This report is to investigate Coca Cola Company. On this coursework I will look at the company on all aspects from their business functions, organisational structures to the company's objectives.

Kajal Maisuria Unit 1 – Business at Work

Introduction

This report is to investigate Coca Cola Company. On this coursework I will look at the company on all aspects from their business functions, organisational structures to the company’s objectives. I would have to look at the departments within the business and the functional areas within these departments, also look at the different management styles within the business, looking at the organisational structure, the communication used within the business, and the impact of ICT on the organisations communications.

The Coca-Cola Company is the world's leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. Along with Coca Cola, the world’s best known brand, The Coca Cola Company markets four of the world’s top-five soft drink brands, including Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. Throughout the world, no other brand is an immediately recognizable as Coca Cola. With operations in more than 200 countries, a diverse workforce comprised of more than 200 different nationalities, communicating in more than 100 different languages, The Coca Cola Company is part of the fabric of life in each of the communities they serve throughout the world. It operates as a local business partner, providing quality in the marketplace, enhancing the workplace, preserving the environment and strengthening the community.

Coca-Cola is the most popular and biggest-selling soft drink in history, as well as the best-known product in the world. Coca-Cola was invented in May 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. The name ‘Coca-Cola’ was suggested by Dr. Pemberton's bookkeeper, Frank Robinson. He kept the name Coca-Cola in the flowing script that is famous today. Coca-Cola was first sold at a soda fountain by mixing Coca-Cola syrup with carbonated soda in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta by Willis Venable. During the first year, sales of Coca-Cola averaged nine drinks a day, adding up to total sales for that year of $50. Since the year's expenses were just over $70, Dr. Pemberton took a loss. Today, products of The Coca-Cola Company are consumed at the rate of more than one billion drinks per day.

In 1893, Coca Cola was registered in the United States and then further investment was put into it to expand the business. To handle the enormous capacity of its business, the Coca Cola Company has divided up into six operating units: Middle and Far East Groups, Europe, The Latin America Group, The North America, The Africa Group and The Minute Maid Company. The Head Quarters is situated in the United States. The country that I’m going to be concentrating on is the United Kingdom and how the company works in the U.K.

Action Plan

I drew up this action plan as a guide to prioritise what information I need to complete this report. The method of research I will use the most on this report will be secondary research such as the annual reports, etc.

Coca Cola’s Ownership

The Coca Cola Company is a public limited company (plc). They offer shares to the general public through the company. It is mainly larger companies such as Coca Cola that are public limited companies.

The advantages of a public limited company are:

Shareholders have limited liability
The sale of shares enables larger sums of money to be raised
While the company has this money permanently, the individual owners can recoup their money by selling their shares to others
Directors may be brought in as experts in certain fields
Produce goods at lower unit cost
Due to their size they can benefit from economies of scale, e.g. bulk buying, cheaper borrowing

The disadvantages of a public limited company are:

There are a number of legal requirements to fulfil in setting up a company
Regulations mean that a company is more expensive to set up than a sole trader or partnership, although the cost may be as little as £100, and some already registered companies can be bought off the peg
The accounting of a company is less private than for other forms of organisation
The company could become to large resulting in poor labour relations
There could be a conflict of interest between shareholders and the Board of Directors
Possibility of takeover or merger because shares can be bought by anyone

Coca Cola also have limited liability as they are a public limited company. A limited company is owned by its shareholders. There is no legal maximum to the number of shareholders. There are two forms of Limited Liability Company in the UK, the Private Limited Company (Ltd) and the Public Limited Company (Plc). The essential difference, between the two, is that the Private Limited Company can not legally offers its shares to the general 'public', therefore this form of company is usually associated with family run businesses. Whilst the Public Limited Company can sell its shares to the general public on the Stock Exchange, providing the potential for far greater finances to be raised.

The owners of a limited company are referred to as its members, or shareholders. An individual can become an owner of the business by purchasing shares in that business. When the profits of the business are distributed to shareholders, they are distributed in the form of a dividend. The value of the dividend is decided upon not by the owners, but by the Directors of the business.

