Case Study Analysis of Coca-Cola: Organizational Structure, Strategy, and Culture under Former and C

Environmental Uncertainty in the Beverage Industry

The case analysis must be completed in the standard format (Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1.5 spacing). Please submit in PDF format.

The word limit is 1,500-2,000 words (the reference list and any illustrations are not included in the word count). You may exceed the word limit by up to 200 words. Any words beyond this will not be considered, and as a result you may lose points for an incomplete assignment.

 

Appropriate in text citations and a reference list, all in APA 6th Ed. format, must be used throughout the assignment with the reference list appearing at the end.

 

Submission: Must be submitted through the Moodle submission portal no later than 17:00 Montreal time (EST) on December 8th, 2021. No late assignments will be accepted.
The final assignment is based on the company Coca Cola. Start by reading the case and use this content to support your answers.

 

References: Your arguments should be based only on:
• The case provided
• The theories and concepts in the textbook covered throughout the course
• Lectures & Lecture Notes
• The additional readings [if applicable]

 

Additional research: I do not advise any additional research on the company outside of what I have provided here. Your answers will be graded based on your use of the theories and concepts throughout the course and the information about the company as I have provided it.

 

Academic Integrity: You are expected to complete the assignment on your own, without discussing it with anyone else until after the assignment deadline has passed. We will be verifying your work using plagiarism software to ensure that this final assignment is indeed original work.

 

Anyone found to be copying another’s work, or submitting someone else’s work as their own, or not respecting referencing guidelines that have been in place since the beginning of the semester will receive a mark of 0. The use of a take-home assignment is only made possible by our shared commitment to academic integrity, and in particular Concordia University’s Academic Code of Conduct.

Assignment [100 pts]
1. What degree of environmental uncertainty is there in the beverage industry since the 21st century? [15 pts]
2. Under the former CEO Muhtar Kent…
a) What was the organizational structure/design of Coca Cola? [10 pts]
b) What strategy were they pursuing? [5 pts]
c) What type of culture did they have? Provide evidence [5 pts]
d) What are the symptoms of misalignment with the environment from Question 1? [5 pts].
3. Under the current CEO James Quincey…
a) What is the new organizational structure/design? [10 pts]
b) What is the new strategy they are pursuing? [5 pts]
c) What type of culture do they now have? [5 pts]
d) Are these better aligned with the environment? Provide evidence [10 pts].
4. Discuss the type of change that Quincey implemented using theory from the course. [10 pts]
5. Discuss what type of power Quincey exercises over the company. [10 pts]
6. In dealing with its ecosystem, can we say Coke is pursuing a Resource Dependence or a Collaborative Network Approach? Explain this with respect to different stakeholders [10 pts]

Organizational Structure, Strategy, and Culture under Former CEO Muhtar Kent

Adapted from Montgomery and Weber (2021)
In April 2019, Muhtar Kent stepped down as chair of The Coca-Cola Company (Coke), ending a 41-year career at the world's leading carbonated soft drink (CSD) company. He told shareholders at the company's annual meeting: "I feel very proud and fortunate to have enjoyed this long, fruitful association with the world's most-loved brand. And I have a plain and simple message for everyone connected to our business:

 

Our best and brightest days are ahead."
Taking over for Kent was James Quincey, the 14th chair at the 133-year old company, who would also continue to serve as CEO. An engineer by training, Quincey worked as a management consultant before joining Coke in 1996, where he headed operations in Latin America, Mexico, and Europe before becoming president and chief operating officer (COO) in 2015 and CEO in 2017. In early 2020, Quincey shared Kent's optimism about Coke's future, but he recognized some challenges. The company's flagship product, CocaCola, had been the world's best-selling beverage for 100 years, yet some consumers were turning away from CSDs. In the United States, the number of cases of CSDs sold industry-wide fell from a high of 10,377 million in 2004 to 8,520 million in 2018, while non-CSD commercial drink options had grown significantly.

Quincey recognized that Coke needed to adapt in significant ways if it was to remain atop the worldwide beverage industry. Although Coke had made non-CSDs for years, these products had never been a central focus of the company. Shortly after being named CEO, Quincey announced that Coke would continue to grow beyond CSDs and become in word and in deed a “total beverage company”. In developed markets, where three-quarters of consumed beverages were commercial, the company had a strong lead in CSDs; in other beverages, its share was smaller and competition more fragmented. In developing markets, which accounted for perhaps 80% of the world's population, only one-quarter of consumed beverages were commercial, but in many countries, that percentage was steadily increasing. Quincey thought Coke was well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities given that the company already sold its products in nearly every country on earth.

 

To achieve this growth, Quincey believed a cultural shift was required: "We [need to] adopt more of a tech company modus operandi rather than inventing the perfect thing and taking a long time doing it. We need to get out there faster and take more risks .... In short: be bold, be brave”.