Running Head: COURSE PROJECT – COMPANY SELECTION
COURSE PROJECT – COMPANY SELECTION 14
Course Project – Company Selection
College
Author Note
Course Project – Company Selection
Coca-Cola Company
Today most business organizations are involved in strategic management planning by using new concepts, practices, objectives and realization of their goals. Usually, strategy management plan is a simple approach used to analyze the recent state of an organization, the anticipated future state, right trend confidently and realizing their objects. Essentially it is much more than that which offers an orderly tactic for evaluating and identifying factors that are external to the organization and fixing them using the company's skills. This essay essentially is to discuss the strategy management used by Coca-Cola to provide beverages and soft drinks to their customers and fulfill them by offering a high-quality drink that is well flavored to enjoy them. Coca-Cola Company is a global organization which is based in many countries. The company is well known for its production and marketing of consumer beverages, drinks, and snacks that utilize a consumer driven marketing plan (Armus, 2005).
Who is Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola Company is one of the top contenders in the beverage production and has top leading soft drinks all across the world, with Coke, Fanta, Sprite, and Diet Coke. It also produces other products such as Dasani, Powerade, and Minute Maid (Armus, 2005). Coca-Cola has the biggest supply channel in the world. The company has established a powerful market course, making deliberate choices and taking measures to draw, suit and keep consumers.
Why Coca-Cola for my Research
With transformation in top managing above the being of this company, Coca-Cola management appeared to lack the capacity to hold a chain of ethical predicaments. Coca-Cola’s legal and ethical challenges have made its reserve stay at the same cost for a period of ten years. Coca-Cola has had problems with a contamination panic with customers becoming sick after the use of the produce in other countries (Singh, 2008). There have been matters within with bias costumes against the corporation by the African American workers, market investigate has been infected, damage within the company, and efforts to increase pay; all of which cynically affected the company.
Strategic Management Plan: Coca Cola Company
Today most business organizations are involved in strategic management planning by using new concepts, practices, objectives and realization of their goals. Usually strategy management plan is a simple approach used to analyze the recent state of an organization, the anticipated future state, right trend confidently and realizing their objects (Armus, 2005). Essentially it is much more than that which offers an orderly tactic for evaluating and identifying factors that are external to the organization and fixing them using the company's skills (Armus, 2005). This essay essentially intendeds to discuss on the strategy management used by: Coca Cola” to provide beverages and soft drinks to their customers and fulfil them by offering a high quality drinks well flavored to enjoy them. Coca Cola Company is a global organization which is based in many countries. The company is well known for its production and marketing of consumer beverages, drinks, and snacks that utilizes a consumer driven marketing plan (Armus, 2005).
Coca Cola Company is one of the top contender in the beverage production and has top leading soft drinks all across the world, with Coke, Fanta, Sprite, and Diet Coke. It also produces other products such as Dansani, Powerade, and Minute Maid (Armus, 2005). Coca Cola has the biggest supply channel in the world. The company has established a powerful market course, making deliberate choices and taking measures to draw, suit and keep consumers. With change in top managing of Coca Cola, the company management appeared to lack the capacity to handle ethical challenges. Coca Cola’s legal and ethical challenges have made its reserve stay at the same cost for a period of ten years. Coca Cola has had problems with a contamination panic with customers becoming sick after the use of the produce in other countries (Singh, 2008). There has been matters within with bias costumes against the corporation by the African American workers, market investigate has been infected, damage within the company, and efforts to increase pay; all of which cynically affected the company.
The Company has had a number of ethical issues in the last 15 years. Customers, Investors, interest groups, employees, the community and the legal system, often decide whether an explicit act is ethical or unethical or right or wrong. With each one of these determinants, the company are the base of a powerful ethical business. Coca Cola's ethical issues are a result of conflicting management. The company managers did not implement strong moral behavior which resulted in an extensive series of unethical performance (Insinga & Werle, 2000).
