Coca Cola’s objectives
The main reasons for Coca Cola being the worlds leading soft drinks manufacturer are their low prices, high quality and excellent service that they provide.
Customer service objectives:
Coca Cola like any other business, they want to provide the customers with good service. The way they will do this is by refunding money if customers are not satisfied with their goods.
Pricing objectives:
Coca-Cola keep their prices as low as they can to keep customers satisfied but at the same time making a profit. They also undercut their competitors prices in order to attract more customers and gain a wider market share.
Profit making objective:
Their aim is to make high profits but still keep low prices for their customers
Promotion objectives:
Coca-Cola has a number of advertisements and they often change them according to the season. One example of this could be during the Christmas season coca cola would make a Christmas advert and add things in the advert like Christmas tree’s, snow and maybe Santa.
Ranges of products
Coca Cola have many types of soft drinks, they actually have more then 230 and they are always looking to expand. They do this so they can cater for all types of people and attract more customers worldwide.
Functional areas of the business
Production Department
This department that makes sure that the Coca Cola products are up their high standards. This department is in charge of quality control and quality assurance. This is very important to a business, because if the products are not up to their high standards their will be complaints about the products and consumers will not purchase them. This department helps the business to keep its customers.
I.T Department
This department takes control of internal and external communications. This department makes the advertisements and posters of the company. The Internet is also involved in this department. If Coca Cola wanted to make a poster or an advert then they will consult this department and this department will then make up the idea of the advert or poster and then actually make the idea into film or poster. This department also controls the payrolls of people, they are responsible for the calculations of pay so if one of the employee’s feel’s he or she has been paid less they will consult this department.
The department also decreases costs for the company, before companies would have had to pay postage and packaging or paid for communication with other companies either by phone or letter’s but now they can just email who they want instead of writing letter’s which works out faster and cheaper for the company itself. This means that there is time to do other work for the company.
Human resources Department
This department recruits staff and helps to train them up. They produce application forms and give them out, once they have received the replies they will then look at all of them and select the ones which they feel are best suited for the job and more qualified in some cases. After this they will then send out an email or letter to the applicants to say that they have an interview with them. They will then interview the chosen applicants and then they choose the best ones form the interviews. This department is very important for the company, as they need to select the people with the right qualities for the job. The department helps to improve customer service. They do this by employing people with the right qualities and experience. The employees are fully trained by the department before dealing with customers. They are trained to answer to all question put forward to them.
Sales Department
Depending on the organization and whether it is selling goods or services, both sales revenue and sale volume can be relevant The success of the organization is measured in terms of quantity, that is the number of people who use the service, while for a manufacturing business quantity might only be achievable with a price cut and therefore a loss in revenue.
There can be conflict within a business if it tries to achieve maximum sales at the same time. It has suggested that managers aim to maximize the sales revenue of the business while at the same time making just enough profit to satisfy the shareholders. The reason for this is that most managers get rewarded on the sales they make rather then the profits.
Stock
More store managers have a concern of running out of either the equipment or raw materials needed by the business or the finished goods. The result is that they treat the stock as their own personal belongings. The advantage of this approach is that
The production department knows there will be no hold-ups in production because of a shortage of components
The sales department knows that it has stock available and can guarantee delivery.
Coca Cola has thousands of local operations in countries worldwide. This means that Coca Cola has millions of employees worldwide. Every department within Coca Cola has the exact same organizational structure. It is important to all companies that they have a clear organization structure because this will make the business work more efficiently and effectively. It will also make the companies targets easier to teach. The organizational structure is to show each department how it is organized and the employees within the department.
The customer service department deals with customer satisfaction. Their role is to make sure that all customers are satisfied with products and services provided by Coca Cola. This department also sorts out all problems that customers may have, for example they are not happy with the people who are giving them service, or they may have found things in their drinks etc.
Coca Cola’s organizational structure is very large because it is such a large company. So it is very important that Coca cola has a very clear organization structure, this will benefit the company as it will make achieving targets much more easier.
