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MSC MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE

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Part A: Board Review Report 

1.0 Organisational culture and role of the board 

1.1 Introduction to the leadership style and organisational culture at Coca-Cola

Leadership style

The analysis of the leadership style at Coca-Cola can be elaborated by considering Goleman’s Leadership Styles as a model of contemporary reference, owing to its inclusion of traditional leadership styles such as authoritarian and democratic styles (Goleman, 2000). Goleman’s theory proposes different degrees of leadership behaviour that share varying levels of either authoritarian or democratic behaviour among leaders; these are expressed across Coercive, Authoritative, Affiliative, Democratic, Pacesetting and Coaching styles of leadership (Goleman, 2000). The present CEO James Quincey follows the Democratic Leadership Style as per Goleman’s model, which is attributed to his inclusive and sustainability-oriented leadership direction at the forefront of the Coca-Cola Company. James Quincey's leadership practices invoke creating self-responsibility and the autonomy of making decisions among employees, as he gives employees "freedom to be agile and curious" in performing their workplace duties (Jacobsen, 2018). His leadership power is also decentralised through the organisation as James Quincey utilises a team of decision-makers to represent consensus across the organisation (Jacobsen, 2018). Further expressions of the CEO's democratic leadership tendencies are reflected in his statement on sustainability, where James Quincey highlights the need to collaborate instead of "acting alone” to overcome business challenges related to sustainability in Coca-Cola’s practices (Jacobsen, 2018).This type of critical leadership analysis is also relevant to students seeking assignment help in UK when examining leadership theories in real-world organisations.

Organisational culture

Schein’s Culture Model is useful for analysing the organisational culture elements of Coca-Cola, as this theory represents visible and invisible elements of company culture which can be perceived (Schein, 1990). The cultural dimensions of artefacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions can be individually described as follows to describe Coca-Cola’s organisational culture practices.

Artefacts: As a multinational corporation with offices in global markets, The Coca-Cola Company has offices to employ over 82,500 employees excluding workers at bottling manufacturing factories (Ridder, 2023). The company’s workplace design is reflective of "open, collaborative workspaces" at the Coca-Cola HQ in Atlanta, with green space encompassing 8000 square metres in addition to quality-of-life amenities such as exercising at fitness studios, as well as access to on-site healthcare through physicians (The Coca-Cola Company, 2018). The artefacts of workplace design are intentionally maintained to reflect the company’s “energy and values”, and office space design across global office sites reflects the cultural history of Coca-Cola as well as incorporating the red and white colours of the brand’s logo (The Coca-Cola Company, 2018).

Espoused Values: Coca-Cola’s espoused values are readily stated in its long-term sustainable growth strategy outlined as ‘2020 Vision’ (The Coca-Cola Company, 2020). The mission statement declares the company’s purpose to “refresh the world” and create “optimism and happiness”, as well as creating value and making socially significant differences (The Coca-Cola Company, 2020). The company’s strategic vision also reflects sustainability ideals aligned with CEO James Quincey's leadership approaches, as it directly incorporates the Triple-Bottom-Line dimensions of People, Planet and Profit along with Portfolio, Partners and Productivity (The Coca-Cola Company, 2020). Lastly, its declared values are stated as Leadership, Collaboration, Integrity, Accountability, Passion, Diversity and Quality (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2023).

Underlying Assumptions: The underlying assumptions are reflected in the employee behaviour and the unspoken agreements regarding practical values and consideration of their influence on workplace conduct. The Culture 500 model showcases internal knowledge about employee values that depicts an accurate view of internal cultural practices for clarity of observation (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2023). The most frequently spoken about values at Coca-Cola are defined as the values of Diversity, Collaboration, Innovation, and Customer, as well as Agility for maintaining a lean business organisation (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2023). These underlying assumptions align with the espoused values of Coca-Cola, depicting it as a progressive company with inclusive values for social and environmental development through sustainable corporate business practices.

