Business Strategies for Sustaining Competitive Advantage

Discuss about the Organization Development for Sustaining Competitive Advantage.

Lessons learned from the study of the Coca-Cola Company is numerous. The greatest lesson is the ability of business to take the risk. The business environment is full of risks and success depends on the strategies that the management uses to avoid losses. Companies must take risks to be successful, and they may include a venture into new markets and countries just like Coca-Cola Company. Challenges to business are inevitable, but companies must formulate remedies to avoid loss-making. The decision or step taken after a problem defines the success or failure of the firm. Decision making in businesses must be done through the involvement of all the shareholders to enable adoption of the best decisions. All the shareholders in a company are equally important and contribute the success of a firm. Therefore, the management must put into consideration the welfare of all workers for the success of the businesses (Baron, and Spulber, 2017).     

Stakeholders involved in business with the aim of making profits. The benefits are realized through high sales which increases the profit margin of the firm. Therefore, through this, the business is ensured the continued existence in the market despite the intense competition. Managers are the people who oversee the execution of trade duties on behalf of owners. They must consult them when making business decisions to get advice and ensure they make a decision which conforms to their goals and objectives (Cavusgil, et al., 2014). It is illegal for managers to make decisions without consultation, they should also act in the utmost good faith of the owners. Entrepreneurs’ globally have increased, and these have led to increasing competition among businesses. However, competition is inevitable for companies. Therefore, management must look for strategies to ensure they remain competitive in the market. Having a competitive edge over competitors in the market is not easy but guarantees the survival of the business in the market hence very essential (Barney, 2014).

Strategies that can be used by firms to be competitive include involvement in foreign direct investment. These are the ability of a company to sell goods and services in foreign countries in the aim of attracting more potential buyers to its products. The firm can also use the ‘blue Ocean’ strategy which is the ability to find blue ocean areas which have no competition. Their areas have no other suppliers of goods and services, and thus firm has sole existence on the market. Through these, it attracts the whole population to consume or buy its products and services. Diversification of companies’ products can also be a way of attracting more customers. Through this act, the company can make products that meet the needs of the customers. These strategies are aimed at increasing the profit margin of the companies hence making them competitive in the market (Cheptegei, and Yabs, 2016, pp.71-85).

Importance of Organization Development

Organization development is used by a firm to ensure that it is successful in the market. The company carries team development to check the problems it faces and try to look for ways to conduct business and increase its sales. Growth and development of business need consideration of many factors in the market. Managers oversee organization development of firms to ensure achievement of its goals and objectives. Problems arising in business must be tackled early to avoid wastage of resources which can lead to failure of the firm. Organization development aims at improving the performance of the enterprise by use of activities and proactive techniques by the managers. Therefore, this report will focus on Coca-Cola Company and check how it has carried out organization development and its merits to the firm (Falkheimer, 2014, pp.124-133).

Organization development of a business involves various steps that must be observed to ensure it fulfills its targets to the company. These measures include involvement of all the people in the organization during the decision-making process. The managers must consult all the shareholders before making decisions to ensure all accept them. Also eliminating hierarchical decision-making can give managers more information which may be useful in the decision-making process. The organization is made of different groups which are referred to departments and therefore managers must concentrate on teams to be able to know the changes the department need to perform better. Trust is important to all the shareholders in the business. These will make all parties perform well hence the success of the organization (Mabogunje, 2015). 

The departments in the organization have a duty of working in collaboration and not in competition. These will ensure that all the staff works towards the overall objective of the firm. Therefore, managers must help reduce these unnecessary competition departments. Employees are the people who are involved in the execution of the activities in the company. Management must invest in them to ensure better adoption of organization development leading to its success. Investing in workers involves mentoring, training through education opportunities, better remuneration and provision of the necessary tools they need. The firm must also include the employee’s indirect participation in the organization development to make it successful.

Finally, the firm must have control measures and strategic interventions to adapt to the changes that are expected to the team for better performance. Coca-Cola Company has done research and used almost all the above steps to ensure organizational development in the firm thus increasing its sales volume. The company has made changes in the employment, investment techniques, and changes in production among many other areas (Burke, and Noumair, 2015). 

