Week 7 Portfolio

Running Headlines: RESPONSE 1

Antonio D. McMillian

American Military University

BUSN601B005

May 14, 2017

1. My chosen company is multinational Coca-Cola Company which is the world’s largest beverage producer. Just like other enterprises which have labor unions representing their workers, the employees have their labor union which is tasked with the responsibility of carrying out a collective bargaining agreement. Teamsters union is one of the major trade unions that has been vocal and also taken part bargaining agreements. Recently, the company has been accused to be anti-union resulting into major lawsuits. It was alleged that the company was not willing to recognize the labor union in the United States and this forced the court to rule that the company must recognize the Teamsters union. However, this labor union only represents the workers within the United States. Other employees working abroad have their unions that represent their union according to their laws. In the United States, the labor unions operate under the National Labor Relations Act.

2. International human resource management is one of the most complex issues in the multinational company. Coca-Cola is a global brand with its principal markets in Britain, Asia, Russia, Middle East, Europe and North America. The organization sometimes employs expatriates to feel certain positions in case there is no local talent to fill the position. The expatriates are selected based on their abilities and previous performance. There is repatriation phase where the company supports the employees by including their family members in the program. Families also undergo some training as they would be affected by the change in the environment. Initially, the company used to select the experienced business executives as expatriates. However, this is not the case as even younger employees are chosen to fill the position. The company spends millions annually in training their employees in international assignments. It is just recently that the corporation took a cost-cutting drive that significantly reduced the training cost. The introduction of Coca-Cola University (CCU) is one of the latest developments. It is a virtual university for capability building activities and learning. The company has used e-learning in training expatriates. The individual selected are assured of their jobs when they go back to home as a way of making them comfortable (Animashaun, 2017)

3. Coca-Cola has fully integrated the technology in training and development of its employees to ensure efficiency and lower the cost. The use of technology has been useful especially on the employee in the international assignment where they are familiarized with the local environment and work environment. The formal programs are meant to deliver orientation about the host country culture and customs. As mentioned earlier E-learning has been fully utilized by the company (Animashaun, 2017).

4. The company can differentiate its products when trying to penetrate new markets. One of the most common products that are common to all Coca-Cola markets is the Coca-Cola. The product appeals to many people older people as it is health conscious. There is also the Powerade and flavored products that entice the young such as vanilla coke and cherry coke. Some other products include Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid, Simply Orange, Coca-Cola Light Vitamin water and Odwalla products.

5. Coca-Cola as a company has adopted its promotion strategy that works for the enterprise. The company carries out preliminary markets study before coming up with promotion structure. It is imperative to note that, promotional strategy differs from one region to another. It is typically dependent on the demands of the particular market regarding culture and customs. For instance, personalization as a promotional strategy is used in many countries. However, the difference comes in when choosing the names to be used. The names chosen should be common or familiar to the country.

6. Coca-Cola is not a single entity from the managerial and legal perspective, and the organization does not control or own control all the bottling partners. The Coca-Cola system operates through multiple local channels. The company produces and also sells beverage bases, concentrates, and syrups to bottling operations. Moreover, the company owns the brand and carries marketing initiatives. Bottling partners are tasked with the responsibility of manufacturing, packaging and distributing the final branded products to vending partners and customers who then sell the beverage to the consumers. Bottling partners must ensure that they work in close collaboration with the customers; restaurants, grocery, street vendors and movie theaters.

7. Just like many other companies, Coca-Cola Company procures goods around the globe. This is done to ensure that there is a diversity of the goods delivered. The company serves a broad market that serves different regions and to increase efficiency; the goods are procured regionally. Some of the services or products procured are capital equipment, packaging energy, fleet, and logistics services, IT and telecommunication, sales and marketing services and professional services (Animashaun, 2017).

8. Coca-Cola as a company practices global production where the goods are produced in specific markets and are differentiated to meet the specific customers’ demands. The company has invested resources to meet its demand. The company exports concentrate and syrups to all other parts of the world (Alvarado, &Kotzab, 2011).

9. The company has outsourced the manufacturing, packaging, and distribution of the services. As mentioned earlier, the company manufactures and sells concentrates and syrups to the bottling operation who do the manufacturing, packaging, and distribution of the product to the customers. The Coca-Cola Bottling Investment are the largest partners of the Coca-Cola who package the product for the company (Alvarado, &Kotzab, 2011).

10. The Coca-Cola Company has its supply chain that involves selling concentrates to bottlers who do the manufacturing and distribution. The members are Coca-Cola Enterprise and the Coca-Cola Exporting Corporation that sell concentrates to North America and other parts of the world respectively. Lastly, the Coca-Cola Bottling Investment does the final distribution (Rossi, 2013).

11. The company export concentrates in its major markets such as Britain, Middle East countries, Russia, Britain, North America and Africa. The relative economic strength approach which takes into consideration the rate of economic growth can be used in used in evaluating the effect of appreciation or depreciation on the currency value. Countries with high economic growth attract investors who have to buy the currency of that country thereby leading to strong demand for the currency which in turn leads to the currency appreciating in value. When the currency of a foreign appreciates in value about the dollar, Coca-Cola may be forced to spend more dollars in these markets thereby increasing the transaction cost in foreign markets. On the other hand, if the currency of these countries depreciates against the dollar, the company will enjoy low transaction cost (Rossi, 2013).

Reference

Animashaun, A. O. (2017). An investigation of controlling management of the enterprise on the example of the Coca Cola (Doctoral dissertation).

Alvarado, U. Y., &Kotzab, H. (2001). Supply chain management: the integration of logistics in marketing. Industrial marketing management, 30(2), 183-198.

Berry, A., Culpeper, R., & Stewart, F. (Eds.).(2016). Global Development Fifty Years after Bretton Woods.Springer.

Ross B. (2013). Exchange rate predictability. Journal of Economic Literature, 51(4), 1063-1119