Some shareholders had invested their life savings and not only lost their money, but their homes, limited liability was designed to protect shareholders from this mistake, but the key motive was to ensure that large projects could continue to raise capital.

Coca Cola’s Objectives of the Company

Mainly all companies’ objectives are to survive, maximize their profits and to expand their business, however, from when Coca Cola had started, over the years they had achieved these objectives. So the company have come up with six strategic objectives to provide the company with a framework for the company’s success. In 2003, every function of The Coca-Cola Company integrated these priorities into their business plans. And this year, they will continue to establish these priorities, and their benefits into every aspect of the business.

Coca Cola’s Six Strategic Priorities

1. Accelerate carbonated soft-drinks growth led by coca cola

Coca Cola leads with their strengths. Carbonated soft drinks remain their most profitable business and Coca Cola is the most popular brand in the world. This strategy paves the way for growth.

2. Selectively broaden our family of beverage brands to drive profitable growth

Enormous opportunity exists in categories such as juice and juice drinks, bottled water, teas, energy drinks, coffee and more.

3. Grow system profitability and capability together with our bottling partners

Coca Cola is a company of relationships, and one of our most important relationships is the one we share with our bottling partners. In 2003, those relationships became more profitable and productive.

4. Serve customers with creativity and consistency to generate growth across all channels

We will continually strive to increase growth for the customers’ businesses, helping create a context for the company’s growth.

5. Direct investments to highest-potential areas across markets

Coca Cola tailor their business approach to the individual marketplace based on its stage of development. In this way, we direct our investments in a way that makes the most business sense.

6. Drive efficiency and cost-effectiveness everywhere

By leveraging technology, creating alignment across business units and achieving economies of scale, we are able to operate with more efficiency.

To maximise profits enables the company to enhance the business, to expand the business, allow business to take over another business, buy new machineries, and pay more dividends to the shareholders. Enhancing the business means to upgrade the business in a sense that a business buys new Computers, new office equipments, new furniture, expand the office, employee more labor etc. These six objectives are just not the businesses objectives but they provide the framework for the company’s success. They achieve these goals very successfully by striving for carrying out against a crystal clear strategy for success, and by doing so with an unwavering commitment to quality.

Departments of Coca Cola

Every organisation is made up of different departments, each of these departments help Coca Cola achieve their objectives. As Coca Cola is a large multinational company, the amounts of departments are huge. Each country has their own Head Office and departments. Coca Cola is geographically split into five geographic operating segments, also known as strategic business units (SBU’s). The five SBU’s are North America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Eurasia and Middle East and finally Latin America. If all these departments perform in the correct way then that will continue the success of Coca Cola.

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Departments of Coca Cola

There are 6 functional departments within Coca Cola, these are:

Marketing
Finance
Packaging
Sales
Research and development
Administration

Marketing

The Coca Cola marketing department at the Atlanta Headquarters develops core strategies for company brands to ensure that all communication is consistent in every market. With this cohesive effort, the Coca-Cola system maximizes its resources for market leadership and profitable growth. The marketing departments are responsible for marketing the products and advertising the products and promoting the products. If all these departments perform their duty firmly then the objectives of The Coca-Cola Company will meets.

Finance

The finance department of the Coca Cola Company is responsible for financial record keeping. This involves keeping records of money received and paid out. The financial records will be used to produce the annual reports for the shareholders so that they can see the company performance. The Finance department is also responsible for the management accounts of the business like marketing etc. The Coca-Cola Company finance department is also responsible for making budget of the company and for each department like marketing department or research and development department. They will also be involved in the planning process like taking over or any major decision.

Packaging

The packaging department of The Coca-Cola Department is responsible for the packaging of the products. They have to make the packaging attractive so that that product meets the eyes of the consumers. Bringing new products package is their responsibility. It works with the companies bottling partners to produce an attractive combination.

Sales

The sales department of the Coca Cola Company is to coordinate the selling program. They also have to make the distribution methods, etc. Also, decide how much to sell and how much to store in the warehouse and to choose the transporting method which is the most cost efficient and the quickest way.

