Coke defines itself

Neville Hobson points to an ambitious initiative by Coca-Cola around its Mission, Vision and Values.

The information comes from an article in the Dutch magazine Brisk and features comments from the Coke's head of HR (Orlando Ashford, formerly of Motorola)

According to the article (actually according to Neville's interpretation of the article, I am trusting him here because I can't translate Ducth)

"Coca-Cola’s top 150 managers met last year and decided on the seven principles which describe Coca-Cola’s culture." (from Neville's post)

These principles are captured in the company's Manifesto for Growth and include the Mission and Vision and Values.

The last line of the Manifesto sums it all up: "It is who we are."

Now the company is launching an employee blog, which will examine one of the principles each day for a week. The focus seems to be on how to bring the ideals to life.

Ashland says (again, Neville's translation):
"Now we need to make these principles tangible. Take such a term as responsibility. What does it mean in practice? I would say: look not only to your own work, but consider how you can help Coca-Cola grow outside your own task description. Now it is up to the people of Coca-Cola to present their views."

He also adds that he wants to particularly see management participate in the blogging.

It seems that Coke gets it, or at least Orlando Ashford does. 

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Technorati Tags: values, Coke, Coca-Cola, employees, blogs, mission, vision, Neville

Comments

[Neville Hobson]

>> ...actually according to Neville's interpretation of the article, I am trusting him here because I can't translate Ducth <<

Well said, Jeffrey. You're the first blogger to make this key point. I'm pretty confident about my translation. Put it this way - no one in the Dutch-speaking blogging community here has pointed out any massive mistakes.

No 'lost in translation,' so to speak ;)

[Robert Cenek]

I too think that this is a giant step forward for using this particular cyber-medium for organizational change-related communications.

It's a great way to facilitate dialogue and understanding within an organization.

Incidentally, my apologies... I drafted a similar entry at my weblog....sorry did'nt realize that you had covered this as well.

Robert Cenek
www.cenekreport.com

[Jeffrey Treem]

No worries Robert, the more people talking about an issue, the better.

I really like your analysis of how these mediums in part push senior management to communicate more openly, quickly and interactively (not sure if that is a word) during organizational change.

Using blogs brings about an issue of accountability in terms of the fact that senior management will be expected to comment on organizational issues. However, this is probably more of a long-term positive than it is a liability.

Cheers,
Jeffrey

[Mark Pelletier]

My experience with Coca-Cola is included om the website submitted.