Introduction: the Coca Cola Co. has been highly successful in the soft drink industry segment due to its continuing market dominance. Particularly in the US, recent trends over sugar consumption, obesity, and other health-related problems have made the company to reposition its main brands and products to make the company less dependent from its main brand: the Coca Cola drink.

What will be your task?

A) You will need to review the company information as presented in the following links:

·     

https://www.coca-colacompany.com/company

·     

https://www.coca-colacompany.com/company/coca-cola-system

·     

https://investors.coca-colacompany.com/strategy

·     

https://investors.coca-colacompany.com/financial-information

B) Please revisit the following Textbook Chapters assigned in the course

· Chapter 3: 

Chapter 3: Evaluating the External Environment

· Chapter 4: 

Chapter 4: Managing Firm Resources

· Chapter 5: 

Chapter 5: Selecting Business-Level Strategies

· Chapter 8: 

Chapter 8: Selecting Corporate-Level Strategies

C) After reviewing the company information and the associated textbook concepts, you will need to prepare answers to the following questions

Question #1  The Coca Cola Company has been using a broad differentiation strategy to compete in the American soft drink industry for the last decades. Despite the stagnant growth in the industry, its leading brand, Coke, remains the market leader and it can be considered as a cash cow for the company. Please do the following

    a) Discuss Porter’s Five Forces Model to analyze the Soft Drink Industry in the United States as the Coca Cola Co is an important player in this industry segment

     b) Given the analysis at the industry level, please provide a summary to determine if the industry still possesses opportunities that the Coca Cola Company can use to develop new strategic actions in the short-term.

 Question #2 Using the information about the current strategy of the company (see link: 
https://investors.coca-colacompany.com/strategy
) Please provide a critique about the strategy in the following aspects

a) What the company is currently doing to remain competitive in the market?

b)  How the strategy is useful to successfully compete against Pepsi Cola? (see link: 

https://www.pepsico.com/about/mission-and-vision

)

 Question #3 Corporate level strategy implies the notion of creating value by deciding in which businesses a company may compete.  Companies can engage in diversification efforts by different means and the Coca Cola Co. has very low levels of diversification compare to other industry rivals (e.g. Nestle, Pepsi-Frito Lay, etc.). However, company executives have always expressed their vision to imitate actions and strategies pursued by Pepsi Co, its main and direct rival. Given this information, please do the following:

a) Propose a Diversification Effort to the Coca Cola Co. that is coherent with its current strategy

b) Provide a set of convincing arguments to support your proposal.

You must submit your answers in the Repository that will be available from April 16-26 @1159 PM CST 

General Submission Instructions

A) It is expected a minimum of 1-page and a maximum of 3 pages (Single Space, 12 size font) to answer each one of the 3 questions.

B) Please treat each answer separately – as a minimum try to leave space between each answer and number them as #1, #2, #3 with its corresponding A) and B) so the instructor can grade each question separately. Otherwise, you will be penalized for not organizing your answers properly.

C) Please only use the links provided to research about the company and minimize direct citations or definitions of the different strategic concepts. Instead, focus more on developing your own arguments to answer the questions. In the event that you need to stronger your arguments with the use of outside sources, these must be credible (put differently: avoid essay milling sites; blogs; or unreliable sources).

D) You must be organized in your answers. For example, write in short paragraphs, know how to combine short paragraphs with bullet points; use of main headers, sub-headers; and correct spelling and punctuation.

E) You can submit your answers in ONE document that can be saved as a Microsoft Word or as a PDF- you are free to place a cover page or place your name in the first page.

 How Assignment will be graded?

 Question 1 = 30 points

· 5 points = Answer organization

· 5 points = Business Knowledge

· 5 points = Application of Materials

· 15 points = Student Position and Quality of Answer

 Question 2 = 30 points

· 5 points = Answer organization
· 5 points = Business Knowledge
· 5 points = Application of Materials
· 15 points = Student Position and Quality of Answer

Question 3 = 40 points

· 5 points = Answer organization
· 5 points = Business Knowledge
· 5 points = Application of Materials

· 25 points =  Student Position and Quality of Answer