Research and development

This department has their budget given by the finance department and their responsibility is to investigate new products. They work closely with marketing by looking at marketing research findings. They have to bring new products in the market for the change because the consumer cannot stick with the same old products. If necessary then they also have to improve the quality of the products. The Coca-Cola Company research department has done a lot of research and recently they have launched many new products like Diet coke with lemon, Fanta Tropical, Minute maids, Fanta raspberry, Fanta blue berry etc.

Administration

This department is essential for keeping the business going. They act as a help support of the company, it is not the central purpose the business but every business organization would need this department. Most businesses rely on administration to be organized. They deal with enquiries, give messages produce documents and give information to any customer. The complaints that this department will get would be transferred to the research and development department to make the product better or fix the problem that the consumer is having. These departments are the most important department of The Coca-Cola Company because they helps the company to meets the objectives of The Coca-Cola Company i.e. surviving, customer satisfaction and make more profits. As I said that the help desk department satisfies the customer by providing the information they needs and taking the complaints and passing to the research and development departments who improves the products.

Management Styles

There are four main types of management styles that each business would use. Coca Cola have four principles of citizenship that they would have to incorporate into the management style:

Provide quality in the marketplace
Enrich the workplace
Preserve the environment
Strengthen the community

A management style is an overall method of leadership used by the manager. The Coca Cola Company use the following management styles, but each one in different departments. There are three main types of management styles used in businesses:

Autocratic

Where the leader makes all the decisions, there is no negotiation and is very prescriptive and there is little job satisfaction. However, the job gets done quickly and there is less conflict between different ideas. This style is hardly used among the company as they believe that the lack of input could lead to poor results. Autocratic does save a lot of time as quick decisions can be made and there is no time wasted on discussion resulting in the business saving time and money.

Democratic

This emphasises on group agreements to generate new ideas. There are two types of democratic management styles; democratic and consultative democratic. Democratic is where all the managers, junior managers and employees are involved in the ideas and final decision process. Out of all the workers, no-one has a higher level than the others n this management style.

Consultative democratic

This is where the managers allow the employees to make the ideas but the ideas are forwarded to the executive’s or the manager consults their team to make the final decision. Coca Cola applies consultative management style to the company more as there can be less conflict for what the final decision is. The advantage of this is that it helps to motivate staff as they are aware that they have a say in the company to some extent. The disadvantages of this that the process is very time consuming and effort will be needed by a manager to do this.

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 are 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 a very good method 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.

Coca Cola’s Management by Objectives

Management by objectives is a process of management that emphasises the role of leadership and communications in the organisation and control of the business. It is a method of managing managers rather than the workforce at large. The following shows how Coca Cola is managed, by the three basic elements in management that Coca Cola uses by the objectives:

The identification of agreed goals by a manager and a subordinate
The definition of the subordinate's responsibilities in terms of agreed results
The use of agreed goals and responsibilities to control the progress of the business

Advantages

The process of deciding on objectives and responsibilties improves communications between manager and subordinates. By improving feedback it helps with future decision making.
The staff work better when they have a clear understanding of what they are expected to achieve and how their activities will contribute to the overall objectives of the business.
It improves training by making managers aware of their own needs and the training needs of the subordinates
It provides opportunities for growth and development
By setting identifiable, short-term targets it increases a individuals sense of achivement and provides opportunites for recognition

Disadvantages

The assessment of objectives can appear judgmental and threatening if senior management lack the necessary interpersonal communication skills.
When unrealistic objectives are set the resulting failures can be demotivating
Management of all levels must be convinced of the value of the exercise otherwise it will become a meaningless routine

In Coca Cola’s case, members of staff are the building blocks of organisations. They can be organised into working groups and given structures to operate within, but unless they have the motivation to work within those structures they will, either consciously or unconsciously, adapt to their own needs. It has been pointed out that business exists for, by and because of staff members. A person is more complex than the most sophisticated techniques and technology employed in the business world. Therefore Coca Cola has to insure that its members of staff are motivated to work to their maximum ability, have a clear understanding of what they are expected to achieve and how their activities will contribute to the overall objectives of the business. Coca Cola’s style helps it to achieve its basic principles into their management style.

