Strategic Plan Alignment Paper 1 Running head: STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT PAPER

Strategic Plan Alignment Paper Sarah Cook University of Phoenix

Strategic Plan Alignment Paper 2 Strategic Plan Alignment Developing a strategic plan for Coca-Cola involves more than just setting goals for the future and choosing a term out of a textbook as the way to achieve those goals. One of the things the organization has to consider is the alignment between its current proposed published values and several internal and external entities. Coca-Cola values leadership, collaboration, integrity, accountability, passion, and diversity along with quality (The Coca-Cola Company (c), 2008). How these values are incorporated into its strategic plan when it comes to leaders and managers treatment of internal stakeholders, internal stakeholders treatment of one another, the organizations treatment of external stakeholders, the organizations short-term plans and the organizations long-term plans are vital aspects to be analyzed. Coca-Cola identifies its people as one of its core assets. The company aims to make Coca-Cola more than just a place to work and instead a place of exploration, creativity and personal growth. Management wants internal stakeholders, the employees, to take pride in their work and the products they produce (The Coca-Cola Company (d), 2008). Coca-Cola has more than 92,000 associates from around the world that live and work in the markets they serve (The Coca-Cola Company (d), 2008). With such a diverse group, the company can learn about each market and share that knowledge across the firm. This fosters a culture of collaboration, which is inline with its values. In accordance with this, management has previously sought employee involvement in determining the strength of the company strategy. They provided a forum for employees to voice their views on Coca-Colas mission, vision and values (Hobson, 2006). Management is showing that it is interested in what the internal stakeholders think. Coca-Colas internal stakeholders also take care of each other. They work together to not only collaborate on improving the company but to improve the living and working conditions of

Strategic Plan Alignment Paper 3 company employees around the world. Employees have established a website for Coca-Cola workers and union workers to discuss joint objectives, initiatives and resources (IUF, 2009). In their interaction with each other, individual employees are demonstrating the leadership, accountability and passion the company values. Coca-Cola makes a concerted effort to please its external stakeholders in ways suitable to its values as well. Those stakeholders include investors, customers and the communities in which the company operates. To its shareholders, Coca-Cola has made dividend payments each year since 1920 and has increased those dividend payments annually for the last 47 years (The CocaCola Company (b), 2008). The company tries to please its customers by providing diverse products in a wide range of sizes and for every occasion. For the communities in which it operates, Coca-Cola is attempting to improve its environmental impact. In the past Coca-Cola faced legal action due to overuse of a community resource, water. Coca-Cola now has a program to make it water neutral. In addition, Coca-Cola is attempting to alleviate poverty by scaling up their distribution network, which creates more jobs. As is apparent by these actions, Coca-Cola uses integrity, accountability and diversity in the way it treats its external stakeholders. Coca-Colas values are evident in not only how they deal with stakeholders but also their short-term and long-term plans. The company plans to use their brands, financial strength, global reach and unparalleled distribution system to become even more competitive and accelerate company growth. They want to connect with customers by providing a wide variety of beverage choices that meet their wants and lifestyles (The Coca-Cola Company (a), 2008). In this light, Coca-Cola is expanding the availability of Coke Zero, changing its marketing campaign, and introducing new products to the market such as beverages sweetened with Truvia, a natural, no-

Strategic Plan Alignment Paper 4 calorie sweetener (The Coca-Cola Company (b), 2008). These plans align with the values published by the Company. Coca-Cola has identified several values as being important for the way they operate. It consistently upholds its belief in these values through its actions. The values align with the way the organization treats internal and external stakeholders as well as the short-term and long-term goals it has established.

Very good and stuck to the brief. Could have commented a slight bit more as to how strongly everything is aligned, but overall great. 5.8/6.0

Strategic Plan Alignment Paper 5

References IUF. (2009). Coca-Cola workers worldwide. Retrieved June 25, 2009, from http://www.iuf.org/drupal/?q=node/210 Hobson, Neville. (2006, March 28). Coca-Cola blog for worldwide employee survey. Retrieved June 25, 2009 from http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2006/03/28/cocacola-blog-for worldwide-employee-survey The Coca-Cola Company (a). (2008). 2008 Annual Review. Retrieved June 25, 2009 from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/investors/annual_review_2008.html The Coca-Cola Company (b). (2008). Letter from Our President and Chief Executive Officer. Retrieved June 25, 2009 from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/ar/ leadership-ceo.html The Coca-Cola Company (c). (2008). Mission, Vision & Values. Retrieved May 25, 2009 from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/mission_vision_values.html The Coca-Cola Company (d). (2008). Working as a global team. Retrieved June 25, 2009 from http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/meet_our_people.html