resigned at a board
of directors meeting. Speculation
has it that board
members Warren
Buffett and
Herbert Allen
forced Ivester’s
hand to resign.
In 2000, Coca-
Cola named Doug
Daft CEO and he
quickly came to a
settlement in the
discrimination
case. But he was
unable to turn
around the many
other problems the
global enterprise
was facing. Coke’s
stock price had
fallen from as high
as $88 in 1998 to
the $50 range
when Daft came
on board. France
had blocked Coke’s
$733-million bid
to buy Orangina drink products and Italy was
fining Coke $16 million for market-
dominance abuse.
Alexis Herman, Coca-Cola
task-force chair, former Secretary
of Labor to President Clinton.
“My history with The Coca-Cola
Co. goes back to 1972. I came to
Atlanta to work with Ray
Marshall, President Jimmy
Carter’s secretary of labor. Title
7 had just passed and we wanted to see if any companies had
made any progress with hiring
African Americans and women
… I got the first black-woman
chemist hired at The Coca-Cola
Co. in 1972.”
To make matters worse, Daft’s deal to pur-
chase Gatorade-maker Quaker Oats was a public failure resulting in a win for No. 1 rival
PepsiCo. By the end of 2000, analysts were
bleak on their outlook for Coca-Cola’s earnings.
Also, the court-appointed task force delivered a less-than-rosy report in 2003. Led by
Alexis Herman, former Secretary of Labor
under President Clinton, the task force found
that “Considerable progress, in fact, was made
in implementation in some areas. Yet, the
Company was not able to implement several
key programs because personnel and resources
were focused on a massive restructuring effort
and other matters.” This restructuring resulted
in the loss of approximately 800 jobs. In addition, there was a lawsuit by a former employee
alleging accounting irregularities, and a financial settlement with a major distributor that
occurred from 2002 to 2003. These contributed to “a more critical perception of the
Company than last year among all employee
groups regarding the Company and its senior
leadership,” the report stated.
Leadership Change
To no surprise, in 2004, Daft’s short tenure
ended. Current Chairman and CEO E. Neville
Isdell took the baton. “When I first met with
the task force, it was a very uneasy meeting
because all the challenges were ‘Where are you
in this measure? Where are you in that measure?’ To me, there was a bigger issue here—the
issue was where were we more broadly and cul-
The Ingredients for Coca-Cola’s Success discrimination lawsuit in history, partly
because of the task force itself,” says
1) Engaging employees through the best they can be Mehri. “To keep the task force for
“Manifesto for Growth” Portfolio - bringing to the world a port- another year was one of the strongest
“The Manifesto was written not by me, folio of beverage brands that anticipate moves to get Coca-Cola on a sustainable
not by six people in a darkened room, and satisfy people’s desires and needs track as a leader for diversity.”
not by a whole lot of consultants—it was Partners - nurturing a winning net- 3) Tying diversity to their business
written by the top 150 managers,” notes work of partners and building loyalty case through the “Manifesto for
Isdell. Planet - being a responsible global cit- Growth” Herman stated in the task
The basic principles of the Manifesto izen that makes a difference force’s final report: “We believe for the
are the 5 P’s: 2) The extension of the task force first time that the company really is
Profit – maximizing return to share- In 2005, Isdell decided to voluntarily tying this effort to the business, and it
holders while being mindful of overall extend the monitoring of the task force recognizes that you cannot separate the
responsibilities for a fifth year, which officially ended whole question of inclusion and people
People - being a great place to work Dec. 1. “This will go down in history as practices and diversity from the growth
where people are inspired to be the the most far-reaching employee- and the future of the company.”