Culture of the Business
There are many different types of cultures that a business can adopt; these are some examples of cultures within a business
Role Culture
A tradition operating style, relying upon agreed procedures and strict hierarchy and roles within the organization. With the tradition roles, employees are expected to behave convent ally. It is very important to follow the rules and individualism is discouraged. Everyone is expected to act the same and get on with their work. Some government departments and merchant banks operate with this type of culture. Role cultures flourish in stable and predictable environments. Role culture conducts the following things
*Hierarchical structure
*Roles of individuals define
*Role more important then person
*Most jobs can be done by many people
*Limits of jobs strictly controlled
*Emphasis on rules, routine and procedures
Power Culture
I think this culture is very different from others because this culture places the emphasis on personal charisma and risk taking. It disregards procedures and values entrepreneurship.
This is more commonly found in small businesses where a person can have the overview of the whole business and risks needed to grow. A disadvantage for this culture is that it starts to fade, as the organization gets bigger.
An example of someone with power culture could be Richard Brandson, when he was young in Virgin music and his high school newsletter. It relied on [power/personality of the owner, director making the decisions
Richard Brandson had made risks to get bigger, he made risks that could have lost him money, for example he invested so much into a company like Virgin not knowing whether it was going to be a profit maker or something that would make him bankrupt.
Person orientated culture
Characterized by a focus on fulfilling the needs of individuals within the organization. This culture allows individuals freedom to shape their jobs and operate with a degree of independence. It is therefore appropriate when employees are highly motivated and skilled. The person orientated culture or people centered culture mayor exist within organizations staffed by professionals such as firms of accountants and lawyers.
*Small informal flat organizations
*Found mainly in professional organizations
Change Culture
A change culture can be highly valued in some circumstances. This culture is found in flexible, responsive organizations capable of adapting quickly to external stimuli. The culture is available advantage for a business operating in a highly competitive and rapidly changing market. However it is different culture to develop, as people do not respond well to change especially if it occurs regularly.
Examples Internet companies market companies and fashion magazines, *Share brokers
*Staff must be willing to change and adapt
*Need to have finger on pulse of the market
*Skilled staff
Task Culture
In some organizations, expert teams are assembled to deal with specific problems and complete projects. The focus is on solving problems. The importance in this culture is to expertise, flexibility and creativity.
The culture supports firms such as management consultants where staff must handle management problems within other business to provide solutions to improve business.
Structures to complete tasks
Teams and team players important in the matrix structure
Individual specialist to form teams
High levels of job satisfaction
Emphasis of providing solutions and getting the job done.
Matrix structure is when you take people from different departments.
Role culture is the culture that Coca Cola adopts. This is where all members have a defined job or role to carry out. Role culture is normally split up into a number of functions that are organized in a hierarchical way. Coca Cola would divide themselves into various functions like accounts, marketing and production. These also have hierarchical ordering of office examples of these are production director, production managers, supervisors, technicians, operatives etc.
This type of culture works by logic and rationality. Role culture is mainly used in large organization. In this culture position in the main source of power and rules and procedures are the main source of influence.
They also use task culture s the employees from the I.T department might have to work together to teach their goal or target
Management style of Coca Cola
The structure of an organization depends a lot on its management style. There are four management styles and I will explain each one.
Democratic
A system based on equality of all members of a community. Employers are encouraged to take part in decision-making. This recognizes employees are stakeholders in the organizations.
The democratic leader listens to all staff and is willing to take suggestions on board.
Advantages for this type of style is that it helps motivate employees well because it makes them feel like they are being appreciated. Also the employees are well informed about the organizations aims and future plans. However it can lead to disadvantages as well as it is difficult to implement (start/begun).
Autocratic
This is when one person has absolute power. The managers make all the decisions without consulting the employees. Employees can get unmotivated by this, therefore causing a negative atmosphere in the workplace. However there are some situations where harsh leadership is vital.
Advantages of this are that quick decisions can be made and there is no time wasted on discussion resulting in the business saving time and money.
Consultive
Develops democratic style with workers asked opinions as a matter of course. Before any decision is made the manager consults their team. Employees discuss the problem and views taken into consideration. The decision is the managers but based on the conclusions of the group.
The advantages of this are that it helps to motivate staff as they are aware that they have a say in the business to some extent. The disadvantages of this are that it is time consuming and effort will be needed by a manager to do this.