1.2 Describing the main duties of the board

Coca-Cola’s board of directors have shared duties across their representation in different committees of Audit, Corporate Governance and Sustainability, Executive, Finance and Talent and Compensation committees (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023). The main duties of the board are reflected in the responsibilities of these committees, which include providing independent auditing of the company through the 'Big 4' law firm Ernst and Young LLP. The performance of financial controls and responsible reporting ensures the board avoids conflict of interest and follows the Codes of Business Conduct. The Corporate Governance and Sustainability Committee oversees the development of Corporate Governance guidelines and monitors Company affairs and policies to support the long-term interests of the Company and its shareowners (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023).

The Executive Committee of the Board addresses matters that cannot be postponed to future scheduled meetings of the Board, as deemed by the Chairman of the Board. The Finance Committee performs oversight on the financial affairs of the Company, which primarily requires overseeing derivative transactions such as hedging and risk management practices (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023). The returns on approved capital expenditure are evaluated from a performance standpoint by this committee, thereby ensuring recommendations are made to management for strategic investments, debt and financing. Lastly, the Talent and Compensation committees oversee Company policies regarding diversity, inclusion, culture and talent towards approving compensation plans primarily for the Senior Executive members including senior offices as per the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023).

2.0 Corporate Governance 

2.1 Explain the corporate governance framework at Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola governance framework is expressed across its Articles of Association and the Shareholders’ Agreement, which defines key policies underpinning long-term sustainable growth through the benefits of excellence in governance. The Board follows certain guidelines by these interpretations, which can be briefly summarised as follows. Understanding such governance frameworks is an important part of Management Assignment Help when analysing how organisations structure leadership, accountability and decision-making.

Firstly, the appointment of Board members by shareowners is intended for overseeing their interests towards long-term health, continuity and financial strength through their business judgement decision-making (The Coca-Cola Company, 2010). The safeguarding of the Company is fulfilled by acting in an advisory capacity towards senior officers including the CEO James Quincey, and the Board is further responsible for hiring independent auditors and advisers to maintain appropriate control over internal compliance with external laws and regulations.

Secondly, the Board has the responsibility for convening a minimum number of 5 meetings annually through scheduled meetings (The Coca-Cola Company, 2010). The agenda for individual meetings is set by the Chairman of the Board, with inputs given by individual Directors as needed. The purpose of routine annual meetings is to continuously review the long-term strategic plan performance of the Company, as well as attend to any significant financial or risk issues. The Board also ensures that the role of the Chairman is reviewed annually and decides to retain either a Lead Independent Director or co-appointment of the CEO in the capacity of the Chairman, by satisfying shareowner interests (The Coca-Cola Company, 2010).

Lastly, the responsibilities of the Board are streamlined across the aforementioned committee groups to fulfil responsibilities defined in each committee's Charter and self-evaluation of performance for sustainable, responsible practice in corporate governance (The Coca-Cola Company, 2010).

2.2 Critical evaluation of the remuneration committee’s role at Coca-Cola

The Remuneration Committee has the core responsibility of fulfilling the strategy of remuneration, inclusive of making recommendations for remuneration packages of senior officers and Board Directors. Towards fulfilling its roles and responsibilities, the committee oversees the scope for rewards across cash and non-cash incentives as well as remuneration and benefit plans for Company-wide implementation (The Coca-Cola Company, 2022). The committee reviews and approves the non-cash obligations exceeding €15,000 reported as income by employees, and is responsible for excluding non-financial Company-approved use of benefits such as health benefits and leasing Company cars (The Coca-Cola Company, 2022). Other aspects of governance inclusive of the role of the Remuneration Committee include determining the early termination of executive members, as well as reviewing the implementation of employee coverage benefit plans that can incur annual costs of over €5 million (The Coca-Cola Company, 2022). Therefore, the Remuneration Committee upholds responsibility towards C-suite executive remuneration as well as approving Company-wide plans and reviews changes for the same.

