The Decision by Coca-Cola to Manufacture Coke Zero Sugar (Essay Sample)

The Decision by Coca-Cola to Manufacture Coke Zero Sugar Student’s Name Institution Introduction Coca-Cola Company is a multinational beverage corporation that specializes in producing beverage products. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, United States of America. Coca-Cola also involves manufacturing, selling, and marketing other non-alcohol beverage products, such as alcoholic products and syrups. The stock of Coca-Cola Company is listed in the New York stock market; therefore, it can be accessed by any potential investor. The company was established in 1886 by a renowned pharmacist called John Pemberton. When introduced into the market, the Coca-Cola products initially contained coca leaves, cocaine, and caffeine from Kola nuts which altogether acted as a stimulant. In 1889, the brand and formula were officially sold to an investor called Asa Candler for $2330, who later expanded the company's operations and settled for Atlanta as its headquarters. Coca-Cola Company is also known for its strategy of acquisition CITATION Bro191 \l 1033 (Brondoni, 2019). This has dramatically made them acquire a larger market share in the beverage industry. Some of the most famous and strategic acquisitions include the minute maid acquisition in 1959, Inca Kola in 2000, and costa coffee brands in 2018, among many other beverage brands worldwide. Coca-Cola Company currently operates in more than 200 countries worldwide, with the coke brand contributing to more than 55% of their total sales CITATION Bek21 \l 1033 (Bekimbetova & Erkinov, 2021). It is vital to note that the decision this research will analyze is the aspect of launching a new product. In this case, the decision to be analyzed is the aspect of the introduction of the Coke Zero Sugar product. The company's customers excellently received this decision, and from the financial records, the company's profit has significantly increased since the idea's inception. This essay research will also outline why Coca-Cola made the decision and also the reflection on the ethics of the decision and the alternative plans of action. An Explanation of Why Coca-Cola Company Made the Decision to Initiate Coke Zero Sugar Product Before any organization indulges in decisions, specific measures need to be in place for an effective and efficient decision in the company's best interest. The Coca-Cola Company, like any other multinational corporation in the world, has a general decision-making process and model that assists the organization in solving hectic business situations and ethical behavior in the company. It is essential to note that this organization usually considers the type of decision on the table before they engage in any steps. This is because organization decisions vary; it could be management decisions, board of management decisions, or even daily activities decisions. For Coca-Cola Company, this is how they decide; they first gather facts and know what could be wrong with the organization's operations. They then identify the root causes of the problems they face as the organization. They then define the effects of the decisions to be made. In this case, the opportunities and risks that comes with the decisions. After analyzing the impacts, the company set a course of action for implementation purposes. The last step is monitoring and evaluating the decision made CITATION Góm19 \l 1033 (Gómez, 2019). The Coca-Cola Company's decisions are made mainly by the General Manager. In the case of the introduction of coke zero sugar, the board of directors made the decision. The decision to launch the product was made in 2005, but the idea was further reformulated in 2017 in Atlanta to improve the taste. The decision to start the product was deliberate since the organization wanted to expand its market and reach those with health conditions. It is essential to note that initially there was a demand for a healthier drink that was caused by the changes in coercive institutional pressure. Coca-Cola Company is known to be on the front line in implementing its decisions using both defensive and offensive strategies. It is important to note that a defensive strategy is usually a marketing strategy that organizations use to retain clients that could be taken away by their competitors. At the same time, the offensive strategy refers to the mechanism that involves an organization actively trying to make changes in the industry. In this situation, organizations usually make acquisitions of other brands and invest more in research and development of products to always be ahead of their competitors. In this situation of Coca-Cola launching a coke zero sugar brand, the company employed an offensive strategy to achieve its goals and objectives effectively and efficiently. Coca-Cola Company has always been doing a lot of strategic interventions to improve its products and protect its market share. The organization has widely used the acquisition strategy to increase its market share. Their research and development department has always been busy carrying out research to analyze the course of action to keep improving the corporation's products CITATION Chu201 \l 1033 (Chu, 2020). Through their offensive strategy, the Coca-Cola Company did an excellent research to develop the Coke zero sugar products, which enabled them to serve many individuals who are not conversant with sugar products. The competition in the beverage industry is so intense. The battle for competition of market share is widely seen, this means a small mistake can make an organization lose a chunk of their market. Coca-Cola Company faces a great competition from brand like Pepsi. They both produce sugar drinks but Coca-Cola Company saw an opportunity to diverse there products making them to invent sugar free coke. This has enabled the company to be ahead of there competition. It is vital to note that decisions in every organization worldwide have forces that influence them to be adopted. There are always factors and actors in place that influence a particular decision to be made by the organizations. Some factors and actors also influenced the introduction or launch of coke zero sugar products in the business environment. The company's leadership style is among the factors that influenced the company to introduce a coke zero sugar product. The company's leadership is always known to invest more in innovative adventures intending to make the organization always ahead of its competitors. The company's leadership yearned to solve the problem of reaching individuals with medical issues such as diabetes. They then inspired the research and development to be innovative to achieve their goals and objectives. Technology factor is also an element that influenced the Coca-Cola Company's decision to introduce zero-sugar coke. The advancement of technology forced the company to be innovative, lest their competitors may outshine them. Since most of the technology is at the company's disposal, they ensure they use it effectively and efficiently to achieve maximum success CITATION Far19 \l 1033 (Fares, Amr, & Mohamed Ahmed, 2019). It is essential to note that social factors also influence the decision made by the company. The company wanted to target the elderly members of the community with zero-sugar products primarily. This made the company initiate the program of developing a zero-sugar coke. The Coca-Cola Company has a complex matrix structure that runs and manages the company's operations because the company has so many geographical divisions, the products division, the functional division, and the business type division. It is important to note that some business analysts consider the power structure of Coca-Cola Company a flat structure. For decisions to be made in this company, the hierarchy structure must be followed. The company has a chief executive officer and a board of directors representing the shareholders. Still, decisions are made and implemented by the general manager, with who two functional managers assist. One supervises the sales and marketing managers, while the other supervises the company's sales and logistics managers. This structure usually ensures the decisions and plans made by the organization's top management are effectively implemented and monitored for more extraordinary achievement of success. The coke zero sugar beverage product decision was initiated by the top management, where the mandate was delegated to the research and development team of the company for implementation and execution purposes CITATION Ser18 \l 1033 (Serôdio, McKee, & Stuckler, 2018). Some research also indicates that influential stakeholders such as the government of the United States of America participated in advocating for sugar-free beverage products since the health cases from the beverage products in the market were not good. A Reflection on the Ethics of the Decision and Discussion of Alternative Courses of Action The decision by the Coca-Cola Company to introduce coke zero sugar was ethical and admirable. This is because the decision was made to consider individuals with medical issues who are not conversant with sugar stuff in one way or another. The decision was also made to contribute to the fight for mitigating or reducing the diseases like diabetes, and the risk of increasing obesity levels, that are caused by the consumption of sugar products. It is critical to note that Coca-Cola Company has always ensured they practice ethical behaviors when carrying out their business activities. Unethical behaviors have severe consequences for the Coca-Cola Company. This is because it can easily lead to the loss of customers to competitors or the ban of coke products. This is why the company has put in place mechanisms to address ethical issues and it has achieved restoring ethical situations CITATION Bwa20 \l 1033 (Bwakea, 2020). The decision to develop coke zero sugar by the Coca-Cola Company ...