibility of managing conflict resolution processes, assisting in adapting to new management, the cooperation of managers to drive culture change, implementation of action plans, overseeing recruitment activities, coaching of managers, advising managers on injury management, ensuring safety of workers through compliance to Occupational Health and Safety policy and creation, and implementation of engagement initiatives (COCA-COLA AMATIL (PNG) LTD WORKPLACE HIV/AIDS MANAGEMENT AND PREVENTION POLICY, n. d.). 2.5 Technology As new plans are underway, the latest plans intended at Coca-Cola Amatil include the Woolston bottle manufacturing and filling operation plant in Christchurch, New Zealand (“DBR staff writer,” 2011). The plant incorporates a new technology “Blow fill”, blows a PET bottle along the production line from a preform PET resin, which fills it with beverage automatically. The technology is presumed to boost production by filling an average of 16000 bottles an hour (“DBR staff writer,” 2011). In addition, Coca-Cola Amatil introduced the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS), ditching the Lotus Notes it had been using. Technology services manager at Coca-Cola Amatil reiterates that the shift between the two aimed at the elimination of complex set of tools used for collaboration purposes; hence reduce capital costs associated with upgrades that were ongoing to the Notes platform (Kidman, 2010). This shift has helped Coca-Cola Amatil diversify itself from other companies associated with the Coca-Cola Company (Kidman, 2010). 2.6 Competition In today’s competitive business world, customer satisfaction is a top priority. Coca-Cola Amatil partnered with GXS Managed Services in order to improve customer service through implementing and managing a fully outsourced e-commerce solution. The major challenge faced by Coca-Cola Amatil was the fast and efficient communication from other major Food store Customers (“GXS”, 2007). Electronic commerce has become a preferred means of conducting business in the grocery industry; as a result, major consumer goods companies are embracing e-commerce as an effective way of doing business with retailers. Therefore, in an effort to take a leadership role in the industry, Coca-Cola Amatil’s partnership with GXS Managed Services aimed at providing efficient e-commerce services to its customers. These efforts have resulted in business benefits and increased collaboration (“GXS”, 2007). 2.7 Pollution Concerns The main cause for concern in the case of Coca-Cola Amatil Company is bottled environmental damage. Bottled water in the eyes of many environmentalists is viewed as an unjustified luxury. It is estimated that the world wide packaging for bottled water requires about 2.7 million tonnes of plastic every year (Angel, 2008). In addition, there is growing concern over the impact of pollution and depletion of resources such as gas, oil and coal during the production process. It is argued by many environmentalists that even the process of extracting water from springs is endangering groundwater sources. There are concerns that water stored in plastic bottles may be contaminated by chemicals that leach from the liner or plastic cap (Angel, 2008). Finally, there is the issue of disposal of the bottles. The bottles are non-biodegradable and do not decompose if disposed of inappropriately, as time passes chemicals begin to leach from the plastic material contaminating the environment. Though efforts have been made to improve the quality of bottled drinking water, concerns regarding pollution through the use of old pipes and treatment equipment remain (“Just-drinks,” 2004). Efforts have also been made to reuse and recycle plastic containers by the company in attempts to reduce pollution (“Goodman,” n. d.). 2.8 Imports and Exports With the harsh economic times in place, Coca-Cola Amatil considers taking part of the food manufacturing operations offshore to manage shortcomings if the Australian Dollar surges continually against major currencies, more so the dollar. This has intensified concerns about the impact of surging currency on the Australian stock market and the economy at large (Thurlow, 2011). In a news briefing, Terry Davis, the managing director at Coca-Cola Amatil reiterated that the company would have to restructure its business in terms of food products (Thurlow, 2011). 3.0 Conclusion Coca-Cola Amatil is a fast growing bottling company. It has a huge potential for growth because it is associated with the world renowned franchise of Coca-Cola. Through adaptation to new technological advancement and adaptability to consumer demands, the company is bound to earn even more profits than it is currently earning. Pollution concerns are a major setback for the company mostly due to its reliance on plastic to make is containers and bottles. As a universal company, it is important for the company to seek reliable ways of addressing the pollution concerns. 4.0 Recommendations The economic recession has also played a key role in the market base for the company. Therefore, stringent actions should be taken to save the company from running into losses. With the implementation of new strategies and good human resource planning, there is no doubt that Coca-Cola Amatil will rise to it expectations and see itself as a top performer in the competitive industry. References Angel, J. (2008). BOTTLED WATER OR BOTTLED ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE? Green Magazine Retrieved on August 2, 2011 from http://greens.org.au/node/874 COCA-COLA AMATIL. Company Overview. (N.d). Retrieved on August 2, 2011 from http://ccamatil.com/AboutCCA/Pages/CompanyOverview.aspx COCA-COLA AMATIL (PNG) LTD WORKPLACE HIV/AIDS MANAGEMENT AND PREVENTION POLICY. (N.d). Retrieved on August 2, 2011 from http://www.baha.com.pg/downloads/coca_cola_amatil_hiv_aids_policy.pdf “DBR Staff Writer.” Coca-Cola Amatil to set up $15m Bottling Operation in New Zealand. 2011. Retrieved 2nd Aug, 2011 from http://processtechnology.drinks-business- review.com/news/coca-cola-amatil-to-set-up-15m-bottling-operation-in-new-zealand- 310311 “Financial Review”. The Coca-Cola Company. (N.d). Company Information. Retrieved on August 2, 2011 from http://www.afrbiz.com.au/page.asp?E_page=416432&3648=431276 “Goodman”. Stockyards Industrial Estate, Hazelmere, Western Australia. Coca-Cola Amatil Retrieved on August 2, 2011 from http://au.goodman.com/property/development/pipeline/coca-cola-amatil “GXS”. Coca-Cola Amatil Partners with GXS Managed Services to Improve Customer Service. 2007. Case study. Retrieved on August 2, 2011 from http://www.gxs.co.jp/pdfs/caseStudies/CS_CocaCola_GXS.pdf “Just-drinks”. Water quality remains a cause for concern. 2004. Retrieved on August 2, 2011 from http://www.just-drinks.com/analysis/water-quality-remains-cause-for- concern_id85042.aspx Kidman, A. Beverage Giant ditches Notes for Hosted Microsoft Solution. Coca-Cola Amatil nears end of email migration. 2010. Thurlow, R. Coca-Cola Amatil Says May Take Some Operations Offshore on A$ Rise. Dow Jones Newswire; 61-2-8272-4679. 2011. 6.0 Appendix A Economic recession General slowdown of economic activity in a given business cycle. Shortcomings Expected flaws in future. Depletion of resources Exhaustion of raw materials within a specific region. E-commerce Involves the selling and buying of goods and services over the electronic system/internet. Read More