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Introduction
According to a Greek philosopher Heraclitus “there is nothing permanent than change”. He believed that change is the core of
universe. This quote describes the importance of managing change in human as well as organizational life.
A structured approach to transfer organization, its people and processes from current state to a desired future state is called
change management. This process gives employees the ability to accept changes in the existing environment of the business.
Change can be of different type for example, change in technology, operations or strategies etc. company needs to implement
individual strategies to cope with each type of change.
Organizations need to change and adopt dynamic survival strategies to stay alive in uncertain political, social and economic
environment (Hiatt and Creasy, 2003). All environmental factors present in the nature experience change on continuous basis.
Human nature resists change, so managing that resistance requires well planned change management strategies.
This report is aimed at describing the importance of change management for organization its motives and objectives, change
management processes, how company can involve all the stakeholders for successful implantation of change management and
the strategies that an organization can adopt to implement the successful change.
To create the best practices inside the organization and setting standards for the industry
Change management is needed for organizational survival. So the company should adopt to change management techniques in
order to maintain its worth in the industry.
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16.04.2019 A Study of Change Management in Coca Cola
Coca Cola is a type of company that requires making changes in its products and business strategies according to the consumer
expectations and external environment. Here in this study we would quote different examples from coca cola corporation’s
history and will examine that what were the triggering events for opting the change and what strategies the company
developed and implemented in order to successfully going through the transitioning process.
Coca Cola Corporation is among one of the oldest corporations of the world. It has gone through many internal and external
changes since it has been in existence. The company has used techniques of change management in order to survive from the
consequences of those events.
The company has faced a lot of external changes, for example in world war II, the company was able to manage its existing
position at that time and also entered in many new markets and discovered new niches. The company established 64 plants
across the world to supply drinks to the troops (Coca Cola company, 2006-2011). The company also provided free drinks to
soldiers which were the part of its strategy to become a patriotic symbol for the people of the country. Also it boosted the sales,
so the company achieved two objectives by carefully planning to respond to that external environmental change. The plants
developed by the company in war era helped its expansion after the war.
Barton et al (2002) reported that Coca Cola Corporation adopted acquisition strategy in time of Asian financial crisis. The
company acquired bottling, coffee and tea shop businesses in Korea and Malaysia. Beverage is a type of industry where tastes
and preferences of the consumers change on continuous basis. Coca Cola Company also responded to such consumer changing
behaviors in effective way by developing new products like Diet Coke and Coca Cola Zero. The company also committed a
marketing blender when a rival company launched a black beverage with comparatively sweet and smooth taste. The product
was named as new Coke. But the sales gradually went down and company faced severe consumer critics and protests. The
company managed this situation very commendably by restoring the old formula and naming the bottle as diet coke (Kotler
and Armstrong, 2010). As people are becoming more health conscious and willing to invest on health based products, coca cola
is developing juices and various energy drinks as well. This shows the company’s strategy to responding varying consumer
tastes and expectations and changing itself according to it.
The coco cola company used theory of organization change presented by Kotler (1996) which elaborated the procedure to
manage change on the people dimension of the organization. The well known CEO of coca cola Corporation Mr. Gouizetta who
remained CEO of the company for seventeen years determined and solved the problem in manufacturing of drinks. He was the
key man in revising coca cola’s operations and tailoring strategies that helped the company standing high among its
competitors. He achieved objectives of the firm by planning and leading the tasks by himself and provided an inspirational
leadership to the employees. He was the one who appointed talented human resource like Ivester who took great part in
covering the weaknesses and exploiting the opportunities for the company (The Coca-Cola company case. n.d.).
In addition to making operational and strategic changes, the company also changed its advertising strategy by targeting various
groups of consumers like American consumers. African consumers, Middle and far eastern consumers and European consumers.
The company altered the packaging of its coca cola brand and developed more product lines and broadened them globally
(The Coca-Cola company case. n.d.).
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16.04.2019 A Study of Change Management in Coca Cola
The present condition of coca cola company worldwide is very good. The company is selling its beverages throughout the world
successfully. But in some countries, coca cola stores are not as according to the company’s main marketing, inventory and
efficiency theme. The company is planning to align its performance standards according to its own corporate culture and
strategies with the help of a comprehensive change management plan. These changes will be implemented within the business
operations and management of the company.
