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INTERACTION WITH COCA-COLA CEO MUHTAR
KENT
Being
Constructively Discontent
Kent
advises his team to shed hubris because the brand is so pervasive that it’s
easy for people to become arrogant
Capitalism,
in the form we know it, is passé. And none other than Muhtar Kent, the high
priest of the definitive company of capitalism, Coca-Cola, acknowledges
that. In an exclusive interview to ET, the 61-year-old chairman and CEO of
The Coca-Cola Company argued it is necessary to remain constructively
discontent, talked about how he transformed Coke’s senior leadership by
empowering women, and shared the India view from the beverage company’s
headquarters in Atlanta.
Armed with an MBA from Cass Business School, London, the Turkish-American
Muhtar Kent started out in the $48-billion Coca-Cola back in 1978 as a
delivery hand on trucks across Georgia, Texas, Massachusetts and
California. That proved invaluable during his rise to the top. “To start a
career from the very first step is always an advantage as it ensures you
know and understand those all-important places where money changes hands
billions of times each day for our products,” says Kent.
What separates Kent from a slew of his predecessors after the iconic
Roberto Goizueta’s tenure (1981-1997), is his long-term approach on a range
of issues. After coming to the helm in 2008, he was taken aback by the
global beverage major’s insularity and lack of vision. As a first measure,
he drew up the ‘2020 Vision’ for the company and its bottling partners,
which chalks out a roadmap for doubling Coke’s business in 10 years. “It’s
not something for the fainthearted, but something clearly do-able. It has
made us stronger and, frankly, a more focused competitor,” admits Kent.
Besides, he has championed women’s empowerment to such an extent that today
nearly 30% of Coca-Cola’s senior leadership are women. His logic that women
are pillars of his business is unquestionable since “they control $20
trillion in spending worldwide, representing an economic impact larger than
the US, China and India combined”. In 2007, The Coca-Cola Company created
the Global Women’s Initiative — a strategic plan with the primary objective
of accelerating the development and movement of female talent into roles of
increasing responsibility and influence within the Coca-Cola system.
Additionally, the ‘5by20’ initiative aims to economically empower 5 million
women across Coca-Cola’s supply chain worldwide by the year 2020 through
business skills training and financial services. “This programme works
because we know if you economically empower women, you lift the livelihood
of an entire community.”
Empowerment of women aside, Kent’s mantra for his people is to remain
“constructively discontent” and shed the hubris that comes with a brand
sporting a 128-year legacy. “Coca-Cola is the only business in the world
where no matter which country or town or village you are in, if someone
asks what do you do and you say you work for Coca-Cola, you never have to
answer the question, ‘What is that?’ Our brand is so pervasive that it’s
easy for people to become arrogant because there’s an aura around it,” he
explains. Kent’s restless energy rubs off online as well, especially on
social media. In 2006, social media was a mere 3% of Coke’s total media
spend and today, it is upward of 30%. “The social media scene is exploding
and gone are the days when you simply needed to create impressions about
your brands with consumers… Now it’s all about expressions — communicating
in a dialogue with consumers to meet their expectations,” says Kent, taking
pride in the Coca-Cola Facebook page, which has more than 76 million
‘likes’. “Consumers no longer want only a great product — they want to buy
products from companies that align with their own character and values.”
Does such pro-consumerism sound the death-knell for capitalism? It’s time
the economic system reinvented itself, contends Kent, who believes the
“golden triangle” of business, government and civil society must address
deep social, economic and environmental issues. “This model is the way
forward for capitalism — the greatest economic force the world has ever
known — a system whose greatest days are still ahead.” Can Kent create his
golden triangle in an environment where people are consuming less soda, the
mainstay of his empire? Pat comes the reply—“Approximately half of the
world’s population has not consumed a Coke in the past 30 days and a
quarter of the population hasn’t consumed a Coke in the last year.”
Clearly, it is the potential where Kent sees opportunity. “While some
markets — like India — will consistently show high levels of growth,
developed markets like the United States and Europe also are able to
support growth, albeit at slower rates… It is important that we continue to
grow our beverage portfolio in a balanced way — both in terms of geographic
markets and in terms of still and sparkling beverages,” he elaborates.
Talk of India and Kent connects with the subcontinent’s diaspora working
throughout the Coca-Cola system. “Many of our senior executives in
marketing, strategy, finance, operations and other functions are from India
and the Indian intellect and global perspective are things we value greatly
at Coca-Cola.” Last year, Kent went on record saying the world’s largest
beverage maker will invest $5 billion in India over eight years to expand
capacity and improve distribution network, following which rival PepsiCo’s
Indra Nooyi declared in November her company would pump in $5.5 billion to India
by 2020.
MOINAK MITRA ET13129
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