3.0 Regulatory Landscape and Management of Risk 

3.1 Evaluate the board’s responsibility for risk management

The board’s responsibilities for risk management are inclusive of proactive measures to identify risk scenarios, implement strategies for meeting such risk contingencies and ensure continuous compliance with regulatory requirements in different markets. The board is also responsible for sharing risk management practices with stakeholders including shareowners, which is required under the proxy disclosure rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023). Risk is integrated into decision-making with stakeholders, reducing the isolation of risk from determining business strategy. This increases responsible governance of risk in terms of business strategic decision-making, making risk oversight an ongoing practice of corporate governance as well (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023). It further opens discussion on risk between managers and directors, increasing risk awareness from a cultural practice perspective internally. Lastly, the risk management functions are embedded in the Enterprise Risk Management programme that delegates risk across the different committees led by Board Directors (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023). This mitigates risk across day-to-day operations and long-term strategic scenarios evenly.

3.2 Analyse and evaluate the regulatory landscape for Coca-Cola and impact regulators on the company’s success

As a multinational corporation engaged in the soft drinks market, Coca-Cola abides with regulatory requirements across its US domestic market and foreign markets like the UK. The impact of regulators on the company’s success can be explored by describing the regulatory requirements in this way, as it provides an opportunity for incorporating real-world cases where regulators affected the company's success in past instances. The regulation of Coca-Cola in the US market involves several regulatory bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), responsible for maintaining safety standards for the consumption of Coca-Cola products (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023). The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates advertising campaigns and marketing messages by Coca-Cola to oversee the prevention of misleading claims and deceptive advertising messages, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversees financial reporting and disclosure compliances (The Coca-Cola Company, 2023).

The company's success therefore relies on complying with these regulators in business activities, marketing and corporate governance performances, as well as the equivalent regulators in global markets. For instance, an advert for Coca-Cola's Vitaminwater brand in 2011 was deemed misleading by the UK’s FTC equivalent in the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) (BBC News, 2011). The ASA ruled that the advert message of ‘nutritious’ quality in VitaminWater was inappropriate as the ingredients had 23 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle of serving, which was not considered appropriately healthy for ethical advertising claims of nutrition (BBC News, 2011). The Company was also sued in 2017 in the US market for misleading consumers about health claims related to sugary drinks consumption, particularly obesity (Kell, 2017). The regulatory landscape therefore prevents Coca-Cola from misleading consumers with product claims and ensures the company remedies the claims.

3.3 Analyse and evaluate three risks faced by Coca-Cola with recommendations for risk reduction 

Firstly, the company faces risks related to macro-environmental upheavals and geopolitical risks, such as inflation or conflict. These risks can result in deterioration of financial conditions causing reduced consumer engagement and spending, thereby making it a key risk for the company. For instance, the Russian-Ukrainian war created a risk of sustaining business in the Russian market due to geopolitical pressure to impose sanctions on the Russian government (The Coca-Cola Company, 2022). This risk is mitigated by continuous monitoring of the macro-economic landscape and responding strongly to safeguard employees, and customers and maintain a socially-responsible corporate stance. For instance, while Coca-Cola initially maintained its market presence after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it quickly withdrew from the Russian market following criticism from Ukrainian trade bodies and global criticism by stakeholders like customers and regulators The Coca-Cola Company (The Coca-Cola Company, 2022).

Secondly, risks related to commodity pricing affect Coca-Cola businesses due to different variables such as hikes in commodity prices, fluctuations in raw material availability and product portfolio constraints (FreedomUnited, 2018). This risk is recommended for mitigation by leveraging the Coca-Cola system for alternative sourcing practices for sustainability, such as buying sugar at international market price to offset the risk of unsustainable additional cost of procurement (FreedomUnited, 2018).

