The corporate reputation of any company is significant in determining the role concerning the social responsibility and organizational performance of the company. A corporation’s complete achievement or failure mostly depend on the reputation it creates among its clients and the society in overall. Definitively, in corporate philosophies, the company reputation can be demonstrated as, “one of the establishment's paramount intangible assets with tangible, significant value” (Ferrell, 2011). This emphasizes that even though an enterprise’s status may be accepted to the public, the company’s public image is obviously more important to the stakeholders than any other thing. This is because the customer loyalty, preservation and retention are important to any business entity.
There exist numerous of factors that influence the characteristics of a company’s stakeholders when defining the status of a business. In this particular case study concerning the Coca-Cola Company’s ethical issues, some of the factors that the shareholders in the Coca-Coca Company may use in ranking the business are listed below:
- Social Responsibility – The Coca Cola Corporation tends to have a strong establishment and practices positive corporate social responsibility within the individual communities the company performs business operations.
- The strong and decent business routine - The Coca Company handles herself in a principled method with the clients and communities it interacts with in its daily business operations.
- High quality standards – The Company aims at and maintains a high standard of produce for all the products it manufactures.
- Employee relations are excellent – The Company practices a respectable and constructive work ethic while dealing with the company’s workers. The personnel within the company are treated well and even provided with appropriate social amenities, for example, health insurance cover or allowance benefits.
- Comfortable work environment - The factory environment setting ought to be welcoming and offer a safe, clean and comfortable setting.
- Financial Background - The Company has been in operation for over half a century now, making it one of the fortune companies in the United States. Coca-Cola’s stable financial background the years of its operation globally has safeguarded and secured the interests of stakeholders and investors (shareholders) of the company.
- Management – The Coca Cola company management have specialized and exceptional experience in operating the Company and all of its affiliated global outlets. As a global and market leader in beverage production, the company management team is expected to have excellent decision making attributes.
The issues discussed usually differ among all stockholders interested in the company since each person might have his or her own opinion regarding what they need or expect of the company’s reputation. Ferrell, (2011) states that the investors who are openly affected by undesirable events within the company would probably have an equivalent change in their views regarding the firm's reputation. Conversely, to some of the comments mentioned above, there are various factors that are fundamentally important to the stakeholders. These include:
- Environmentally accountability - a company ought to be responsible for issues regarding the future of the globe and how the corporation’s daily activities will impact the world’s environment.
- Customer satisfaction makes a vital pillar for the continued success of the company since a happy client will be a customer for life.
As the Company’s CEO (Chief Executive Officer), the strategic approaches the Chief Executive Officer ought to undertake entails recovering the stakeholders doubt through the minimization of the ethical issues that have been experienced within the company. First, as Fortune Company in the world, the Coca Cola Corporation’s management will be improvised to maintain a positive public image with the clients and community. An instance from the case study, the minimization of allegations like the racial discrimination allegation in the year of 1999 by the African Americans regarding pay, promotion and performance allegations.
Another major decision I would as the CEO would involve improvisation on the profit and market competition with other companies in order to increase the company’s market dominance. Market domination promotes a good and high corporate reputation while encouraging better relationships between the company and the national governments. Company transparency is also vital in earning shareholders (investors) and the stakeholders trust. A recurrence of the inflated earnings related to channel stuffing, and the trouble experienced with distributors would be minimized and limited through constant monitoring and auditing of the chain outlets and the stock inventory warehouse operations. This practice would save the company from negative media coverage that would in turn harm the company stakeholders’ interests.
This ought to be achieved without compromising on the conservation of the environment, that is, through minimizing of the company’s metallic and plastic waste gotten for most of its by-products. The Coca Cola Company has been in operation within the global market for a very long time; therefore, the company stakeholders anticipate a maintained and progressive reputation with the public. This can be achieved through well planned strategies and appropriately managed or executed ethical decisions.
My views thought towards the Coca Cola's environmental initiatives are positive even though Coca Cola has received several criticisms regarding its poor environmental record. The company has experienced various lawsuits that have tarnished its image. An example from the case study is the contamination issue that occurred in 1999, which affected the Belgian and Netherlands consumers to the extent both governments had to order a recall of the Coca Cola products due to the illnesses that were reported. This incident in the various countries harmed the company’s reputation. Therefore, the Coca Cola Company had to work extremely hard towards regaining and restoring customer trust.
Additionally, a lump sum volume of groundwater utilized by the company’s operations is recycled to the ground systems, while subsequently implementing the use of reprocessed packaging to make their products lighter and easier to handle, therefore, saving on fuel usage and production energy necessary for transportation. The company has also established close to six plastic bottle recycling industries to initiate waste reduction. This has been achieved through the recycling initiatives implemented throughout the globe.
Conclusively, I strongly agree that the Coca-Cola Company has managed achieve most of its set objectives regarding its environmental initiatives and the stakeholders interests. The business has portrayed a positive and exemplary respect towards its stakeholder’s interests. The company’s focus on new products that are environmental friendly is was a commendable approach towards company positive revolution. The allocation of funds and the constant financing of the environmental preservation programs display the great effort of the company towards maintaining its environmental initiatives.
References
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2013). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.
Carroll, A. B. (2009). Business ethics: Brief readings on vital topics. New York: Routledge.
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2010). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases: 2009 update. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Asongu, J. J. (2007). Strategic corporate social responsibility in practice. Lawrenceville, GA: Greenview Publishing.