The ethical field of conduct is normally directed by a price system in the company. For price base approach that act as measure for ethical resolution building are ethical rights approach, individualism approach, justice approach and utilitarian approaches. For a person manager, the capacity to make right ethical options depends on both organizational and individual characteristic that manipulates ethical conduct. Problems involving bias, fraud, contractual, favoritism and conflicting procedures regarding pay, harassment, breaches, discipline and rewards are main result in production of unhealthy products in Coca Cola Company. Though, despite the ethical view and hopes that business must function ethically, not all companies do as is clear by the Coca cola problems as stated above (Ginsberg & Bloom, 2004).
Vision Statement
Vision serves as the structure for Coca-Cola Company Roadmap and manages all aspects of the business by portraying what they have to accomplish so as to keep accomplishing maintainable quality development. Individuals, be an expansive work environment where individuals are urged to be as well as can be expected be. Portfolio, convey to the world an arrangement of magnificence drink marks that expect and influence individuals' longings and necessities. Accomplices, support a triumphant system of clients and suppliers, together they make shared, persevering worth (Armus, 2005).
Mission Statement
Coca Cola Company Roadmap begins with their long term mission plan. It pronounces their capacity as an organization and works as the average contrary to their weight of activity and choices. The company’s mission is to rejuvenate the world, to inspire snippets of positive thinking and bliss, to make esteem and have any kind of effect (Armus, 2005).
In conclusion, the statement scrutinized the impact of considered HRM on company performance. As discovered in our study, Coca-Cola is dedicated to accomplishing business on the foundation of ethics. They also form added rate to its staffs and also to put firm efforts to guarantee that all employees are treated well. Coca cola has plainly declared that it is the obligation and duty of all employees’ attendance to devotedly follow the company Ethics and obey the rules and practices acknowledged in their Code of Conduct. Coca Cola vital goal is to attain its company objectives for the gain of all workers as well as the shareholders and the community in general.
Coca-Cola SWOT Analysis
SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) Analysis is a useful method used in comprehending your Strengths and Weaknesses, and for identifying both the Opportunities open to you and the Threats your company can face. Used in a business context, it helps you carve a sustainable niche in your market. A SWOT analysis can be done by a single person or a group of people. Both cases involve performing only a few steps. The first step analyzing of the internal data to list the weaknesses and the strengths of the firm and the second step is to collect the external data to identify the possible threats and opportunities. Below is the SWOT analysis for Coca-Cola Company. Comment by Sarah Dixon: In-text citation needed here to link back to a source. You may use your textbook as a source.
Strengths
One of the benefits that Coca-Cola enjoys is that of brand awareness as it is the largest identified brands providers of soft drinks globally with its signature logo, classic red & white colors, and world-famous jingle echo with consumers of all ages. Coca-Cola avails its products to individual consumers in over 200 countries through the world’s largest robust distribution network incurring no additional cost as the project is privately owned. Coca-Cola enjoys the presence of controlling the largest market share of the beverage company and therefore this helps the organization in retaining her customers. Availability of these well established products, it is obvious that Coca cola prides of plausible customer loyalty. For instance, Fanta have a huge customer demand due to its pleasant taste and getting an alternative drink dims difficult for the consumer. Comment by Sarah Dixon: Are each of these issues related to the brand awareness?
(Hitesh, 2016).
Weaknesses
Despite being the largest beverage company globally, it is limited to competition from Pepsi, which is far from over. Other than competition, the urge for healthy living has reduced the total consumption of the beverage largely in the developed countries so as to avoid obesity, and poor water management mechanism as it is rumored that the company uses pesticides to counter contaminations (DeFranco, 2015). Coca Cola Company only specializes in one type of product: beverages. Lack of diversification to other products in some extent shows that there is no growth taking place, or one would describe that as the fear of taking up something different. Such window offers an additional source of revenue and to a company with a huge capital base that would a very simple initiative to adopt. Comment by Sarah Dixon: A reminder that at least four identified points (or issues) need to be listed for each quadrant of your SWOT analysis.