Thirdly, changes in the consumer mindset become a primary risk as well due to the increased sustainability awareness in consumer lifestyle habits following COVID-19 (Martino et al., 2021). The pandemic highlighted consumer awareness of the detrimental health effects of excess sugar consumption, as comorbidities arising from ailments like obesity were linked to higher health risks from the pandemic (Martino et al., 2021). This risk is ideally mitigated through product portfolio diversification, thereby expanding the portfolio of products to include low and no-calorie beverages as well as diversifying pack sizes; an instance is noted in Coca-Cola bottle size reduced from 1.7l to 1.5l in the UK in response to the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (BBC News, 2018).

Part B: Leadership Report

4.0 Leadership and Management 

4.1 Critical evaluation of the leadership and management style at Coca-Cola using models

A better understanding of the leadership style that is consistent within CEO James Quincey of Coca-Cola, can be undertaken through the contingency theory of leadership. This theory explains that businesses might receive a set of variables connected to their environment, but it is the leader’s prerogative to grasp the situation and pick his preferred leadership style (Ruderman, 2008). Hence, the theory is all about picking the appropriate elements that might be associated with skills, decision-making, team building, directing, and others to resolve or make better any circumstance (Torlak et al., 2021). As soon as James Quincey came on board, he limited the product line from the organisation's portfolio that featured drinks like diet drink tab, smoothie brand Odwalla, and Zico Coconut water within the process (The Coca-Cola Company, 2020). A total of 200 products were reduced from the chopping block (The Coca-Cola Company, 2020). However, this created improved opportunities for the workers representing the marketing teams and creative departments, whereby they could create zero-sugar types and low-calorie beverages (Ruderman, 2008). The main crux of decisions was to be made after the CEO put together all the suggestions provided by different employees. This creates the essence of a democratic leadership style where feedback from the management is requisite for key decisions. The above approach resulted in the release of the new 'Life' brand, bringing a company's actual commitment through their drinks. The main aim that was included in all the new brands was to ensure that consumers do not experience a higher caloric intake. Meanwhile, in the majority of drinks, a sparkling effect that was created due to average calories per litre was brought down since 2014 by 5% (Eleftheriou-Smith, 2023). The current build-up of the portfolio will attach itself to the daily lifestyle trends that consumers follow, like new fashion wear which gives them a different taste towards life, or owning new equipment and improving home conditions. It is these feelings Coca-Cola wanted to touch using their improved category of products. However, many loyal customers who lost faith in the brand are still not keen to return for new Coke variants.

The CEO James Quincey took an aggressive stance at times, by increasingly requiring different teams to come up with suggestions that can address the ongoing public health issue of Obesity within Europe and the UK (Gertner and Rifkin, 2018). Therefore, the linking up and coordination of teams to perceive the market situation and establish a balance in their lives. Whereas, previously Coca-Cola teams believed in taking swifter action towards improving their market reach beyond the levels of their competitors (Eleftheriou-Smith, 2023). This was changed courtesy of the contingency-based behaviour emulated by the CEO through his democratic leadership style. The main concern is time which the organisation has less, before the competitors control the market.

When it comes to management styles, autocratic management enforces stricter rules that can limit the observation of democratic leadership styles (Lopez and Ensari, 2014). However, in the case of Coca-Cola, the management listens to the CEO James Quincey to make bold decisions. For instance, in backward markets, the company intends to improve their finances like revenue and cash flow. This sees the likes of Coke and brand Jack Daniels coming together to enter a new market representing alcoholic beverages (Coca-colacompany.com, 2023). The current priority of Coca-Cola is to subject customers to a different perception regarding their drinks that would bring them back with better prospects. In short, the non-alcoholic beverage portfolio can be improved by the company as a process (Doering, 2017). That sees all the departments like marketing, finance, research and development, or manufacturing to prioritise on these specifics. This requires maintenance of strict routines, schedules, and plans which cannot be changed even due to sudden problems. At times, it leads to overworking and lethargy among many labour classes and a reduction in wage rates to adjust the revenue. At times, Coca-Cola has been found to take drastic decisions like preventing delivery of their bulk order to Sheetz, which generates $12 billion through regular sales. Even in Asian markets, the labourers have been averse to decisions like franchise bottling which led to unrest in Northern India (Bhushan, 2020). Many workers were transferred to different other factories resulting in poor retention as well.

