Coca Cola Company Resources and Capabilities - Case Study Example

Coca Cola Company Resources and Capabilities Name Name of Institution The Coca Cola Company is a world business leader in the beverage industry. The company is the leading soft drink maker in the world spanning in over 200 countries and own a further 400 non-alcoholic beverage brands (Coca-Cola, 2013). The company began in Atlanta in The United States in 1886 and by 1937 the company had expanded to Australia. The Coca Cola Company has faced a number of both external and internal challenges in the marketplace due to socio-economic, market driven and regulatory changes. In order for this company to grow and maintain its operations for the past decades to successfully run to this date, it has to have a competitive advantage over its rivals and strong resources and capabilities (Hitt, 2017). In the current competitive world, organizations have realised the importance of having a strategy. The strategies are based on capabilities and resources of the specific organization. Coca Cola is a good example of a company that has always upgraded, invested and taken advantage of its resources and capabilities to be the most successful brand in the beverage industry for more than a century. Rare and Inimitable Capabilities The Coca Cola Company has very strong financial capabilities. With this financial strength, the company can increase its market share in many countries. The company can easily recover from losses and still invest in other potential markets. These finances can be used for marketing and promotion and also carry out extensive research. The company also has many workers that work in an environment that is open and positive. They are able to openly communicate ideas and comment on enhancements and suggest developments (Datamonitor, 2000). These ideas can help the business in acquiring new talents, business and operational ideas for the organization. They are also able to see loopholes and issues affecting the business processes and repair them. The company's culture is also part of its capabilities; the culture is commendable and unique with a community consisting of a talented workforce guided by universal ethics. The Coca Cola community includes the employees, suppliers, distributors, bottlers and wholesalers in almost every part of the country where the beverages are consumed. Having this diverse group of people working together towards one unified purpose is quite a complex task (Puravankara, 2007). The Company's reward and organizational systems help with these but they do not substitute the Company's global image and values that span across diverse cultures and beliefs. The core values of the company include passion, leadership, integrity, collaboration, accountability, integrity, quality and innovation. These values bring the large number of Coca Cola's subsidiaries together in one unified invisible bond. The company's working environment is wide ranging and comfortable making it easier to complete tasks in an efficient and timely manner. The Coca Cola Company employees revel in carrying out their processes the right way. These workers share most of the same qualities that ensure the company's continued success and growth. They are enthusiastic, devoted, smart, risk takers and innovative. The company has outstanding work force at every level that ensures the daily success of the company. They are loyal to the Company's mission and vision and attempt to make the Company the best Consumer products company in the world in every aspect of the business. Another capability of the Coca Cola Company is its management. The Company has a powerful vision that has stimulated its efforts in defining the beverage and soft drink industry (Coca Cola, 2013). The company's management strives to ensure that no matter where the customer is in the country or the world in general, there is a Coca Cola or any other soft drink brand from the company within and arms reach. This simple but mighty vision defines the organization's purpose and strategy of ever expanding its markets. The management team is made up of an executive leadership and Board of Directors who represent the finance, bottling, marketing, public affairs and communication, bottling investment and supply chain, innovation and human resources departments among others (Puravankara, 2007). Exploitable and Valuable Resources A company's resources are the tangible or intangible assets it owns in addition to its labour force (human resources). The Coca Cola Company's tangible resources include its physical and financial resources. According to Forbes (2013), in 2012, the organization earned revenue of 8.6 million US dollars and had a market value approximated at 158.8 billion dollars. Through its operations over the decades, the company has earned and now owns sustainable and dynamic financial resources which it uses in investing in large markets like Australia, India, Russia, China and other markets like Vietnam where the company failed for over a decade but kept pushing until the business eventually picked. These resources are also used to continuously build the company's brands and infrastructure and to also form partnerships in order to expand its distribution networks (Coca-Cola, 2013). The company has different departments to effectively carry out the company activities. The sales and marketing department is responsible for all the company