Coca-Cola Company: A Case Study

Coca-Cola is a multinational corporation having branches in many different countries. It is the largest beverage company offering over 500 brands in more than 200 countries globally. The company greatest competitor is PepsiCo which offer same products which are packaged and branded differently. Due to the high competition, the company has carried several changes to enable it to remain the market leader in the market. The company has engaged in more foreign investments, differentiation of its products, a broad selection of employees, etc. foreign direct investment of Coca-Cola Company has led to increasing in the market of the firm’s products, these have also enabled the firm get ‘blue oceans’ thus increasing its profit margin (Kim, and Mauborgne, 2014).

 These changes by the company have been adopted by intensive research to ensure that the firm does not incur losses when it engages in the new changes. The factors which have led to the success of these changes are the willingness of all the shareholders to initiate the changes. The management of the company has succeeded in uniting all the employees and department towards a common goal making success inevitable. Selection of employees from the global pool has enabled the firm to be able to get the most skilled for better execution of its duties.

Coca-Cola also caters for all the needs of its customers by making products that satisfy their needs entirely. The company has been involved in innovations which help to attract more customers to purchase its products. Some of the company’s products are Dasani water, Coca-Cola drink, Fanta, Sprite, Smart Water, coke-zero. Among the products, the company has started producing products which have less sugar to cater for the health conditions of people who do not use sugary consumer goods (Kim, and Mauborgne, 2017).

Conclusion

The company success in the changes it has made to improve its performance globally has been due to the management styles of the managers. It has made all the changes through research hence reducing mistakes which could have reduced the firm’s profits. Challenges of the business include competition. The beverage industry has many competitors hence making Coca-Cola Company face significant competition. Government policies in the foreign nations pose a great challenge to the firm. Unfavorable policies such as high taxation; quotas lead to failure of the external branch of the enterprise. Intensive research has enabled early identification of challenges in early stages hence making the management look for ways to mitigate them.

Business success is defined by the strategies that the management and other shareholder use to have a competitive edge over their competitors in the market. Stakeholders must employ creative and innovative managers who can propel the businesses to higher heights. However, if a firm makes mistakes leading to loss, it should find ways to recover. Coca-Cola company is a market leader, but the competition is high thus managers must do research and use the latest technology to ensure they remain attractive to a large customer base. The company has had significant expansion over the years, and the management must be careful and ensure the branches make profits and not losses (Baldwin, and Scott, 2013).

References

Baldwin, W. and Scott, J., 2013. Market structure and technological change (Vol. 18). Taylor & Francis.

Barney, J.B., 2014. Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Pearson Higher Ed.

Baron, J. and Spulber, D.F., 2017. The Effect of Technological Change on Firm Survival and Growth-Evidence from Technology Standards.

Burke, W.W. and Noumair, D.A., 2015. Organization development: A process of learning and changing. FT Press.

Cavusgil, S.T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J.R., Rammal, H.G. and Rose, E.L., 2014. International business. Pearson Australia.

Cheptegei, D.K. and Yabs, J., 2016. FOREIGN MARKET ENTRY STRATEGIES USED BY MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN KENYA: A CASE OF COCA COLA KENYA LTD. European Journal of Business and Strategic Management, 1(2), pp.71-85.

Falkheimer, J., 2014. The power of strategic communication in organizational development. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 6(2/3), pp.124-133.

Freedman, A.M., 2016. The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of the psychology of leadership, change and organizational development. John Wiley & Sons.

Kim, W.C. and Mauborgne, R.A., 2014. Blue ocean strategy, expanded edition: How to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard business review Press.

Kim, W.C. and Mauborgne, R.A., 2017. Blue Ocean Leadership (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Review Press.

Mabogunje, A., 2015. The development process: A spatial perspective (Vol. 14). Routledge.

Wang, M., 2015. Brief Analysis of Sports Marketing Strategy Adopted by Coca Cola Company. Asian Social Science, 11(23), p.22.