How management style, Culture and Organisational structure interrelate

Management style, culture and organisational structure interrelate together in Coca Cola because they all work together to help the business to achieve its objectives, in order to lead a successful business. Coca Cola has strategies for the organisation, continually to motivate members of staff to support this process, and market change within the organisation. Management style, culture and organisational structure interrelate together in Coca Cola because they all work together to:

Develop Strategies – Coca Cola's good management involves long-term or sometimes strategic planning. Without members of staff at Coca Cola having a clear idea of the companies goals, employees don't know where the business is going, or the best means to achieve the goals. An institution needs to define where it's going (the vision), why it's going there (the mission), and how to get there (the strategies). It will then be easier to use this process to work cohesively towards organisational goals. Tools in this section for helping you develop a coherent strategy for your organisation include the affinity technique, force field analysis, SWOT analysis, and strategic analysis. Due to this, employees at Coca Cola would feel they are part of the organisation.

Marketing Change - Quality improvement is about continued readiness to make changes towards improvement. However, every change of attitude or practice implies advantages and disadvantages. For people to accept a change, the advantages always have to be greater than the disadvantages. To promote the idea of change, you need to market its advantages. Tools in this section that will help you; market change include developing a marketing plan, stakeholder analysis, and negotiation techniques. An example of making changes towards improvement, is when Coca Cola creates a new soft-drink; for instance the drink, Vanilla Coke. It was one of the highest selling drinks in the year 2000. People accepted the drink as it was different, which means that Coca Cola filled a gap in the market. It also reached the consumer via promotion strategies.

Motivating People - Motivating people to perform to the best of their capabilities and in the best interests of the organisation are a huge task. Important elements that Coca Cola uses in motivating their includes leadership, clear organisational and individual goals, rewards based on performance of staff, and participatory supervision. Coca Cola helps to motivate their staff also by including developing a supervision visit plan, effective meeting management, and techniques for solving conflicts.

Cultures

Every business is made up of different cultures and the cultures that are present within the business depend on the management style and the organisational structures that are used. The different types of structures are:

Role Culture - This is best suited to a hierarchy organizational structure. This type of culture works best by every employee playing the role that he or she has been predetermined and corresponds with the rules and regulations of the business

Task Culture - This culture encourages people to work as a team; this works best in a star structure.

Power Culture - This works well in a matrix structure. It is based around one dominant individual/leader.

Person Culture - this culture focuses on providing administrative help and support and close attention to one person in the organization.

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.

If the culture of the business is not good, it can affect the number of absenteeism and punctuality. This means that if Coca Cola had a hard and unfriendly culture it can force their staff not to come to work because they might be picked on every day by other staff members, or they might not like the work they are given so they either come in late or take a day of work. This would result in the business losing out on work, and have less time to call in for a replacement.

The culture of Coca Cola could have an affect on industrial relations, between managers and workers. So if Coca Cola didn't have a warm and genial culture it would cause more disagreements between staff and managers and staff would not be motivated to work, for example, staff may have to cut down on rest days, this could cause arguments as all staff would be tired from working everyday and would not have time to recover or spend it with their family. However, if the company had a warm culture then the managers and staff would get very well as staff would have less stress to compete with and would have a friendly environment to work in without having someone constantly shout out at staff.

Organisational Structure

Every business works using an organisational structure, this means that the organization has its staff organized in a certain way depending on the staff, their responsibilities and whom they must report to. Cultures and management styles play a massive part in organizing the structure. The following structure shows the Coca Cola Company in the Great Britain. Then each of the different departments has their own structure.

As the Coca Cola Company is a large multinational company, it is made up of many organizational structures, these are broken down into the different units that are located around the world, which are; North America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Eurasia and Middle East and finally Latin America. Each unit is then organised into their own organisational structure.

