What is COCA-COLA’s VISION for the next 3 years?
Our company started in 1886 and grew throughout the years into a total beverage company with thousands of brands from different beverage categories across the entire world. And the vision that continues to guide us along the way is simple and clear: we want to craft drinks that people love and enjoy, we want to offer them choice, and we want to do all that in ways that create a more sustainable business, limiting the footprint that we leave behind.
What is COCA-COLA’s most important LEADERSHIP insight that the company learned about at BRAND MINDS?
It’s difficult to say which insight was most important, and I don’t believe it would be fair either, as there has been an incredible amount of useful content throughout the years, from the way that we look at our teams and understand what motivates people, to the way we approach the working process and how to improve our ways of doing things.
For me the most critical thing is to remain humble, to always be open and willing to listen, to learn and to apply these new learnings – improving myself and hopefully transmitting the same to help the teams grow.
What are the top 3 changes COCA-COLA applied following BRAND MINDS?
One of the biggest changes in the way we conduct our day-to day work has been related to the agile
methodology.
We have switched to a network type of organization, with constant collaboration among teams and continuous improvement within our processes. We are far more open to experimentation. We test, learn, repeat before we’re ready to start scaling. Sometimes that is a more “process focused approach” and other times it’s about being faster to adapt where we see things aren’t working, or go harder where things are going well – ultimately leading to better outcomes.
Name the most essential aspect of TEAM MANAGEMENT according to COCA-COLA.
I believe it all comes down to one simple yet critical aspect: constant learning.
Regardless of the role within a team, improvement comes if you are willing to get exposed to new ideas or situations, to different opinions, to constructive feedback.
This is also something that drives our new networked organization: collaboration across people from different markets and territories, sharing experiences and learnings is what enables us to grow not only as a team but also as a business.
How is COCA-COLA’s company culture impacting its future?
In order to achieve our vision, we also need the right culture to underpin our plans and this is something a bit more complex.
Culture is multi-faceted, it is something you cannot easily put in a framework as it’s more about the right behavior and mindset for each situation that you’re facing. But, as overall guiding principles, we’re focused on acting with a growth mindset, being very clear about our values.
We have a long history of acting with honesty and integrity. We are transparent. If we make mistakes, we act quickly to make things right. In our dynamic world, a clarity of conscience to do the right thing is a valuable compass.
What is the LATEST NEWS regarding COCA-COLA our readers should learn about?
In Romania, as we continue to be guided by our purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference, I am happy to underline two of the most recent projects we have been focused on in the last year.
As part of our on-going commitment to expand our beverage portfolio, providing people more choices, we launched two new refreshing flavors under our Coca-Cola brand: Coca-Cola with taste of Lemon & Coca-Cola with taste of Lime – we’re seeing that Romanians like them and we’re excited to see how they grow.
At the same time, we continued our efforts towards a circular economy, transitioning our entire PET beverage portfolio to packaging made of 100% recycled materials (rPET ) excluding the caps and labels. This has also been facilitated by recent investments done in an rPET production facility installed in our Coca-Cola Ploiesti plant.
