Our strategy is centered around people—our consumers and employees— and driving sustainable solutions that build resilience into our business to respond to current and future challenges while creating positive change for the planet
With Gorica Stojkovic, General Manager for Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia at the Coca-Cola Company, we discussed how continuous learning could improve business, the company’s business models and future goals, as well as the importance of sustainability in this challenging environment.
What are the key ingredients in Coca-Cola’s strategy for building a better, shared future?
Coca-Cola has a long history of investing in the communities where we do business, not just through the economic activity our business generates. Our flagship brand has a proud heritage of promoting equity and inclusion across borders through its marketing and sponsorships, which remains at the heart of how we take our brands to market today. We aim to contribute to a better future by investing to improve people’s lives, from our employees to all those who touch our business system, to the communities around the world where we operate.
We believe there are three key ingredients needed to build a better future. First, Innovation is crucial for developing solutions to the social and environmental challenges we face. Second, Inclusion ensures that everyone can participate fully in society. Third, Inspiration creates a sense of hope that a better future is possible and stimulates positive action. Our corporate social impact strategy aims to invest in these three areas to contribute to a greater time to come for our employees, our value chain, our consumers, and our communities.
How does Coca-Cola leverage its global workforce to drive collective impact and foster a culture of inclusivity and growth?
Worldwide, Coca-Cola is dedicated to aligning priorities and driving impactful change through collective efforts. Our global workforce is pivotal to our success, as we collaborate across our extensive network to unleash the strength of our high-performing system. By leveraging our diverse talent, we consistently achieve outstanding results and embrace transparency in both our successes and challenges. As an employer of choice, we celebrate diversity and champion inclusivity, fostering an environment where individuals can flourish and develop based on their unique attributes. Our people are at the core of our power, working together across our network to bring our high-performing system to life. We unite diverse talents to achieve great outcomes and are prepared to share both our victories and our setbacks. This approach creates an environment where people grow and thrive, building on their personalities.
Worldwide, Coca-Cola is dedicated to aligning priorities and driving impactful change through collective efforts
How much do macroeconomic influences affect your business and growth strategy?
Our strategy is centered around people—our consumers and employees— and driving sustainable solutions that build resilience into our business to respond to current and future challenges, while creating positive change for the planet. But, despite all of the challenges in past years, we leveraged the crisis as a catalyst to accelerate the business transformation that was already underway. And we did that because through it all we stayed clear on our purpose – which is to Refresh the World and Make a Difference. We kept this front and center because it allowed us in the early years to re-orient our business and drive ourselves forward, and it allowed us to manage through the pandemic. And today, we remain rooted in that strategy, and continue to strive toward driving the topline and generating returns. We identified key objectives to propel us to a growth trajectory – win more consumers, gain share, maintain strong system economics, strengthen our impact across our stakeholders, and equip our organization to win in the future. These remain our north stars as we continue to navigate the uncertain microenvironment ahead in the near term.
What do you consider crucial for achieving sustainable growth of a company?
Together with our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people. We are a total beverage company with products sold in more than 200 countries and territories. We seek to positively impact people’s lives, communities, and the planet and we prioritize sustainable operations and community engagement. We know climate change is the defining challenge of our time and we want to play our part in addressing it and contributing to a solution. Our ambition is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 No matter how much our business grows, our emissions must be reduced. We have set an interim target to reduce absolute emissions by 25% by 2030 against a 2015 baseline. Several of our bottling partners have announced their science-based targets and net zero pledges to drive climate action across the global Coca-Cola system.
How does Coca-Cola adapt to evolving consumer needs and market trends?
As a total beverage company, we focus on our consumers, and their evolving needs, and adapt alongside them. We’ve curated a targeted portfolio emphasizing cutting-edge excellence in ingredients, innovation, design, experiences, and marketing. This includes driving the most radical marketing transformation in our history, shifting from broadcast TV ads to digital-first engagement. By combining partnerships, technology, and consumer passions, we create unforgettable experiences in music, gaming, and sports. As we grow, we continue to market all our drinks responsibly, reformulate products, and offer various pack sizes to help consumers manage their added sugar intake. Aligned with our core values, our growth strategy prioritizes social and environmental responsibility.
Our plans are centered on our commitment to sustainable development.
What are the future Company goals?
Our plans are centered on our commitment to sustainable development. We have set ambitious sustainability targets for our System business, in all business-relevant areas: portfolio, water, packaging, climate, agriculture, people, and communities. Water is essential to every person and every ecosystem, and it is also the main ingredient in all our products. We continue to challenge ourselves to return to nature with more water than we use in our finished beverages. As part of our World Without Waste strategy we have committed to collecting one bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030, and we foster packaging waste collection initiatives with local municipalities. We will ensure that our growth is profitable and sustainable by driving circularity, minimizing waste, and reducing our packaging footprint, all of which help in supporting our net zero ambition.