Mid-Term Paper

2/26/2015

Written by Ashley Baker

" A best practice is a technique or methodology that,

through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead
to a desired result. A commitment to using the best practices
in any field is a commitment to using all the knowledge and
technology at one's disposal to ensure success" - Unknown

Best practices could be considered a set of guidelines, put in place by employers,

business owners, or higher ups. It includes the decision making for companies by management or
higher authority, based on the best interest of the business. While paving the path of newly found
company, you might want to try new things and different techniques in how to handle certain
situations or operations. With this urge, might follow discouragement. Thats why entrepreneurs
stick to the best practices method. You want to see what other companies are doing that works,
and stick to it. Chances are that they have tried other techniques and have failed.
Not only does best practice mean finding the right way to be successful, it also includes
updating and keeping it current. With new technologies out, enterprises are always finding new
ways to improve communication, production, management and profits. One way of keeping up is
to benchmark, which allows you to compare your business with other successful businesses to
highlight areas where your business could improve. (Entreprenuers)
Learning more about this concept really helped me grasp the lectures in the book, Critical
Thinking- Readings from the Literature of Business and Society. Second. One lecture that
particularly stood out to me is the "The Universal Drink, or E Pluribus Coca-Colum." The lecture
starts off by compairing Coca-cola to gasoline. Insuinuating that it is indispensable to, and a
symbolic of, the American way of life. The accepitbility for this product depended on the regions
political orientation towards the united states. For example, while Germany was at war with the

United States, the official Nazi line was that the beverage was a menace to European civiliaion.
(E. J. Kahn)
A factor such as this could be extremely detrimental to your business. Location is
something that could build or destroy your business. You would want to look at other
enterprises, and see where your type of business most prospers, and locate to an area of such sort.
Coca-Cola is consumed around the world about 60 million times a day due to the
trumpeting adverstiments. Every 3 minutes, another hundred and twenty thousand drinks have
been consumed. (E. J. Kahn) This is world wide, even by geishas, princes and those in Africa.
This fact has been a result of broad advertising. People get greedy with their money and dont
want to put money back into their company. But if we all took a note from the Coke company,
we would have our products/ business around the world as well. You want your company name
to be known. If a potential customer doesnt know anything about your product, but remembers
the name, chances are they will go with you. I compare this to voting in elections, you dont
remember canidates promises or speaches, but you remember their name (due to more money put
into advertising and promoting).
In 1957 gross sales came to nearly three hundred million dollars. The bulk of this take as
derived from the sale of Coca-Cola syrup to other bottling plants and to soda-foundation jobbers.
The Coke company was smart it outsourcing materials as well as products. They found another
way to provide income other than the product its self. The company sold two hundred million
gallons of syrup, that could equal twenty-five billion portions of Coca-Cola. That puts it into
perspective how important manufacturing and distributing their syrup was to them. I compare
this to the beauty industry, which is what I am perusing. You can do a clients hair and retain the
profits every couple months, thats great! But what you really want to do is retail products so
they are coming in every couple weeks getting their daily hair products form you, thus increasing
your profits. You want to have several ways of income, not just one.
Many Communists picked on Coca-Cola, making up rumors about the product which
ended up putting the company in court. One Coca-Cola man said, My guess is that the Commies
dont dislike us because we are American, its because our company is a champion of the profit
motive, and wherever it goes, it spreads profits. Everyone who has anything to do with the drink
makes money and becomes a member of the bourgeoisie. (E. J. Kahn) This has been an eye
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opener to me. When I start becoming successful or prospering, there is always the select few who
always seek out the worst. They dont want your success to be true so they sabotage it. Many
will try to turn others against you, or steer them clear of you. The quote above has taught me to
keep strong no matter whose rooting for you, or who is secretly tying your shoes together before
the race. If Coke would have given in to the many groups who were destructive towards them,
they wouldnt be the same multi- billion profiting company they are today. Keeping faith in your
company is also another key factor. There will be ups and downs, but you can never give up. It
wasnt until 25 years after coke was introduced to New York City did the people start consuming
a million cases of Coke a year. (E. J. Kahn) You never know what will happen, but if you back
down after the first couple years of business, you will never reap the benefits of hard work and
patience.
One rival of Coke in particular, is Pepsi. The war between the two cola drinks has ranged
all around the world. In the Philippines, three years ago, someone made up a rumor that a man
had fallen into a vat at one of the twelve Coca-Cola bottling plants on the islands and had rapidly
dissolved. Then a counter rumor began to circumnavigate saying that a man did fall, but it was
into Pepsi, not Coke. Although the argument was never resolved, this type of attention is
negative for both business. Business sales and profits can decrease because of negative attention.
Even if people dont really believe a body of a man was distributed into their cup of Coke/Pepsi,
its in the back of their mind and they will reach for another soda product who doesnt have any
such rumors.
In Venezuela, Pepsi-Cola out sales Coke by a landslide, simply because of the perks they
offer. They offer newly-weds to a free honeymoon. (E. J. Kahn)This type of perk would have to
be well thought out. You would need to use the best
practice to go over numbers and make sure the money
spend on the honey moon is well worth the profit you
would get in return. For Pepsi, I see that the numbers
worked out in their favor, beating the Coke company for
sales is a hard challenge to win.

When we talk about advertising and advertising costs, Id like to point out that Coca-Cola
has six and a half million (give or take) outdoor signs in the world today (E. J. Kahn). They even
advertise in different language even in the United States to advertise to the different ethnicities
and background that have traveled here. No wonder the company is so successful in its profits all
over the world.
Personally, I think the rivalry between the two is just childish. I understand some people
will throw one company under the bus, but two wrongs dont make a right. I think as long as you
are doing things right, (have the right ethics, and taking care of your clients/employees) the
profits will follow. There is no need to bash other companies to make yours shine. To me, thats
shows the morals of a company and tend to lead me towards other companies, even those being
slandered.

Works Cited
E. J. Kahn, Jr. "The Universal Drink, or E Pluribus Coca-Colum." Engh, Compiled and with contributions by
Edward G. Critical Thinking- Readings from the Literature of Business and Society. second .
(1959). 163-175.
Entreprenuers, Info. BEST PRACTICES. n.d. Online. 27 FEB 2015.
<http://www.infoentrepreneurs.org/en/guides/best-practice/>.