cocacolaleadership-blog

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To Sum It All Up...

James Quincey, Alexander Douglas and Irial Finan all have their very own set of skills and traits that makes them successful leaders in Coke. Such as Quincey’s awareness of core values. Or Douglas’s resilience when regulations caused a 17-cent decrease in stock price. Or Finan’s dedication. What they all have in common is an incredible ability to find and capitalize on opportunities in the market. 

James Quincey’s most notable entrepreneurial achievement was his acquisition of Innocent Juice. In June 2016 Innocent Juice reported a 13% increase in revenue from the previous 12 months. A growth in revenue Coca-Cola would have never capitalized on without James Quincey. Another example is how in the face of a changing market, Quincey decided to push Coca-Cola’s other drinks instead of Coke to follow the trend of customers wanting healthier drinks.

Alexander Douglas is known for being the first to begin development on the National Product Supply System. This new system completely allowed Coca-Cola to achieve the lowest optimal manufactured and delivered cost for all bottlers in the system. An achievement that saved Coca-Cola millions of dollars.

As the Chief Executive Officer from 2001-2003, Irial Finan managed the merger between Coca-Cola and Hellenic Bottling. This new merger would expand the combined operations to 26 countries. Previously in 1995 to 1999, Finan managed Molino Beverages for Coca-Cola and expanded the market to many new countries including Ireland, Russia, Nigeria, Romania and Moldova. Because of his entrepreneurial spirit, Finan made Coca-Cola millions of dollars and expanded the market into multiple countries.

Each of these leaders have Made Coca-Cola into the corporate giant it, is today. Quincey, Douglas and Finan used their ability to see opportunities and seize them for Coca Cola. Without their abilities, Coca Cola would have gone out of business years ago.

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J. Alexander M. Douglas- Executive Senior VP (North America)

Starting at Coca-Cola in 1988 as a District Sales Manager, Douglas worked his way up the corporate latter, becoming  Senior Vice President of the North American region in 2013. With even more involvement in the industry, Douglas is a part of  the American Beverage Association, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. In addition, he serves on several charity boards.  Douglas graduated from the University of Virginia and had previous experience from Proctor and Gamble. According to his 2015 highlights report, Douglas gained the most market share out of all nonalcoholic, ready to drink beverages on the market that year. Most importantly, he was the first to take significant steps in developing the National Product Supply System.  Douglas is also a very large stock holder in the Coca-Cola industry, proving his belief in the company. 

The promotion  of Douglas lead Coca Cola to split the North American region into two separate divisions, bottling as well as brand and marketing. Brand and marketing lead by Douglas, as Coca Cola believes his expertise is best focused on the label and promotions. This lead to Coca Cola seeing large gains in American volume and value share gains, despite America’s declining soda sales. 

This is very impressive, as North America’s soda industries have been under political fire lately. For example, New York (state) placing a limit on the size soft drink a consumer can purchase in a single sitting. Labeling laws also deterred customers purchases, as well as cost the corporations a considerate amount of money to re-adjust and meet these laws.

However, due to these conditions caused Coca Cola to report a .17 cent decrease in stock price the following year. Douglas reported to Business Day Journal saying Coca Cola is focusing their efforts on improving their no-calorie options which have seen less sales. This is believed to be due to the artificial sweetener used, Aspertain. Douglas lead the marketing team to lead towards the marketing tactic, PRIZM, to help overcome this situation. They targeted zip codes where diet coke sales were previously high and informed them of Coca Cola’s efforts to prove government officials wrong, who deemed Aspertain to be harmful to consumers bone mass.  Coca Cola also made up for some American loss by acquiring large shares in other beverage companies, supplying water, milk, and other non-soda drinks.

Overall, Douglas has lead strong North American region brand and marketing efforts, despite the challenging environment and lead many efforts to overcome them.

http://www.envisionreports.com/coca-cola2/2016/proxy/PDF/coca-cola-proxy2016_0056.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/business/coca-cola-q4-earnings.html

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James Quincey: Coca-Cola’s Star Leader

Pictured above is James Quincey aka the President and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. After a long career moving from one President position to the next within The Coca-Cola Company, Quincey has worked his way to the top of the leadership ladder. He was President of the Europe Group, the Northwest Europe and Nordics Business unit, and the Mexico Division (at different times of course!) As you may have guessed, Quincey has held all of these positions is because he is a great leader! Let’s take a look into his leadership styles and skills, and some of his best achievements while working for Coke.

Many of Quincey’s achievements involve his role in helping acquire new products for Coke, increasing profits, and expanding portfolios. One of his first major contributions to the company was in 2003, when he was the President of the South Latin Division, and developed and executed a “brand, pack, price, and channel strategy” which has now been implemented throughout the company. Quincey also secured Coke’s ownership of Innocent Juice while he was the President of the Northwest Europe and Nordics business unit. Innocent Juice is now sold in over 14 countries. 