Opportunities
Coca-Cola is well known for its ability to buy out its competitors as it enjoys a huge monetary value, which would help in marketing the less popular products with the use of existing ones. Other than brand recognition globally, the firm has the ability to expand even with a large gap with her competitors. As the population increases, the firm is compelled to produce more of its products to solve the consumer needs, together with introducing more enterprises. Places like India and China have shown increased demand for the company’s latest juice and coffee offerings (DeFranco, 2015) Comment by Sarah Dixon: Make sure that you are fulfilling the requirements of the assignment – you have some excellent points overall but needed 4 identified points for each area.
Threats
The shift to natural and herbal drinks for a more nutritious health has posed a big threat to the soft drink company as most people will avoid the core soda provisions. Additionally, professionals have called for the elimination of excessive sugary products as they are posing health risks to the public. Fluctuations in foreign currencies threaten the normal running of the company. For instance, it earns income, pays expenses, poses assets, and subject to liabilities in countries using their local monetary value other than the U.S. dollar, for that reason a decrease or rise in the value of the U.S. dollar comparing to other major currencies alters the net operating profits, operating returns, and the value of deficits denominated in foreign currencies. In addition, dramatic depreciation of currencies in developing markets negatively affects the value of the beverage provider’s earnings of the assets in those markets. Availability of indirect competitors too has proven to be a great threat to the multinational company (DeFranco, 2015).
Organizational Strategic Goals
Innovation is a major strategic goal that helps a business stay ahead of the competition. By placing part of assets to Research and Development to create a new product can pay dividends by entering a new and unique product into the marketplace. My first strategic objectives will include producing a healthy alternative drink that is free of soda. A business cannot move forward without defining specific action to move them toward their goals. My second strategic goal is to create an action planning that involves identifying the top objectives for an organization and then developing SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. Lastly, I plan to introduce a Community Social Responsibility program. In 2014, we improved our water efficiency 2%, for a total improvement of 10% since 2010. This progress gives a total of 21.4% efficiency improvements achieved from our initial water efficiency goal from 2004 to 2012 (Coca-Cola, 2016). Comment by Sarah Dixon: This is a viable goal – what kind of timeline would you apply to it and what percentage of the business would you like to see captured by this new product?
Coca-Cola Miniature Market Analysis
Industry Description
Annual Spending
Being a multinational company, proud of an advertising spending of around $565 million on advertising in 2014, which is smaller than the $3.3 Billion in 2013. Coca-Cola established their customer base in over 200 countries, Coca-Cola can naturally be termed as a large company. The beverage giant is competing with sluggish demand for drinks in North America, as well as an overall decrease in soda consumption. CEO Muhtar Kent pledged to increase media spending and brand-building initiatives by up to $1 billion by 2016 (Coca-Cola Co, 2015).
Product Stage
The introduction of new products like the coffee beverage initially resulted in reduced amounts of profits as the product was not well known. This is because the product was in its last stage referred to as Identical Commercialization. Considering the youth as the primary market, was motivated by the fact that almost 60 % of the world’s population comprises of a youthful generation, involved in a lot of physical activities that in turn leads to the demand for a drink, like a coca cola to quench the thirst (Bailey, S, 2015).
Possible Target Markets
My first choice is using the young generation as my market and was based on the new products that have personalized messages. The young generation constitutes to more than half of the world’s population and the use of personalized messages on the packaged cans will attract more attention that will increase a number of sales. Food and beverages manufactures would be my second market choice. The secrecy of the unique preservatives products used by the company would be an opportunity that would be exploited to gain the company more revenues by providing those products to the manufactures. Finally working with the military to provide packaged water would be my last choice of the market. Customizing a drink mainly meant for the military with components that give additional energy would provide an ample business setting.
