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Communities of Leadership: Muhtar Kent’s Coca-Cola and Indra Nooyi’s Pepsico
2 Comments · Posted by Scott in Case Studies
In Interbrand’s ranking of the world’s most valuable brands, Coca-Cola comes number one, with a brand value estimated at $68 billion dollars. Pepsi as a brand is a bit down the last at number 23 and a brand value of $13.7 billion. However, together these two fierce rivals – The Coca-Cola Company and Pepsico – dominate the global market for bottled nonalcoholic drinks. That is Coke’s sole business; Pepsi is also massive in the market for snacks foods.
In Forbes’ top 200o public companies list, Coke showed sales of $30.99 billion, profits of $6.82 billion, and a market value of $122.79 billion. Pepsico showed sales of $43.23 billion, profits of $5.95 billion, and a market value of $99.58 billion.
I want to consider these two as Communities of Leadership for a couple of reasons. Bottled drinks (and packaged snacks) are a part of daily life all over the world. These companies, among the earliest and most prominent multinationals, are at the forefront of global brand management. As their products are sold in small packages at low prices, they are accessible on a very common basis to literally billions of people all over the world. Huge numbers of people see their favourite soft drink, juice, or bottled water as a little moment of enjoyment and refreshment. Coke claims to sell its products in 2oo countries worldwide, and estimates that its products are consumed 1.6 billion times each day. The two companies see themselves as providing pleasure, refreshment, enjoyment and satisfaction to people globally. As a result, they are great case studies for the evolution of global consumer brand-management companies in a globalizing world.
At the same time, there is increasing focus on the fact that classic fizzy drinks and salty snacks don’t do much for people’s health. Even bottled water has come under fire for being environmentally destructive compared to just drinking tapwater in many locations. Aware of these ideas, and seeking to act constructively while meeting consumer demands and protecting the value of their businesses, both companies are focusing on rolling out healthier products and promoting sustainability. It will be intriguing to watch how these initiatives develop and reshape the companies’ businesses, and how consumers and the public respond as they do.
Finally, both companies, though founded and headquartered in the U.S., are led by CEOs representing moves to more diverse leadership. Pepsico’s CEO is Indra Nooyi, Indian-born and woman. Coke’s CEO is Muhtar Kent, born in the U.S. of Turkish parents. He left Coke to run a large Turkish-based beverages company before returning to Coke in a senior roles and ultimately being named CEO. Both companies offer case studies in the potential internationalisation of the leadership of large “Western”-based multinationals. Pepsico demonstrates a particular step forward in diversity of leadership because it is led by an Indian-born woman. Personally, I see increasing leadership diversity as a necessary and important advance, and I would like to follow the progress of the trend.
The growing list of Interesting Communities of Leadership is athttp://lovingwork.org/interesting-communities-of-leadership
Scott is scott@lovingwork.org and @scottdowns3 on Twitter.
Coca-Cola · culture · customers · diversity · emerging markets · leadership · Pepsico · sustainability · women
property_info · July 24, 2010 at 10:39 pm
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