Management by objective
A joint selling of objectives and a joint review of achievement. This is a complicated system. Management encourages employees to set goals in line within the organization aims. There are reviewed regularly in performance appraisals. The advantages of this style are that it will increase efficiency of individuals and help to motivate them and train them so they are productive.
The disadvantages of this is that it needs to be well organized and will not work in highly structured jobs.
Democratic style is the management style that Coca cola adopts. This sort of management style involves empowerment. In this management style individuals and teams are given responsibilities and decisions to make, usually within a given framework. If anything wrong happens then the individuals and teams are then held responsible for the decisions that are chosen. With this type of management style it allows the manager to feel comfortable with other people in the organization making some of the decisions. Democratic managers will often want feed back from their employees on decisions being made. Democratic leaders listen and act on the opinions of the group. This type of management is good as it makes the employees happy and productivity is high.
This is very good because employee’s thoughts and suggestions are listened to by the business. This makes the employees seem as if they are respected and that their thoughts are valid.
Internal ICT Communications used by Coca Cola
Coca Cola use ICT to communicate both internally externally. This includes communication with
*Employees – Fax will be used to contact the employees because most employees will have a fax machine in their office or wherever they will be working
*Management – If management need to be contacted then pagers would probably be the alternative to contact them, fax machine could be a factor as well.
*Customers - The only ICT communication used by Coca Cola to contact customers could be E-mailing, they could E-mail customers different products or new sale’s etc.
*Distributors of Coca Cola – They would probably be contacted by Video conference because the distributors are very likely to be from other countries rather then the country the business is trying to consumer the products from.
Internal ICT Communications that Coca Cola use are:
E-mail
E-mail will save a lot of time within the business if everybody would start emailing instead of calling a meeting. Coca Cola staff has programs installed on their computers, which tells them once they have received E-mail. This lets them communicate quickly with one another. Staff within Coca cola has access to a computer where they can E-mail. The disadvantage of this type of communication is that it is quite expensive, as it would have to be on all day long. The advantage of this is that it is fast and information can be passed on quickly. They can avoid the disadvantage by having broadband where you pay a certain sum for unlimited access.
Fax
Faxing allows people to have copies of documents they may require. Faxing is similar to emailing. But you do not receive the messages on a computer but a fax machine. Messages can also be sent via fax to tell employees of urgent messages, meetings, memoranda’s, newsletters and import notices are amongst things that can be sent by via tax.
The advantage of this is that import documents can be received quickly but the disadvantage could by that not everyone within the business would actually have a fax machine to use, or they may not look at it very often.
Pagers
Mainly executives use pagers in the business. Pagers allow these people to receive information wherever they are at whatever time. Pagers, in general are a good thing as it allows people to receive information on the move.
A disadvantage of this would by that you cannot send long messages, all messages must be short, and this could lead to misunderstanding of messages. Words may be shortened and this may lead to more of confusion.
Video Conferencing
Video conferencing can be proved to be very important but not all companies may use it. This form of communication can allow people from different countries to have a meeting. Video conferencing allows people to talk to one another and listen to what is being said. An example when this could be used is if a meeting is taking place and someone is not there they can be reached via the videoconference and can take part in the meeting. This is a good form of communication as it allows people to take part wherever they are.
External ICT Communications used by Coca Cola
Fax
Coca Cola use their fax for external suppliers. Suppliers are the only people who do fax them externally. This form of external communications is important as important documents could be axed from the supplier to the company and vice versa. This would save time and money or the company.
E-mail
Customers worldwide send in information to Coca cola via E-mailing. They also send requests by emailing. Coca Cola would then E-mail customers back giving them information in which they require. This makes it easier for people to receive relevant information on the company. E-mails could also be sent to suppliers and other businesses if needed. This would be good as information could be passed on immediately. This would also increase E-commerce in the business.
Web Cam
This is a cheaper version if video conferencing. There are many disadvantages with this type of external communication for example poor picture quality and poor sound quality. This poor quality could lead to misunderstandings and wrong information passed on; which may lead to mistakes being made and time and money wasted.
