Apply a corporate strategy to your current or future career.

Coca-Cola Company Corporate Strategy

Derrick Underwood

Waldorf University

Organizations undergo identifiable life cycles. The main stages of a corporate’s life cycle comprise startup stage, growth, maturity, decline and death or reversal (Jones, 2015). The startup stage is the most turbulent because most organizations lack the required capital or face market acceptance challenges. The notable challenges during this stage entail understanding the market needs and designing products or services that address these specific needs. The growth stage entails the process in which the company is gaining traction in the marketplace (Jones, 2015). Often, this is measured by revenue growth. The maturity stage is when the business revenues continue to grow but at a declining rate. As such, organizations strive to improve operational efficiency to increase both sales and profit margins. The decline stage is the phase when the revenue begins to decrease. The main challenge during this phase is attributed to competitors who introduce high-quality products that are superior, or consumers have changed their preferences (Jones, 2015). The death phase refers to the fall of the organization based on its inability to meet the financial obligations such as interest payments and fixed costs. However, the management can pursue a revival strategy such as closing unprofitable operations. By doing so, the corporate’s life cycle can be extended. When the decline stage persists, the business can be sold. Currently, Coca-Cola Company is at the maturity stage as the business is consistently profitable, maintains a strong brand image and still holds a large share of the market.

Strategy implementation is the process through which plans, and strategies are turned into actions to meet the projected goals and objectives. With this, the strategic plan is enacted into action to intensify business growth (Mohamed, 2015). While the strategic plan details on the strategies that are deemed appropriate for attaining the stated objectives, its implementation is the actual process of adopting these approaches including feedback to monitor their progress. To begin the implementation, decisive questions must be taken into consideration by the decision makers. Primarily, the questions comprise of:

· Who will be responsible for implementing the strategic plan?

· What must be done to align the organization’s operations with the proposed strategies?

· How will the strategic plan be implemented?

· Where in the organization will the new strategies be implemented?

· When should the strategic plan be enacted?

For example, the company’s new strategic initiative is to focus on convenience, choice and the consumer. With this, the important questions that have been considered include who, what, how, where and when. The organizational strategy should follow the overall organizational culture (Mohamed, 2015). Notably, culture gives the company its identity thereby deliberate efforts should be taken for the strategies to stick. In this case, Coca-Cola’s company has an inclusive culture drawn from diversity, collaboration, integrity, accountability, and quality. With this, the strategic initiative must be tailored to meet the overall inclusive culture developed by the organization.

The six sigma is a tool that is used to improve organizational processes. Primarily, this method can be used to improve organizational processes such as improved performance and enhanced efficiency (Kwak & Anbari, 2006). This method is important for organizations as it increases performance levels, decrease process variation to reduce defects, increase profits and improve employee morale. Besides, the quality of products and services within an organization are improved (Kwak & Anbari, 2006). Therefore, integrating the six sigma in the organization is imperative as it enhances the production of high-quality products by streamlining the organization’s processes.

References

Jones, N. (2015). SME's life cycle-steps to failure or success?

Kwak, Y. H., & Anbari, F. T. (2006). Benefits, obstacles, and future of six sigma approach. Technovation, 26(5-6), 708-715.

Mohamed, M. A. (2015). An Assessment of Strategy Implementation in Organizations: A Case of KENBRO Industries (Doctoral dissertation, United States International University- Africa).