Coca-Cola Managing Diversity

MANAGING DIVERSITY

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BY: VIVIANA SALGADO MOLINA

CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT

PROFESSOR: LUIS TORO DUPOUY

EAE BUSINESS SCHOOL

I. INTRODUCTION

"Our rich diversity…is our collective strength." (UNESCO, Johannesburg Declaration, 2002).

According to the UNESCO; "As groups of people worked and lived together, they

developed distinctive cultures. Together the cultures of the world create a rich and varied

tapestry. The resulting cultural diversity expands choices, nurtures a variety of skills, human

values and worldviews and provides wisdom from the past to inform the future."

Cultural diversity can bring a huge amount of positive elements such as adaptability,

innovation, dynamism, commitment, knowledge, experience, etc. Nowadays, the

immigration of people around the world is inevitable, and as a consequence the whole

world is exchanging all kind of characteristics between different cultures and nationalities.

Due to people from different countries working for multinational corporations, these firms

have access to a large cultural diversity what significantly improves their strategies by taking

into account country specific aspects while launching a product.

In this paper we are going to analyze COCA-COLA COMPANY. Through this analysis

we will be able to know deeply the cultural diversity of the company and the way they are

managing it in order to use this characteristic as strength and not as a weakness.

Nowadays, the world understands the challenge that cultural diversity significates for

business and international companies. Cultural diversity is becoming an important factor in

the operational strategies because it plays an essential role in the perception of the brand

and the strategies used for the companies to commercialize the products and be successful

in the global market.

II. COCA COLA COMPANY

The Coca-Cola Company is a multinational corporation engaged in the production of

beverages. Considered one of the largest U.S. corporations and well-known...