sales and promotions; it ensures that the company products are known and available in the market and also deal with any inquiries that consumers may have. There is also the Human Resource Department that deals with issues regarding the employees (Puravankara, 2007). The finance and accounting departments deal with public company disclosures, reporting, acquisitions and mergers with other brands. They prepare financial statements like cash flow statements, balance sheets and income statements. They also collect and consolidate financial reports to ensure they are all up to date. The company also has a legal department that drafts, reviews and interprets its licensing and sales agreements such as contracts and non-disclosure statements. This department also provides employment and labour advice to the Human resource department including with individual employee situations that may arise and workplace policies, there is also a section of the legal department that coordinates defends the company in all lawsuits and legal claims. These legal and human resources are valuable and exploitable and are part of the many reasons why the Coca Cola Company stays on top of its competitors for over a century. The Coca Cola Company, just like any other multinational business, believes that technology is a key driver in each and every value-added activity within the organization (DLI Productions Inc., 2014). The ever changing technology such as supply chain management, automation and packaging has great importance in the Company's operations worldwide and particularly in Coca Cola Australia. The ICT department deals with these technological facets of the organization. It also helps with research through the internet that ensures the company is up to date with the current market trends and takes advantage of existing opportunities. In this company, technology lies in either the process development or product development category; product development can be defined as the commercialization and concept designs of new products while process development includes the creation and use of new practices, procedures and equipment in order to add value to the product and brand in general (Puravankara, 2007). The main aim of process development is to improve existing techniques or come up with innovative methods of carrying out the company activities. The company invests in product and process technologies in order to acquire new and better sources of competitive advantage. The company believes that its people are its greatest assets. The company knows the importance of recognizing and rewarding employees and ensuring a comprehensive and complete package of pay, learning, benefits and developing programs. Employee performance is crucial to the success of the business (Hitt, 2017). The company employs and assertively develops a diverse workforce and further promotes a culture of constant learning, advancement and creation of value. This in turn refines and maintains a corporate culture which fosters employees to develop to their maximum potential which in turn improves worker fulfilment and contentment in their work environment. The Coca Cola Company also values the distinctiveness of each and every employee. Employee engagement is vital to the company and they believe that the success of the company depends on employee motivation (Datamonitor, 2000). There are frequent tests organized by the Company's senior managers to know the amount of satisfaction and engagement with the existing working conditions. There are also attempts to build ideal work places where the employees can work comfortably. The Coca Cola Company has managed to sustain its competitive advantage over a period of a century. This was mostly due to the advantageously significant rare, valuable, non-substitutable and inimitable resources owned by the firm. The company invests hefty amounts of money for these resources which are not easily found in the open market but are part of the Coca Cola Company resource inventory. They need a considerable amount of analysis before they can be identified and used appropriately. With its prestigious brand, dynamic financial capability, diverse and talented work force, good distribution networks and a positive and comfortable work environment, it can be noted that the company's sustainable competitive advantage is based on the VRIN framework. These could only be achieved by a company with large market values like Coca Cola which has managed to put its name on the world business map and remains a household name for decades. No competing company has been able to imitate any of the Company's products to their precision and this ensures they stay above their rivals since Coca Cola products are still the most preferred. References Coca-Cola. (2013). Coca cola. London: Spruce Books. Datamonitor (Firm). (2000). Coca-Cola Company. New York: Datamonitor. DLI Productions Inc. (2014). The Coca Cola Conquest - Part I, The Big Sell. Montreal: DLI Productions Inc. Forbes. (2013). Coca-Cola Slurps up More Emerging Markets Growth. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/02/14/coca-cola-slurps-up- more-emerging-markets-growth/#ed1ee0d496d9 Hitt, M. A. (2017). Strategic management: Competitiveness & globalization: concepts and cases. New York: Cengage learning. Puravankara, D. (2007). Strategic Analysis of the Coca Cola Company. Burnaby: Simon Fraser University Library. Read More