How the Organization Structure, Culture and Management Style affects the Business.
The organizational structure, culture and the management style affect the businesses performance.
The head office tells all of the Coca Cola companies what they should be doing. The information is passed on to their staffs that then do their jobs accordingly.
Employees are all very motivated because of the management style that Coca cola adopts. Businesses need to run smoothly in order to be successful.
For a business to be successful everything in the business must be running smoothly. For example if one department within the business is not doing so well it will affect the whole business.
Adding Value
Adding value is important to a business because it makes products more desirable and people are more prepared to buy even at higher prices. Coca Cola adds value to its products by giving special offers and making bottles look more attractive. The bottles also provide information at the back, which also adds value to the product. Two for one special offers is an example of how Coca cola adds value to its products.
Another possible way to add value to your product is to be more flexible, tolerate customer errors, give personal attention, provide helpful information and increase convenience for consumers.
The Quality control Inspector checks the quality of a product. They cut out products that fall under the set standards of the business. This quality control involves considerable waste as products that are not up to high standards of Coca cola are thrown out.
Quality assurance is set out to stop faults from happening in the first place. This is the responsibility of the workforce; teams will be set tasks and will have to check product themselves. The products are also checked out by the inspector at the end tp ensure high standards of products. This quality assurance also adds value to products as only the perfect products get through the production lines and products that are not up to the high standards are not passed through. This means that consumers will be buying products of high quality each time they purchase something from Coca cola. High standards are vital to Coca Cola as it will keep customers happy and they would receive customer loyalty
Coca Cola use both quality control and quality assurance when making and packaging their Coca Cola products. I found a website which showed how they did assure quality assurance and control. I picked up these quotes form the Internet site
‘HM Interdrink needed an overall concept which is cost-optimized, reliable and productive. The chosen design uses PROFIBUS-DP (Decentral Peripherals) for rapid cyclic data traffic and PROFIBUS-FMS (Field bus Message Specification) for asynchronous data traffic with large amounts of data. The two protocols are used for different control levels in the production line.’
This is talking about the concept of how Coca Cola is getting packaged, it needs a process and they have chosen one, which is reliable and productive. They talk about two protocols, which are used for different control levels in quality control.
‘The soft drink crates are transported by conveyor belt from the de-palleter to the sorting plant, where all the bottles are "unpacked" and sorted according to their old and future contents. Remote I/O stations collect all necessary process signals which are then sent to the PLC through PROFIBUS-DP. Variable-speed motor drives from the DANFOSS company which are controlled through PROFIBUS regulate the speed of the conveyor belts according to the actual production rate. Complicated send/receive routines within the control system are unnecessary - PROFIBUS-DP provides simple data transfer mechanisms which are optimized for the speed of the process. Each of the intelligent terminals, which are several hundred meters apart in some cases, appear to the PLC's just like directly attached I/O modules. The motor drives are controlled through data arrays within the PLC, which allows simple configuration of drive parameters such as ramp time, speed set point etc.’
This is talking about how they control the speed of the Coca Cola bottles being packaged.
’After passing the cap remover and "sniffer", the bottles are sent to the washing machine. The sniffer checks for contaminants within the bottles using laser-controlled measurements of conductivity, infrared and color. A sequence of washing baths in the washing machine ensure perfect hygiene of the bottles. The section after the washing machine is controlled by a second PLC which is supplied with process signals via PROFIBUS-DP and controls the transport speed of the conveyors using variable-speed motor drives. After the bottles are cleaned, the "inspector" checks them for correct size, deformation, leaks, damaged threads, color marks and other impairments. Each bottle is checked while moving using an image processing system and a stroboscopic lamp.
This talks about both quality assurance and quality control.
’The "filler", which is the heart of the plant and controls the cycle speed of the entire production line, puts the respective soft drink into around 50,000 bottles per hour. This is done using a carousel with 154 filling stations, where the bottles are first filled with carbon dioxide to minimize the filling time. The resulting pressure equalization ensures that the soft drink can be filled into the bottles without eddies. The liquid level is controlled electronically from the conductivity of the product.’
This mainly talks about how much liquid is put into the bottles and how they control the amount of liquid put into the bottles.
