STARTEGIC MANAGEMENT

Strategic Planning at Coca-Cola

Strategic Planning at Coca-Cola

Introduction

Strategic management is a significant concept today for the multinational corporation. To determine the extent to which it supports the business, this paper focuses on Coca Cola's strategic direction and the use of strategies to a successful business environment. The secondary research is used by an analysis and interpretation of the literature, and deduction of the findings. It is found that the Coca Cola's strategic success lies in a well formulated strategy, its implementation and evaluation. It can be said that the success is from the brand attachment instead of the product itself and this attachment has been a result of long term commitment of the company to the consumer preferences and a best use of the strategic tools throughout the product lifecycle.

Business Economics

Strategic management is a process of information and decision-making (assisted scheduling, organization and control), which aims to resolve the key problems of the business, its survival and development with particular emphasis on environmental impacts and the company's own factors of production potential (Polk,2009,61-78). It is a holistic approach, which in the face of environmental turbulence tends to counteract the negative external trends and find an effective competitive advantage ensuring the survival of the objectives of the company. The multinational organizations established for an indefinite period have their own purpose, regardless of mission or purpose for which they are created - as long as they survive in a changing environment (Polk, 2009, 61-78). From the perspective of the organization, it sees itself as an entity that creates value for its social partners (stakeholders) and relate these values to other values (e.g., resources, social acceptance) necessary for its survival and development. In addition, most business organizations, and many social organizations operate under the open market in competition with other entities (Collis, 2009, 49-68).

In business as in war, the aim of the strategy is put forward the most favourable conditions, judging the right moment to attack or retreat and always evaluating correctly the boundaries of combat. Sun Tzu, in his book The Art of War says:"General strategies should be sure to exploit the situation to their advantage, as circumstances require. It is not linked to specific procedures."

It is not uncommon to find managers who focus their strategic thinking, adjusting the phenomena and events of the real market scenarios to a linear model, which is a step by step method. Probably due to cling to systems theory where the parties are mutually dependent variables, one may also find others who believe that the success of the strategy is a matter of luck or inspiration and there are also those who begin the process with preconceived ideas that completely restrict creative solutions (Collis, 2009, 49-68). The starting point of strategic thinking is to understand that the human brain, which is the tool that we use in the process, not based on linear thinking (Clegg, 2007, 78-81).

The second is to accept that the recipe for success in the implementation of the strategy is to ...