Organizational Development & Change: Coca Cola (Research Paper Sample)

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Organizational Development & Change: Coca-Cola
Abstract
There is a common philosophical saying that implies that the only permanent thing in the world is change. From one time to the other, every organization is involved in a change program, to fit the demands of the market, or internal demands. Change involves a process through which an organization transitions from one state to a future desired state. This process gives room for the employees to familiarize with the new approaches of doing things, and to accept them.
Table of contents
Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Literature Review
Examples of Change That Coca Cola Has Gone Through in the Past ……………………3
Analysis
Why Coca-Cola Initiated Change…………………………………………………………5
Stake Holders Involved in Change………………………………………………….…….7
How the Change Was Implemented………………………………………………………8
How the Company Ensured that the Change was Successful…………………………….10
Conclusion and Recommendations …………………………………………………….....11
Work Cited ……………………………………………………………………………..…12
Introduction
Coca-Cola is a company that manufactures, markets, and retails alcohol free drinks. It has presence in around 200 countries across the world, where it majors with Coca-Cola brand of beverage, together with more than 500 other brands. Founded in the year 1892 in Asa Candler, the company’s headquarters are located in Atlanta, in the United States. According to accounting reports for the year 2010, the company’s income stood at around 11.8 billion Dollars. At that time, the company had around 140,000 employees globally (The Coca-Cola, Company). Coca-Cola, the company’s main brand, is also the world largest alcohol-free beverage. The company also manufactures other brands, on the franchise.
Being among the largest international brands, Coca-Cola needs consistently make changes on the strategies that it uses in business. This is because international business is very dynamic, and the strategies used by other companies are changing with the day. The expectations that the consumers hold, as well as the external environment, is also very dynamic, thus the need to make organizational changes from time to time. This research paper will be seeking to look at the changes that were affected by Coca-Cola company, what factors had inspired the organizational change at the company, and the strategies that the company applied to implement the change.
Literature Review
Examples of Change That Coca Cola Has Gone Through in The Past
Being among the oldest international companies in the world, effective organizational change is among the factors that have made sure that the company remains a strong brand in the world. They have had to go through several internal and external changes, which have ensured their existence. Either internal forces or external ones, including natural forces, have inspired these changes.
Some of the external forces that have inspired change in this company include the World War II. During and after this period, the company was able persevere the strong political tension in the world and established new markets, through creating a niche for themselves in the market. During the World War II, Coca-Cola established 64 branches across the world, through which they supplied several troops with drinks. During the same time, the company improved their public image in the United States by providing US troops with some free drinks, something that emphasized their position as a patriotic company. This also enabled the company to increase their sales to the soldiers, meaning they manage to achieve two objectives. They improved their public image in America and developed their markets. The move to open new plants across the world, worked to their advantage, since these went on to become new bases during their extension after the world market ("The Coca-Cola Company Reports Coca-Cola Americas Management and Organizational Changes.").
During the financial crisis in Asia, Coca-Cola used a strategy of acquiring other companies that were being faced by the crisis. In the process, it bought several bottling, and tea enterprises in both Korea and Malaysia. This move helped the company to diversify, considering that the beverage industry is very dynamic and that the customer desires change from time to time. They came up with several products like Diet Coke, which is also referred to as Coke Zero. This is a brand of Coca Cola which does not have any sugar. Now, the company is looking at investing in production of juices as there are growing concerns about the health benefits of Coca Cola. Since people are becoming more concerned about their health, Coca Cola has to look at this as it could prove to be the next big thing for them.
The other instance when Coca Cola had to implement change was in the mid 1980s when, in America, consumers seemed to favor a competitor’s product that had a sweeter flavor than that of Coca-Cola (The Coca-Cola, Company). The company opted to change the management chain, and re-brand the product to Coca-Cola Classic, a move that worked to their advantage. This move financially improved the company, and it was able to beat a competitor who backed up.
In the case of organizational change due to the trends in the market, Coca-Cola had to change due to emerging trends on health concerns. As an increasing number of people were starting to invest on healthy lifestyles, there was a risk that Coca-Cola products were not healthy as required. This initiated a move to introduce a new brand of Coke, known as Eviga. This soft drink would burn calories, making it a healthy option for the people who are keen on reducing the number of calories they take. In addition, they are involved in several innovative tests that will see the company come up with healthy products for their consumers.
Analysis
Why Coca-Cola Initiated Change
The first reason Coca-Cola had to change the organization structure is the need to respond to the environment that was changing as well. As noted, there were circumstances that had changed, those that inspired the change. For example, during the World War II, there was intense political tension across the world. This meant that ferrying drinks from one place to another across the world would be very difficult since they were not aware of the political conditions at that time and place. This inspired the company to set up several, 64, plants across the world. These plants would manufacture soft drinks and distribute them across their areas of operation. This made administration and moving products from one place to another very easy for the company. In addition, it ensured that the company did not lose the customers it had acquired overseas as the plants, which were set up, would ensure consistent supply. Had they not set up these plants, supplying soft drinks to several countries would have been tough since transport was often disrupted.
The next reason for the need to change is needed to make sure there is an improvement on overall performance of the company. Being an international company, the Coca-Cola needs to change from time to time, to make sure that they maintain of even improve their overall performance, compared to their competitors. This is often inspired by continued stagnation, or a decline in production of the company. The company realizes that they are no longer improving, or they are declining in performance. To remedy this, it is necessary engineer an organizational change, which will bring back the organization to track. That is why Coca-Cola has been inventing new brands into the market, to improve their market share since they realized that consumer attitudes change when a new product is launched. To keep the customers buying their products, they have opted to be launching new products from time to time.
Coca-Cola has also been...