4.2 Comparison of Coca-Cola's leadership styles with one of its competitors highlighting any issues about the company's future development

On the other hand, the competitors of Coca-Cola in the form of Nestle through their current CEO Mark Schneider believe in a different leadership style. 14 months into his tenure the leader decided to alter the course of slowing growth that financially caused indemnity to Nestle. This resulted in the closure of major confectionery outlets, dissolving high-cost factories within Europe, and instead relying on acquiring organisations with better potential. For instance, the company's acquisition of Atrium Innovations for better Vitamin supplement drinks has done wonders for the company (Bautzer, 2018). A total of $3.5 million investment was made by the organisation, which resulted in 30 better factories and a concentration of plant-based milk beverages with 5-gram Protein and Vitamins per serving. In contrast, Coca-Cola has only been fixated on reducing the carbon nature of their drinks but never really relied on milk substitutes due to the majority of their consumers being Lactose intolerant (Bautzer, 2018). This allowed Coke to lose a major market.

Meanwhile, Nestle used next-generation techniques and better research and development to convert ingredients like Soy, Rice, Peas, and others. This allowed them to increase the nutrient content and triple revenue, as well as profitability (Bolten and Jhung, 2023). In such a case, Coca-Cola has a less effective research and development department, which leads to the loss of essential data from the current beverage market.

4.3 Critical evaluation of Coca-Cola’s ability to handle business challenges in the future

Coca-Cola has tried to handle its existing business challenges in the below manner.

Firstly, having seen their rivals making amends in the milk market, Coca-Cola has launched their Milk brand with 50% more protein (Neate, 2014). The product known as ‘Fairlife' is supposed to be market-inclusive, especially with its launch limited to the US only.

Secondly, Coca-Cola wants to establish a standardised production unit within a populated territory. In this case, India is a country where they are trying to establish a research and development hub by contributing $38 billion (Patwa and Raj, 2019). This facility will help the organisation in drawing better information about popular beverage drinks across the globe, and work on their own.

Thirdly, the beverage manufacturer has managed to distribute talent across many operating units across an organised geographical segment. That sets out 17 different business units for juices, milk drinks, carbonated drinks, and alcoholic drinks (The Coca-Cola Company, 2020). This creates less pressure from the business model on the labourers.

5.0 Leadership for Performance

5.1 Balanced scorecard for Coca-Cola involving strategic objectives and key performance indicators

Performance measurement can be better assessed through the framework pitched by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in 1992 (Kaplan, 2009). In this case, it will be Coca-Cola whose performance is up for discussion.

Financial Perspective

Strategic objectives:

Firstly, Coke intends to maximise its revenue within the next few years, especially by concentrating on non-carbonated content rather than carbonated content.

Secondly, Coca-Cola wants to enhance their earnings per share which might allow the investing shareholders to receive better dividends (Coca-cola, 2022, p 33).

Thirdly, improve the liquidity to such an extent that allows the company to meet their immediate requirements about creditors or short-term loans (Singh and Thakkar, 2021). That requires bolstering the cash flow to generate better returns.

Key Performance Indicators:

Firstly, experience an increase in revenue by at least 5%-9% in the next few years.

Secondly, enhancing the earnings per share to comparable operating margin levels takes it to 28.7% from 26.5% which influences the dividend shares for the contributing shareholders (Coca-cola, 2022, p 55).

Thirdly, ensuring the cash flow levels go beyond 89% in the next few years generating valuable liquidity (Honaman, 2023).

