Evolving Corporate Culture - Essay Example

Introduction

The global business environment is not static. There are changes that happen daily that do challenge not only the traditional ways of doing things but also provide newer methods and requirements (Manyika et al., 2013). The managers in today’s business environment have therefore to be prepared to deal with the changes and the challenges of the present. Viewing changes as opportunities rather than threat has been the talk of the Corporate America for quite sometimes now. Global business environmental changes arise from economic, sociocultural and legal-political changes (Hill, 2008). However, management is more than preparing for change, as it is not always practical. The changes brought by the global business environment call for anticipatory management rather than just preparatory management. This report is an exploration of how evolving corporate culture and the changes in the environment is affecting corporate management in Coca-Cola Company.

Managing the Changing Global Environment

Coca-Cola as a global leader in beverage industry has been in existence for decades. This existence has faced corporate and industrial changes of immeasurable magnitude. However, what is happening currently is about to transform the company corporate culture and business strategies in a way that is real and incredible. The growth in urban population is one major change that emanates from changes in business environment. According to the United Nations, the urban population is expected to increase by over 70% by the mid-21st century. In the developed countries such as America, emerging economies are slowly forming, and efficient management is paramount to surviving the changes. In addition, there are changing demographics in every industry which then demands a restructure that will incorporate diversification. Managers in corporate America are therefore faced with a big challenge to continually expand their service delivery and production to meet the increasing and changing clientele base (Manyika et al., 2013). However, the change is happening much faster than the corporate can manage.

After the 2000 race discrimination litigation settlement that faced the company, Coca-Cola was forced to improve on its adoption of a diversified workforce. By 2005, the company had made strategic evolutional steps in the improvement. First, there was a monetary settlement that left the company with losses that none of the managers would like to see repeated. In addition, the discriminatory claims were never to be heard again. The company employed people from diverse cultures and genders to surpass even the minimum requirements set out in the International Labor Laws. According to the 2005 end-year reports, the company was able to achieve 64% of salaried jobs offered to women and the minorities in just five years.

As the global business changes, there are emerging markets which continue to gain power and influence on the public leaving the establishing corporate struggling to keep the pace. The increase in population especially in the developing nations, coupled with a similar growth in the adoption of modern technology and civilization has made a major impact on the global economy and business. What is currently being observed is a growing self-reliance of the developing countries with emerging economies and even cheaper production processes. A corporate manager in America is, therefore, wary of the fact that the services of the local business may become obsolete and unwanted in the global economy. The current movement of companies out of America and into the emerging markets is due to this impact (Jankalová, 2012). Managers are opting to transact in areas where the population and hence the clientele base is large enough to support sales while still enjoying a tax break and a lower production cost.

The expansion of the global market has hastened the growth of Coca-Cola as a company. The company has established itself as a global leader not just because of the presence of its products in almost all the major regions and markets in the world, but also due to the localization of production. Currently, Coca-Cola has bottling companies in all regions of the world where local labor is utilized to produce beverages at a cheaper cost. Through this, the company can achieve a balanced and diversified workforce around the world while also having a sustainable profitability in its production. When the production is made local, the cost of production, marketing and distribution become massively reduced to the benefit of the company. Also, the local entities are allowed a chance to innovate new and local flavors to fit their specific customers.

Advance in technology also has an impact on the ways of doing business in corporate America. All over the world, the growth in technology continues to crate and develop entirely new industries and services. Technologies such as mobile technology, online researches, markets speculators, and nanotechnology have been affecting the consumer trends and market structures. Without the conscious understanding of these changes in real life, managers are faced with a challenge of admitting to technology and completely restructuring the business, production, and marketing strategies (Manyika et al., 2013). These changes in technology indicate that the corporate management is faced with a challenge of making virtual transactions an answer to most of the marketing problems.

Coca-Cola as a prototype of a company that has undergone massive cultural evolution due to changing global business environment has embraced technology to a great extent. The globally oriented management in the company has contributed greatly to the adoption of technology as a necessary improvement in business. Technology has revolutionized communication between people in different parts of the world. Conferences that required travels and expensive trips can now be conducted via teleconferencing with all the managers in their respective countries and departments. This implies that there are great savings on time and resources by the company due to the adoption of technology.

Today’s Successful Corporate Management

To be successful in the current global business environment, a manager must be ready to recognize changes in the environment, view them as opportunities and move to ensure that the changes do not destabilize the business but only leads to the necessary corporate evolution to fit into the current status. Accordingly, managers in Corporate America must be ready for change and avoid facing changes with a reaction strategies. Instead, managers ought to be anticipatory, looking at all the indicators of change and using their experience and expertise to anticipate the direction of change. In effect, the change meets the managers ready to face it and with all the necessary structures in place (Zhang & Huang, 2012).

In addition, managers should learn to be agents of change in the industry. Rather than waiting to prepare for change, it is necessary that the America’s corporate be in the first line in strategizing change in the business environment. When a corporate manager is part of the change in the industry, there is the advantage that the effect of the change will not be negative. In any case, the manager will exert the company’s influence on the industry thus reinforcing the position of the company in the market. Being the developers and first adopters of change has helped Coca-Cola to be efficient with no threat to stability.

When corporate managers focus their energy on securing a market share in a changing business environment, the victories and the competitive advantage is only for a short time. Long-term advantage can only be secured by managers whose focus is on the general environment rather than competition in the global environment. This implies that successful management will be based on capitalizing on the overall change and ensuring that the organization is fully equipped to survive the change. The restructuring to ensure survival may be an evolution that takes too much of the organization time and resources but it is long-term. Since the environment is expected to continue changing, the organization is therefore set to survive even greater absurdities and changes (Jankalová, 2012).

Conclusion

Global environment changes is a phenomenon that cannot be solved but is accepted. Corporate managers in America has a role in anticipating change, be part of the change, and be agile in looking out to ensure that change does not destabilize the corporate structure but strengthen it through the changes to evolve with time. In a time of change, managers have the responsibility to accept the existence of change and communicate this change to the rest of the stakeholders in the organization. This will ensure that no time and resources are lost in denial and that the company prepares and respond to change in good time to ensure stability. When communication is successful, the managers with the rest of the stakeholders move to plan and execute strategies that are likely to buffer the organization against threats resulting from changes. This, therefore, implies that although change is inevitable, corporate management can effectively use changes to the advantage of the organization and its structures. Global business environment change is, therefore, to be considered a chance for improvement and evolution on corporate management.