ASSESSMENT PAPER

International Strategies and Organisational Structures for large multinationals

International Strategies and Organisational Structures for large multinationals

Introduction

With the removal of barriers to international trade, many firms in the past few decades have emerged as large multinational enterprises by pursuing global strategies for gaining a competitive advantage. Multinational companies of today produce products with variations, and market them around the world adapting to the local cultures and tastes. Companies go international for growth and expansion of business and by seeking new business opportunities and expanding the range of goods and services that they offer, they not only try to gain more profits but also acquire a competitive advantage that make them stay in today's fast paced market environment. Coca-Cola Company is one such enterprise that makes use of an international strategy and structures the operations accordingly to achieve the goals of the organisation and bring a competitive advantage to the company. The paper illustrates the manner in which the international strategies of Coca-Cola Company work in alignment with the organisational structure that serves to differentiate the company in the market place that it has acquired and in driving it to success. It also includes an illustration of the advantages and disadvantages of different international strategies and organisational structures for large multinational enterprises such as Coca-Cola, while the discussion would also include the relationship that structure and strategies have with each other.

An Overview of the Coca-Cola Company

Founded in 1886, the Coca-Cola Company has its headquarter in Atlanta, Georgia and is today the world's leading manufacturer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages. With more than 200 countries that it operates in, the subsidiaries of the company employ more than thirty thousand people over the world. 70% of the volume of the company and eighty per cent of the profit of the company comes from outside of the United States which suggests that it offers soft drink that are preferred in the world market. The company has despite competition, been able to maintain their position in the soft drink market over the years and the success is mainly attributed to being global by the former Chairman of the company, Douglas Ivester in the Annual Report of 1998 of the company.

The global soft drink market is dominated by three names i.e. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Cadbury-Schweppes. Of the three, Coca-Cola is far ahead in terms of the global value that is held by the companies claiming forty seven per cent of the global market and is followed by PepsiCo with 21% of value claimed in the global market. The company is recognised all over the world with its core brand Coca-Cola leading the sales for the company (Vrontis & Sharp, 2003, p. 291). Apart from Coca-Cola, it markets three other world's top brands Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite.

The achievement of global success is also at times attributed to the manner in which the company operates i.e. in order to think globally, it also acts locally. This means that the company provides products that are according ...