Customer Perspective

Strategic objectives:

Firstly, providing a new range of products including alcoholic products and Lactose enriched products.

Secondly, take suggestions by filling out forms on social media to better perceive their requirements (Coca-cola, 2022, p 61).

Thirdly, creating a loyal base through the smartphone application which has garnered popularity for Coca-Cola via ‘Coke Life’.

Key Performance Indicators:

Firstly, making a new product portfolio by adding the non-carbonated drinks, and alcoholic drinks separately and at least creating a variance of 15 different items to choose from over time (Shahzad et al., 2019).

Secondly, increasing the social media negotiation rate by 75%, to improve the response rate among consumers and smoothen the customer journey (Coca-cola, 2022, p 65).

Thirdly, adding 20-25 new customers to the Coke lineup, especially through the Coke Life application.

Internal Business Perspective

Strategic objectives:

Firstly, Coca-Cola intends to strengthen their production line by adding multi-operational factories across popular regions.

Secondly, reducing the lead time to ensure bottling systems are improved and time is increased for faster distribution (Alonso, 2023).

Thirdly, cultivating a schedule time reduces the workload on manual labour and in turn promotes better longevity of work management within factories (Huo et al., 2019).

Key Performance Indicators:

Firstly, increasing the bottling plants by more than 900 in populated territories of the world.

Secondly, generating efficiency through a depletion in the lead time increases the scope of Coke products by 45% (Alonso, 2023).

Thirdly, illustrating and breaking down a scheduled time to allow the labourers to work through priority-based options. The company intends to work with 4 schedule types.

Innovation and Learning Perspective

Strategic Objectives:

Firstly, Coke intends to deploy cloud and big data management systems in its process for creating a database of products and understanding its performance (Bianchin et al., 2022).

Secondly, the beverage distributor intends to connect with Amazon's web services to increase efficiency within its bottling plants (Honaman, 2023).

Thirdly, ensuring that a wider supplier network related to the company is increased over the period, for improving the communication delivery and reception (Garay-Rondero et al., 2019).

Key Performance Indicators:

Firstly, the beverage manufacturer wants to double its dependence on cloud and big data systems by increasing its usage capacity by 35%.

Secondly, increasing dependence on Amazon web services brings a 50% efficiency in the majority of the Coke plants located in America, Asia, European territories, and others (Honaman, 2023).

Thirdly, Coca-Cola wants to increase 2 billion servings of its favourite drinks by ensuring the suppliers can handle better logistics and delivery rates.

Figure 1: Balanced Scorecard

(Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Balance-scorecard-Harvard-Business-School-Press-9_fig2_41891703)

5.2 How leadership for performance approaches can help to achieve the objectives identified 

With a leader like James Qunicey, there are certain feats that Coca-Cola wants to accomplish which can be narrated in the below manner.

Firstly, the leader wants to amass operational success by driving the packaging and pricing strategies, which was a firm focus on the part of Coca-Cola in the last year (Coca-cola, 2022, p 16).

Secondly, increasing the philanthropic contributions through which Coke can improve its sustainability standing, thereby regaining a positive favour towards its brand. This can bolster their ideal to understand their customers better (Coca-Cola, 2022, p 18).

Thirdly, the leader wants to expand their production capacities by adding a contribution of $240 million towards improving their production lineup, and choice of labour talents (Coca-cola, 2022, p 18).

Finally, taking suggestions from the management in creating a lineup of innovative choices, that gives rise to better utilisation, control, and actionable contribution of data received from the market and general.

5.3 Critical evaluation of the key financial statements with recent 2022 quarterly results board reports and evaluate performance based on data provided

As part of the recent quarterly results, the board reported the below criteria that can help in the evaluation of their performance.

Firstly, a key strength within the balance sheet was a reduction in the creditor column, due to better performance from the staff members within Coca-cola that helped the corporation to mass $6 billion in sales (Coca-cola, 2022, p 37-42).

