Company Information
Coca Cola Company is one of the largest beverage companies in the world operating in more than 200 countries and offering over 500 products. Coca Cola, the drink, was invented by a pharmacist called John Stith Pemberton in 1886 in Columbus, Georgia. The current formulation of Coca Cola and the brand were established by Asa Griggs Candler in 1892. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the last one century Coca Cola has expanded beyond the boundary of United States with acquisition of many brands and companies under its name across the globe. Fuze Beverage, Thumbs Up, Odwalla and Minute Maid are some of the biggest acquisitions of Coca Cola. Coca Cola is one of the major lobbying beverage companies in the US. It spends substantial amount of money every year for lobbying to obtain favorable conditions for beverage market.
Mission and Vision
Coca Cola follows a vibrant mission and vision. Its mission is to refresh the world, inspire moments of optimism, create value and make a difference (Coca Cola, 2013). Coca Cola also has a very balanced vision to achieve its mission and roadmap. It tries to create a great environment for its employees in the best possible way. Coca Cola is also committed to serve the world diverse beverage portfolio to satisfy customer needs and desires. It has a strong resolve to act as a responsible organization in a green and sustainable way.
Ethical Issues
Like any other company Coca Cola has encountered a good many environmental and ethical challenges in its more than a century long operation. It faced a lawsuit in India in 2003 for the use of cancer-conducive pesticides in several of its products. Coca Cola denied all the allegations and later government of India also found that the toxin levels were higher than EU levels but lower than what was initially anticipated. In 2005 Coca Cola also tried to stifle competition in shops and bars in Europe by making use of an agreement that was deemed monopolistic by European Union. Coca Cola also tampered the sales by forcing its bottlers to buy its concentrate during 1999-2000 to make its sales seem higher. Coca Cola faced several other incriminating charges such as bribery in America, racial discrimination in South Africa and United States, action against union leaders and their family in Guatemala and many more. After the 2003 class action racial lawsuit, Coca Cola took initiatives to build its code of ethical conduct a more robust one which would be addressing all the stakeholders in the company.
Code of Ethics
Integrity is one of the current code of business ethics of Coca Cola. Integrity and values like leadership, diversity, quality and passion form the pillars of Coca Cola’s 2020 global vision. Coca Cola is run by the philosophy that one should do what is right no matter in which business division or in which country one operates in. Integrity is set both for the individual as well as the company. The responsibilities of the employees as well as other operatives to different stakeholders of the company are clearly defined by the code of ethics. The code mandates all the employees to be working in an honest way maintaining integrity with full accountability for their actions. Since Coca Cola operates in many countries, in the event of any code in direct conflict with the local law, the local law will hold its ground.
Coca Cola encourages its employees to introspect whether or not what they are doing is ethically and legally viable and how their action reflects the image of the company. If the answer comes in negative then the employee should not proceed to do a thing that is not legally and ethically tenable. For further moral and ethical guidance employees may seek advice from the senior management or the local ethics officer or Ethics and Compliance Office of the company. Any employee can explore the ethics website to raise any query or call toll free to EthicsLine.
Managers are instrumental in promoting ethics within the company. They should always lead by example. Managers should invariably create an environment where employees are encouraged to raise any issues without fear. They should also ensure that the employees working under them fully understand the code of ethical responsibilities as per the company policies. Managers should prevent employees from delivering results that are damaging for the company's good name and violate business ethics and personal moral conduct. Managers are the first line of forum to raise any questions and they are supposed to guide others in the right direction. Managerial position is very important in terms of propagating ethical guidelines in Coca Cola.
Coca Cola also maintains that there are certain codes requiring written approval from the ethics and compliance team. For example, use of some company assets outside of company premises would require a written sanction from the ethics and compliance team. In such cases not only written approval but annual renewal of the sanction is also mandated by the company.
Many a time it is seen that if any sensitive unethical issue related to the top management of a company is reported, the person responsible for reporting often is penalized for the exposure. Therefore, in Coca Cola any report made to ethics and compliance department is kept anonymous. Even if somebody discloses his identity while complaining to the ethics department, the ethics department makes sure to keep the identity of the person reporting confidential and conduct a thorough and fair investigation. Ethics body also ensures that an honestly raised concern over a misconduct of an employee should not be the reason for an adverse action against the employee who reported. Company vows to protect honest reporting but that does not mean that every concern raised will be taken as an honest report. Coca Cola ensures that any concern raised receives a fair and square investigation.
Coca Cola also encourages employees at all level to accurately post all business and financial transactions. For example, forging one's medical record or misrepresenting a sales figure is deemed as violation of code of business ethics and conducts. One of the main policies getting more and more important these days is the safeguarding of the confidential information of the company. Coca Cola as a company has lot of nonpublic information available to the employees or management. Employees and management should follow company code and policy while using that information. They should only use that information in official matters and within office premises if possible. They should destroy the information if required by the company policy when the need for that information is over. Management should also take utmost care in handling sensitive information like new products, R&D information and financial data.
Further, in compliance with the code of ethics and conduct of Coca Cola an employee cannot use sensitive information regarding the company for insider trading in the stock market. This is, in many countries, considered illegal and culpable as criminal offence. Coca Cola also provides clear guidance in its code of business ethics as how to operate business outside the company premises, what to do if any conflict of interest arises, how and under which circumstances one should accept gifts in business transactions and finally how to deal with important stakeholders like government, competitors and consumers.
Aside from all the ethical policies to be followed by the employees and the management, Coca Cola also maintains certain codes of conduct to be followed by the company itself in order to fulfill its ethical responsibility towards its employees. First and foremost, it protects its employees and their personal data with utmost care. It does not racially discriminate against any employee. It should also abide by all the contractual laws of the land in which it operates and the contract between the company and the employee.
Possible Improvement
The culture of honesty and ethical behavior is slowly building in Coca Cola. The company although promotes an open culture of raising concern but still lower level employees are not confident of raising an issue to higher authorities without fear. The environment, however, is fast changing. One thing Coca Cola can do is to create Ethics and Compliance division completely independent of the company management structure and this department then can directly report to shareholders or directors. In that way they can operate without any influence from the top management of the company and make decisions independently which is likely to be honest, impartial and lawful.
Conclusion
Coca Cola is a century old company and it is expected that it has a well-established ethical code of conduct in place. However, it is not the case. Coca Cola has beefed up its ethical practices in last two decades after a series of lawsuits faced by the company in many countries. The company did a very good job of putting a robust ethical structure in place. It covers almost all aspects. Starting from how the way employees should behave in conflicting situations to how the company should protect the confidential information of the employees, everything is covered in the code. The company is continuously trying to improve its ethical practices. Coca Cola has seen a slew of ethical complaints against it in last few decades and it is trying hard to uplift its image as a company which is clean, ethical and honest.
Works Cited
The Code of Business Ethics, The Coca Cola Company, Retrieved on 22nd May 2013 from <http://assets.coca-colacompany.com/45/59/f85d53a84ec597f74c754003450c/COBC_English.pdf>
Mission, Vision and Values, The Coca Cola Company, Retrieved on 22nd May, 2013 from <http://www.coca-colacompany.com/our-company/mission-vision-values>
Indian State Bans Pepsi and Coke, BBC News, (May, 2006), Retrieved on 22nd May, 2013 from <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4776623.stm>
"EU makes Coke throw open fridges." BBC. (June, 2005), Retrieved on 22nd May, 2013 from <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4119372.stm>