Quincey has achieved many other feats throughout his career at Coca-Cola, which began in 1996. His many achievements as a leader show that he is skilled in his ability to manage other people, he has strong interpersonal skills, and he is able to take a risk in order to help the company grow. 

In 2008, Quincey re-launched Coca-Cola Zero, which has since been revised to Coca-Cola Zero Sugar. Now, the company is re-branding it’s leadership, so to say. Coca-Cola is working on “going back to its roots.” Quincey’s goal is to help the company itself stay in line with the brand. He wants to reinforce the company’s ideals of inclusivity, especially with the current political environment. Quincey shows traits of a leader who is aware of the core values of the company that he leads, while also being aware of the public image that is projected by the company.

Quincey is also on top of the more progressive changes Coca-Cola needs to make in order to keep up with changes in society. For example, people want healthier drinks and they do their shopping online more often. Coke’s response to this is to put a greater emphasis on other drinks they own, like teas and juices, and less on their sugary, carbonated drinks. Quincey also notes that since less people are going to stores to shop, Coke doesn’t need to put as many vending machines out as they used to. Being able to embrace change as it’s needed in a productive and effective manner is another crucial characteristic of a strong leader. Please enjoy this gif of a cute puppy to conclude this post (and to help support the inclusive Coca-Cola brand) :)

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/operations-leadership-james-quincey

https://www.ft.com/content/5b4921e0-39aa-11e7-821a-6027b8a20f23

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Bottled Up.

Mr. Irial Finan has been President of Bottling Investments Group at The Coca-Cola Company since August 2004. Since October of 2004, Mr. Finan has served as Executive Vice President for the Coca-Cola company. With over 30 years of experience with the Coca-Cola company, he has become one of the most trusted and respected leaders of the modern day company. He has served as President of Bottling Investments and Supply Chain at The Coca-Cola Company since 2004

In Spring of 1981, Irial Finan began his career with the Coca-Cola Company as one of the most important business executives to the company. As the President of Bottling Investments Group, (B.I.G.), his title is one of the upmost importance to Coca Cola. His responsibility for the bottling of all Coca-Cola products operations hold a $15 Billion position.

With more than 45,000 employees working under his authority, Irial has become a manager as well as an investor for the Coca-Cola company’s equity investments. Being the president of B.I.G., Irial is responsible for various markets all throughout the world. It was important for him to learn skills that were necessary for communication withing markets across the globe.

Mr. Finan was able to show the company his dedication to Coca-Cola, which in turn led to his term from 2001-2003 as Chief Executive Officer of Coca-Cola HBC, where he managed the merger of Coca-Cola plc and Hellenic Bottling and led the combined company’s operations in 26 countries.

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/irial-finan

https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=3374970&privcapId=26642

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Sweet Beginnings That Opened Happiness

The history of Coca-Cola all started back in 1886 when the curiosity of a pharmacist, Dr. John S. Pemberton of Atlanta, led him to the idea of creating a very distinctive tasting soft drink that could be sold a soda fountains. Dr. Pemberton made it all happen when decided to mix some flavored syrup he whipped up with carbonated water. Also with the help of his partner, bookkeeper, and good friend Frank M. Robinson who is credited with naming the beverage and designing the trademarked, distinct script, still used today, the Coca-Cola was born. This beverage held the spot as the world’s #1-selling sparkling beverage over the past few decades. Joseph Biedenharn who owned bottling machinery in the rear of his Mississippi soda fountain was the first to put Coca-Cola in bottles. A few years later, there were three entrepreneurs Benjamin Thomas, Joseph Whitehead, and John Lupton who bought the bottling rights, from then majority business owner Asa Candler, for one dollar. These three developed what then became known as the Coca-Cola worldwide bottling system. In the early days of Coca-Cola, the beverage was sold for five cents per glass; today they are sold at about $1.59 per bottle. In the early 1920s Coca-Cola became the first soft drink company to have a mascot when it began to use the 7′ tall polar bear for the beverage’s marketing. Also over the years it has been marketed in a slew of commercials by a vast array of celebrities from music hall performer Hilda Clark in 1898 and famous opera singer Lillian Nordica in 1904 to newly welcomed endorser Selena Gomez and international pop star and Coca-Cola Ambassador Taylor Swift. Coca-Cola is loved and consumed worldwide. It has become a huge powerhouse in the world of carbonated soft drinks and is continuing to steadily grow at a rapid pace. Who knows what is next for the company known as Coca-Cola?

https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/about-us/coca-cola-history/