Coca cola hopes to bring about a thoroughly integrated system of communications, and focus on creating brand relationships
with their employees. This would enhance the operations of Coca cola, as an integrated approach would mean all employees
believe in engaging fully in the values, and this would become an inherent part of the employees at a personal level.
Coca-cola is actively seeking to incorporate the change into its company if the recent conference on internal branding and and
employee engagement held in February,2011 by Robin Gee, Head of Employee Engagement for Coca-Cola Refreshments (CCR)
is any indication. Robin Gee is responsible for “building capability in engagement, maintaining engagement momentum and
ensuring that engagement is integrated into CCR’s people practices” (Samdahl,2011).
For this purpose, employee engagement surveys are conducted twice every year for all the coca cola associates, which serve to
highlight the areas where action is required, and further actions and implementations can henceforth be executed.
Coca-cola believes that their business results hinge on the dedication of their employees to operational excellence. The
company truly recognizes the importance of the people to the business, and knows that to continue to bring about tremendous
results it is bringing in, employees throughout the world should believe in the values intrinsically, and therefore the employee
engagement is being focused on all the countries the company serves to align thoroughly integrate and align the company so
that operational efficiency can be achieved.
Employees have a clear idea of what is expected of them and what are the deliverables
Customer experience focus an inherent part of employees’ values, who strives to provide a better experience to the customers.
Customer focus was identified as a central tenant of the multi-year engagement strategy to be implemented in 2011( Gee,2011)
When employees are aligned with company goals, they themselves adopt a proactive approach towards issues such as waste
elimination
Employees awareness gives them a voice which helps to influence legislations at local levels
An integrated system of communication is very helpful in the volatile and dynamic markets of today, where conditions change
very often and the company has to be responsive at all times
Therefore, for all the business segment of coca-cola wherever they are located across the world, the change towards employee
engagement is justified if they have to reap the fruits gained by an effective system of integration.
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16.04.2019 A Study of Change Management in Coca Cola
awareness about the need of change, generate desire in the people to help in transitioning process, give knowledge to the
people that how they can help the change process, develop an ability in the people to go through the change and provide them
with continuous reinforcement to withstand the change (CMLR, 2011).
Online and paper surveys from all the stakeholders involved in the ‘change’ throughout the world, and with associates to gain
an insight on their perceptions
Effective communication at this stage for informing the stakeholders the reasons for change and the benefits it would bring
Overcoming the ‘inertia’ by taking all stakeholders in confidence. The surveys can serve as a pre requisite to gain an insight on
the stakeholder perspective
Details of the action planning process communicated to all those who would initiate the change
First of all the company should ascertain the core problems exist in the company for the change management. The company
may develop a change management program for responding to financially uncertain environment of the world. It can also
develop change management programs for better operations and logistics. The company can introduce new procedures and
technological systems to carry out operations. Programs can be introduced in forms changing company’s mission and corporate
culture enhancements. For all that, the most essential thing is to train upper management to provide them with specific skills
necessary to effectively going through the transitioning process. Following is the brief expression of plans that the company can
adopt.
Systems thinking
Systems thinking can be used to guide the successful change in the organization. The model is based on an integrative and
interactive open system which consists of the variables, attributes, internal relations and environment. The system is based on
characteristics like wholeness, interdependence, chain of influence, need for balance and adaptability etc in an open system
where communication is seen as an integrated process that facilitates change within the organization.
Several system characteristics are: wholeness and interdependence (the whole is more than the sum of all parts), correlations,
perceiving causes, chain of influence, hierarchy, suprasystems and subsystems, self-regulation and control, goal-oriented,
interchange with the environment, inputs/outputs, the need for balance/homeostasis, change and adaptability (morphogenesis)
and equifinality: there are various ways to achieve goals. Different types of networks are: line, commune, hierarchy and dictator
networks. Communication in this perspective can be seen as an integrated process – not as an isolated event.
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16.04.2019 A Study of Change Management in Coca Cola
Conclusion
To conclude, it may be said that communication can be a key element to successful change management. Communicate the
changes to the employees, tell them why the change was inevitable and how they will benefit from the change. The
management should itself adopt a positive attitude towards the change so that employees can follow their lead and welcome
the change. Coca-cola as a company has a heritage of embracing change rather than resist it and it should translate into their
future endeavors towards change management to ensure that the organization is best poised to market and environmental
conditions.
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