Target Market
Coca-Cola Company tries to satisfy the needs of a whole line of different people with target markets that target different, age groups, ethnic groups, sexes, lifestyles, etc. As stated above, the young adult would be the target market for this product as they already have Georgia for the ages 30-50 (Coca-Cola, n.d). The young adult is constantly on the go with college, jobs, and sports. This beverage will allow for the target market to have the very own coffee drink that seems hip and not old. With the majority of the population being the young adult, this target market will not be a niche.
Competitive Analysis
Pepsi Company Inc. remains as one of the biggest competitors. Pepsi Company enjoys a Comprehensive product collection with more than 100 brands satisfying each slot in the beverage, food and snack industries. Pepsi Company’s extensive worldwide production and distribution networks are the pillars that support the company’s international growth and development strategies. However, low penetration to markets outside America defines the reason why Coca-Cola will remain the leading company. Pepsi Company Inc. does not share a similar strategy and target markets with Coca-Cola. This is because they mostly only target the youth, I believe the Pepsi Company should have a larger market for it to be able to record improved sales (Young, 2015).
In Conclusion
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are known for their cheery attitudes to the world with slogans such as “open happiness” and “life tastes good” While Coke remains the global Cola leader, Pepsi retains a distinctive advantage with its food business being the dominant force in the global snack market. As the dominant player in marketing, Coke may be better placed to reduce prices. (Smolinski and Yuk, 2013). With enough assets invested in the R&D department, Coca-Cola should be able to continue to be the runner up with its coffee drink marketed to the youth.
Coca-Cola HR Strategies
Goal Choice
The best objective that I would wish to accomplish and is after accessing the market structure and easiness of making a new product entry quite useful, my strategic goal will be producing a healthy alternative drink that would be free from soda. Other aspects that I considered in selecting the strategic objective worth accomplishing is the ability to market the product, and the market structure is already defined.
Attract
Essential Traits
It is always in order as a business organization to recruit someone who is visionary, puts thinks into perspective, and can quickly reach target markets within the specified period. Choosing an employee with different traits that the ones needed specifically for achieving a given set of objectives, would make it much harder to reach the target set.
An important trait that is crucial in accomplishing the goal is that an employee should be a team player. By team player, he should be able to work best by sharing his or her ideas with the implementation committee to assist in faster goal achievement. Another trait in an employee to be considered about the accomplishment of the set objective is that one should be time conscious and innovative should be creative in a word. An employee should be able to refocus on the sole purpose of achieving the set goal within the specified timeline. The main reasoning is because introducing a new product in the market is a time oriented objective, if there is any delay, then the whole purpose would go to waste. Should be innovative in a sense that they should ensure that the product remains relevant in the market and have a competitive advantage over other alternative brands (Evans, p. 20).
Strategies Used To Recruit Employee
It is always a challenge to ensure that a particular recruit has the much-needed skills and experience to tackle a specific task. The primary strategies that are worth considering in hiring new employees with a similar vision to accomplish the set objective much faster, internal and external policies are the main strategies (Larson et.al, p. 30).
Developing a better job requirement and job reward matrix that is more flexible to an employee and does not require much will be the best strategy is attracting highly skilled and qualified professionals. Because the responsibilities are well outlined, it offers an employee a chance to understand better what exactly the requirements are before even considering applying
Develop
Employee Training
The best employee training is by training face to face. Face to face training will help in knowing exactly the type of group that will be at your disposal. It will also be a positive aspect in identifying the employees physically to develop a relationship with them (Larson et.al, p. 36).
A good introductory training to an organization has a significant impact on the performance and attitude individual employees have. The main areas that are necessary for employee’s induction are to ensure that they understand the organization chart and the full analysis of the expected performance levels from each employee. Existing employees have information about the organizational structure thus ensuring that they understand the major details involved in accomplishing the set objectives and the exact role each employee will play in ensuring that the outcome is positive. Training should be group oriented since it requires combined effort to achieve the set objective. By doing this, it will ensure that all employees work as a team (Larson et.al, p. 42).
