Business Case Studies & Business Publications

The Coca-Cola Company

Hess, Edward D.

Case

The Coca-Cola Company

Hess, Edward D.

S-0145 | Published November 9, 2007 | 10 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Product Details

Coca-Cola was the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of nonalcoholic beverage syrups and concentrates, selling more than $24 billion of products in 2006 in more than 200 hundred countries. It became a high-growth company under Roberto Goizueta who was president and then chairman and CEO from 1980 until his death in 1997. Under Goizueta's leadership, Coca-Cola's market cap grew from $4.3 billion to $180 billion, but since his death, it had declined to under $115 billion, and for the first time in their long competition Pepsi-Cola had a larger market cap. Coca-Cola needs a blockbuster break-out growth idea to transform it and its culture and show Wall Street that not only is it not wedded to its legacy model but that it can be a growth company again.