Secondly, due to net repayments in 2021, the cash flow suffered for the company leading to them losing $98.1 million within a span of one to two years. It also included sub-bottling payments within a range from $42 million to $74 million. The company lost its liquidity momentarily due to this factoring (Coca-cola, 2022, p 37-42).

Thirdly, the asset value for Coca-cola increased from 2021 to 2022 which increased their contribution by $3 million, which allowed the assets to record better performance for the company in the interim timeline (Coca-cola, 2022, p 37-42).

Fourthly, the cash flow from operations increased for the organisation during 2022, this resulted in a value contribution of $554.5 million which was a gradual improvement from 2021 when the value was $521.8 million. The organisation will look to reduce its indebtedness from the above context (Coca-Cola, 2022, p 37-42).

6.0 Ethical leadership

6.1 Critically evaluate one ethical issue within Coca-Cola experienced currently by the company 

The application of the Triple Bottom Layer can be used for understanding the elements of profit, people, and planet that can be conceptualised in the below manner (Law, 2015).

Profit

The beverage maker has maximised their gross profits by $25 billion by 2022, which resulted in a 6.15% growth on a year-to-year basis. This was mainly attributed to their sale of bottled carbonated beverages which quadrupled during the quarterly period. Thus taking the quarterly profits beyond $7060 million (Macrotrends.net, 2023). However, there was significant criticism received by the enterprise on account of their dubious business strategies which compromised their goodwill.

People

Even if Coca-Cola has remained consistent with its volunteering roles, which involved pledging a $5.4 million worth recycling grant, and running programs across major cities to fix the recycling infrastructure mainly across the US. Also, the revenue generated from such programs was capitalised by the organisation towards educational programs that were set within Atlanta. Meanwhile, the chief intention of such volunteering activities was to lower the rate of contamination by 25% (Laville, 2022). In this case, the company was only partially successful courtesy of 100,000 households who managed to curb the incurring expenditure that was growing over the period (Laville, 2022). Still, the organisation was unable to resolve the actual problem which plagued them in the long run which was increasing levels of plastic discarding.

Planet

While Coke has begun spending millions towards innovation, they have been unable to bring about sanctity by reducing the levels of plastic discharged into seas. The ocean-bound plastics are of a quality that affects marine life altogether and resulted in fatal accidents for many species by up to 25% (Russ, 2022). This organisation has thus been branded a major plastic pollution across the globe. In certain other regions with ban impositions like that in the EU, the current flooding of streets, tourist zones, and other areas with plastic has been reduced. However, the crisis is supposed to get worse by 2040 (Russ, 2022). Coke products have also to be served within containers that can be reusable, leading to the prevention of undue littering. It has also led to the speculation that Coca-Cola's approach has been like this to enhance their profitability, without caring much for the environment in which they have to conduct the bulk of their business. The phenomenon is not supposed to improve even in a few years.

6.2 Recommendations

The above ethical issue for Coca-Cola can be resolved through the below suggestions.

Firstly, the company needs to invest further in recyclability programs which enable them to recover the losses encountered from plastic wastes. The contribution can be used for helping in the conservation of the marine ecosystem, and towards issuing maintenance in the standards applied by the company in bringing better measures to prevent any further littering.

Secondly, Coca-Cola needs to start using recyclable packages more and reduce their dependence on PET. In fact, similar to other organisations or their rivals Nestle, can even distribute their drinks through bamboo-made tetra packages that contain less quantity of the drinks but better consumable over the period.

Thirdly, Coca-Cola must take away any existing bottled variant of their carbonated drinks launched into the market, or run marketing initiatives which might promote through inducement that consumers can reduce wastage by winning redeemable points for their mobile applications. This is likely to aid them over the period courtesy of people themselves participating in the endeavour, which reduces plastic wastage on average when considered through area-wise analysis.

References

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