Retention
Employee retention is an important aspect of the business organization as every group seeks to keep the best-performing employees. Pay and benefits strategy will be employed, on top of the basic salaries, employees will be eligible for bonuses on performance levels and satisfaction in the area of specialization. A significant advantage of this method is that employees can produce their best for the benefit of business. It does little in improving knowledge about the area of specialization (Arthur, p. 21).
Another retention strategy is managing across and not from the top. Each employee feels wanted and appreciated since it is a teamwork kind of management. Although excessive contact between management and employees is likely to have an adverse influence on performance due to lack of boundaries.
In conclusion
An employee isn't going to help your company in any way if he isn't passionate about your goals and mission. When hiring future employees there needs to be a process that is done to be the most effective. There needs to be certain strategies management follows to find the right employee. You do not want just to hire someone to fill a seat; they need to be able to bring something of value to the organization. Lastly, to be successful, the team needs to ensure they are retaining their employees they have invested so much into; otherwise, they are wasting money in the end.
Coca-Cola Budget Estimates
Goal Choice
Developing the best operational budget will be crucial to a successful objective implementation since many aspects need to be perfectly outlined to boost the morale of employees or even ensure that the application process is much easier. Having a well-planned budget helps in ensuring that there is good team organization, and there is no overspending on commodities or items already quoted in the master operational budget. Even though a budget is alterable, it can only be done with a valid explanation, and it will depend on with the influence that particular factor has on the overall implementation process and completion of the set business objective.
Operating Budget
It covers daily business performance about accomplishing a specific task. The operational budget provides a wider scope of the amount of cash needed to achieve a set target without having to borrow from other sources. If the organization does not have the much-needed cash in its reserves to finance an objective, then the team will have to review the said budget or reduce the expenditure levels. To relieve this issue the organization can reduce the implementation team, or the organization can decide to forego the objective if analysis shows that the expenses will outdo revenues collected because of successful completion of the goal (Lalli, p. 18).
Operation budget
Code
Description
Operating Budget
Object of Expense:
.
1001
Personnel Costs - Salaries and Wages
2,500,000
1002
Personnel Benefits
100,000
2001
Utilities
289,564
2003
Professional Fees and Services
357,156
3001
Equipment
281,546
4001
Communication Costs
10,000
4003
Other Operating Expense
200,000
4004
Travel
150,000
4005
Marketing Expenses
54,054
5001
Service Delivery Costs
5,000,500
Total Object of Expense
$8,942,820
The actual expenditure from the budget can be either higher or lower, if there are instances when the operating budget cost analysis are less than the real cost of a particular expense, then an emergency budget will be drafted and incorporated into the financial statements at the end of a given fiscal year. This usually helps to keep track on expenses that are delivered by the company to its employees to achieve a set objective. The operation budget outlay depends on the magnitude of the goal and its overall impact on the organization at large. Introducing a new product to the market and become competitive requires a very reasonable outlay to remove failure as an option. Choosing the best-skilled employees with vast experience to aid in pushing through the set target is highly advised. Developing a sound budget that is inclusive of every expense and any miscellaneous costs helps to plan and know if the set objectives are worth trying based on the company revenue statements. A budget is a financial control tool for business.
Capital Budget
The capital budget is mainly concerned with purchasing of a firm’s assets. These properties are expected to last more than one year. A business organization must have a capital budget to ensure continued growth. Capital budget operates on cash at hand. Company buildings and machinery.
The presence of structures will enable easy planning and organization to develop the best strategies that can ensure the objective is accomplished. The buildings will provide headquarters where any individuals with inquiry will be directed and addressed accordingly. Owning a business building is far cheaper than renting one, and it will significantly reduce expenses incurred. Machinery as assets of the organizations will enable easy access to the market and overall implementation of various strategies employed in achieving the set objective.
References
Armus, S. (2005). Coca-Cola Company. France and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a Multidisciplinary Encyclopedia, 2, 273.
Singh, H. (2008). The relational view: Cooperative strategy and sources of inter-organizational competitive advantage. Academy of management review, 23(4), 660-679.