Marketing Organisational Structure

The structure of the marketing department is quite simple and is equally spaced out. It is a formal structure, which means that it has limited communication channels, the arrows show the flow of communication, it is mainly vertical flows of communication. You can easily see no problems in this structure as the span of control is spaced out and can easily be managed.

Finance Organisational Structure

Human Resource Organisational Structure

Operations Organisational Structure

Coca Cola’s type of organisational structures are more based on flat structures.

Flat structure

Flat structures does not have many layers, which means information is sent quickly; with less complication or misunderstanding; therefore it produces the correct result. Due to having a Flat structure communication is easier between each layer, therefore when decisions are made, they will be specific to advice/order instructions.

Hierarchical structure

Hierarchical structure is based on distinct chain of commands from Co-directors to Support assistants. Decisions are made at the top and pass down. Such organisational are usually based on clearly defined procedures and roles.

Coca Cola organisation is based on more democratic. Decisions are made as a result of a consultation process involving various members of the organisation. Ideas would be discussed and thought through collectively.

Within Coca Cola’s organisation we can find a Democratic structure, because Coca Cola tends to be found in a situation were it is felt to be important for all members of the organisation to understand what they are doing, where decisions require individual initiative, and where member of staff need to work as a team.

Measuring Coca Cola’s Success

Measuring Cola Cola’s success can be easily done. Their success can be seen by the quality of its product and its sales figures. At the current day, Coca Cola lead by having the most popular and most consumed soft-drinks in the world. The information that the company can use to measure their success can be many of the following:

Sales figures – In 1984, 77 of Coca Cola’s operating income came from soft drinks. Today the figure is 97.

Market share – Coca Cola, in 2000, took up 20.3% of the following drinks. The chart shows that 89% of sales come from soft drinks, 50% of the soft drinks sales come from Coca Cola.

Market Share of 2000

Coca-Cola Classic 20.3%

Pepsi 13.9%

Diet Coke 8.6%

Mountain Dew 7.1%

Sprite 6.5%

Dr. Pepper 6.2%

Diet Pepsi 4.9%

Seven-Up 2.0%

Minute Maid Orange 1.5%

Others 29%

Total 100%

Questionnaires – questionnaires can be used to ask people their views on Coca Cola and their products. The various that can be asked is about the prices of the product, the quality of it, etc. this information then can be assessed to see if the company is doing it.

The Company delivered solid results in 2003.

They continued to work hard to re-activate the Company’s considerable historical advantages:

‘Our geographic reach, our wonderful brands, our range of packages, our financial strength, our ability to make connections, our marketing and our innovation capabilities’

The company is never satisfied, but they always make solid progress. In 2003, the company grew profitable carbonated soft-drink volume, led by Coca-Cola branded beverages. They had expanded the range of juices and juice drinks, teas, sports drinks, waters and other noncarbonated beverages that they offer around the world. Also, they had improved their focus on building brands and working with customers and bottling partners worldwide. The Coca-Cola system is working more effectively today, for consumers, customers, bottlers and our share owners, than it has in a very long time.

Production Process

The magic of turning syrup into a finished beverage is the role of bottlers and canners. They bring together the essential ingredients - syrup, water and carbon dioxide - and transform them into the essence of refreshment. To do this, many producers now use the latest in computer technology and statistical process control. It’s a modern way to achieve our one traditional goal - consistent quality.

Because it is known that quality cannot be "tested in" to a product, the company work tirelessly to ensure that they make it right the first time. They clearly define the process and control the inputs and steps in the process so that they can predict the quality of what we produce. Then, they work as a confirmation of our tightly controlled process.

For instance, syrup-to-water ratios (mixtures) are accurately established at production start-up and are monitored frequently during the production run. Some plants use "in-line" electronic monitors, which continuously test the ratios and the carbonation of the beverage. No matter what sophisticated techniques are utilised, frequent taste-testing confirms that the blending process has produced exactly the right flavour, the flavour you expect every time you drink one of Coca Cola’s products. Adding pure carbon dioxide to the blend, in just the right proportion, puts the "sparkle" in soft drinks. To ensure they have it right, technicians periodically check production runs.