’Each bottle is then labled with the production data. After passing through the "packer" and "palleter", the finished product can either be stored in the warehouse or shipped directly to the customer.’
The products are now done and sent to warehouses to be sold to businesses all over the UK.
’Constant high product quality is ensured by a modern water processing plant, a clever drink mixer, a carbonization plant for CO2 enrichment and a central production data acquisition (PDA) unit. After processing the water in several filter stages, (e.g. active carbon filtering) and enriching it with carbon dioxide, all drink additives such as syrup or sugar are directly mixed and controlled using an "inline" method which avoids the need for intermediate storage of the finished drink. All production data is sent to the PDA unit and can be viewed on a PC at the press of a button both in the quality assurance laboratory and by the management.’
http://www.profibus.com/case/00562/
In conclusion Coca Cola have used both quality assurance and quality control in their production of the product and it’s packing so that consumers will be happy and no complaints will be held when consumers buy the products.
How Successfully Coca Cola is meeting its Objectives
I believe Coca Cola is meetings its objectives successfully. Coca Cola has been providing its customers with good services. They refund goods that consumers are not happy with and try to keep prices as low as possible. Coca Cola undercuts the prices so they are cheaper then their competitors and this keeps consumers happy as they are receiving goods cheaper then other companies. Although Coca Cola keeps prices low they still receive massive profits for each year. This shows that Coca Cola are successfully meeting their objectives.
Coca Cola provides customers with good service and cheap price products at high standards. This keeps customer loyal and they repeat buy. Coca Cola’s promotion department helps them to meet their objectives by producing effective promotional campaigns. They produce seasonal advertisements and use special offers to attract and keep customers from buying from them. Coca Cola are always looking to expand and have over 230 soft drinks on the market today. They want to keep on expanding as they feel the need to keep everybody happy and want to make drinks suitable for everyone.
Coca Cola Facts
Some people have regularly asked the question whether cocaine has or did have cocaine in it, the answer to this question is yes. Coca cola did have cocaine in it.
Coca-Cola was named back in 1885 for its two "medicinal" ingredients: extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. Just how much cocaine was originally in the formulation is hard to determine, but the drink undeniably contained some cocaine in its early days. The first stirrings of a national debate had begun over the negative aspects of cocaine, and manufacturers were growing defensive over charges that use of their products might lead to "cocainism" or the "cocaine habit". The full-throated fury against cocaine was still a few years off, there was no reason to risk putting more than a tiny bit of coca extract in their syrup. They cut the amount to a mere trace.
Cocaine continued to be an ingredient in the syrup in order to protect the trade name "Coca-Cola":
No one could take the simple step of eliminating the fluid extract of coca leaves from the formula. Candler believed that his product's name had to be descriptive, and that he must have at least some of the coca leaf in the syrup (along with some kola) to protect his right to the name Coca-Cola. Protecting the name was critical. Anyone could make an imitation. But no one could put the label "Coca-Cola" on an imitation so long as Candler owned the name. The name was the thing of real value, and the registered trademark was its only safeguard. Coca leaves had to stay in the syrup.
How much cocaine was in that "mere trace" is impossible to say, but we do know that by 1902 it was as little as 1/400 of a grain of cocaine per ounce of syrup. Coca-Cola didn't become completely cocaine-free until 1929, but there scarcely any of the drug left in the drink by then: By Heath's calculation, the amount of ecgonine [an alkaloid in the coca leaf that could be synthesized to create cocaine] was infinitesimal: no more than one part in 50 million. In an entire year's supply of 25-odd million gallons of Coca-Cola syrup, there might be six-hundredths of an ounce of cocaine. So, yes, at one time there was cocaine in Coca-Cola. But before you're tempted to run off claiming Coca-Cola turned generations of drinkers into dope addicts,. When it first became general knowledge that cocaine could be harmful, the backroom chemists who comprised Coca-Cola at the time (long before it became the huge company we now know) did everything they could with the technology they had available at the time to remove every trace of cocaine from the beverage. What was left behind (until the technology improved enough for it all to be removed) wasn't enough to give a fly a buzz.