In addition to consistent syrup and beverage quality, packaging must also pass rigorous standards. We not only work with the packaging suppliers to ensure quality in their production, but also employ their own testing methods. All packages must be free from defects. Cans are regularly "torn down" to check the quality of liners and seams. Bottles, whether glass or plastic, must meet standards for finish and uniformity.

Once the package has been inspected and rinsed, it passes to the filler. The filler injects a precise amount of product. Immediately, a can end, metal crown or plastic closure seals the package. Each closure application method must pass regular testing. Metal crowns for glass bottles must be properly crimped onto the bottle lip. Plastic closures are tested for proper alignment, threading and torque (how hard you have to twist to get the closure off the bottle). Can ends are inspected for smooth, uniform application without gaps or leaks.

Checking fill heights or net contents of their products helps to ensure that each package contains the proper volume. Can fill levels are continuously checked by an electronic device, which rejects any can not properly filled. Bottle fill heights are measured gravimetrically, or by weight. Labelling and graphics for all packages must meet clearly defined standards.

Every production lot is coded by date and producing facility. Trained route sales people use this code extensively to provide the freshest, best-tasting product possible. It’s the primary tool for maintaining high quality standards throughout the distribution cycle, right to the consumer.

Use of ICT in the business

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.

Quality Assurance and Control Systems

‘At the Coca Cola Company, quality is more than just something we taste, or see, or measure or manage. Quality shows itself in our every action; it encompasses everything we do. From processing to packaging to pouring, anything less than 100% quality is unacceptable. Our consumers throughout the world deserve the highest quality beverages we can produce.

Every time.’

The Coca Cola system remains not only to local and national laws for food processing and labeling, but also to our own strict standards for exceptional quality. Everything the company does from the selection of ingredients to the delivery of their finished products, reflects the companies commitment to offering the consumers the highest quality products.

Most of the flavours are produced as concentrates, which are rigorously analysed to ensure that they meet quality specifications. Each concentrate lot is coded and packaged, then shipped on for the next step - the addition of sweetener and water to the concentrates to produce syrups for our products.

The quality standards are very high. Mixing tanks must be of a specified grade of stainless steel. The entire syrup manufacturing system must employ hot sanitation. Precise control over water and sweetener components must be demonstrated. And, quality control professionals must oversee each step of the process.

The syrups start with fresh water, treated by using a multiple barrier filtration process to ensure its quality. In addition to the water and concentrate, sweeteners are added to produce syrup for most products. Throughout the manufacturing process, they take special care to ensure that every step - from the selection of ingredients to the calibration of equipment - remains to our own strict requirements. The final step is to verify that their efforts have been successful by testing the syrups for taste and adherence to their formulas.

Vice president of the Quality Division

Patricia Powell is senior vice president of the Quality Division of The Coca-Cola Company. She began her career at Coca-Cola USA in 1973 as assistant branch chemist at the Atlanta Syrup Plant. In 1975, Ms. Powell was promoted to staff chemist and transferred to the corporate quality assurance department.

She held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility within the quality assurance function from 1976 to 1990, when she was named manager of the beverage quality assurance laboratory.

From 1990 to 1994, Ms. Powell managed the beverage quality assurance group, after which she was named director of the quality standards department. Ms. Powell became director of product development activities within corporate research and development in 1995.

Quality Control

Since Coke outsourced its juice plant to Cutrale, quality control has taken a dive. Just look at the difference between Coca-Cola's Minute Maid and Pepsi's Tropicana production.

Employee Relations

Maintaining an experienced and stable workforce is critical to maintaining high quality control. Many of the workers who produce Coke's Minute Maid and Pepsi's Tropicana products have been doing their jobs for more than 20 years. Now Coke's producer is forcing experienced workers to leave and replacing them with untrained temporary workers.

The importance of the companies Quality Assurance efforts cannot be overstated. At The Coca-Cola Company, through their globally accepted and validated manufacturing processes and Quality Management systems, they ensure that their manufacturing facilities are equipped to provide the consumer the highest quality beverage each time.