A ppt on business ethics

1. A CASE STUDY ON:
THE BUSINESS ETHICS
OF COCA-COLA
P R E S E N T E D B Y : A D I T Y A S I N G H
A M I T R A U T
F A R H A N S H A I K H
K S H I T I J S H E T T Y
T A N I K E T M A L I

2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• SWOT analysis
• History of Coca-Cola in India.
• Ethical practices
• Unethical practices.
1. Kala-Dera case.
2. Plachimada plant case.
• Solutions and recommendations.
• Conclusion
• References

3. INTRODUCTION
• The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage
corporation and manufacturer, retailer, and marketer of non-alcoholic
beverage concentrates and syrups, which is headquartered in Atlanta,
Georgia.
• The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola. In
May 1886, John Pemberton, who was a pharmacist from Atlanta,
Georgia, was the first founder of coca cola.
• Coca-Cola's Global Dominance The larger a company is, the harder it
is to continue to grow at a steady pace.
• This remains the major challenge facing the Coca-Cola Company.
Coca-cola produces more than 300 brands worldwide in addition to
its flagship brands, coke and diet coke.

4. SWOT ANALYSIS
Opportunities:
• Bottled water consumption
growth.
• Increasing demand for healthy
food and beverages.
• Growing beverages consumption
in emerging markets.
Threats:
• Changes in consumer tastes.
• Water scarcity.
• Competition from PepsiCo.
• Saturated carbonated drinks
market.
Weakness:
• Significant focus on carbonated
drinks.
• Undiversified product portfolio.
Negative publicity.
• Brand failures or many brands with
insignificant amount of revenues.
Strengths:
• The best global brand in the world
in terms of value.
• World's largest market share in
beverage.
• Strong marketing and advertising
Customer loyalty.

5. HISTORY OF COCA-COLA IN INDIA
• The Indian government forced Coca-Cola out of the country in 1977. The
company returned in 1993 and has maintained a strong presence since.
• The Coca-Cola system in India has already invested USD 2 Billion till
2011, since its re- entry into India.
• The company has reportedly invested another USD 5 Billion till the year
2020 The Coca-Cola system in India directly employs over 25,000 people
including those on contract.
• The system has created indirect employment for more than 1,50,000
people in related industries through its vast procurement, supply and
distribution system.

6. • Coca cola sales in India declined 11% in the third quarter of 2003 due to
allegations by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment
(CSE), which said the top 12 soft drink brands of PepsiCo and Coca-Cola
contained pesticides and insecticides in excess of the limits set by the
European Economic Commission (EEC).
• Over the years, the company has also been part of multiple controversies
regarding unethical use of water sources for their production plants.

7. ETHICAL PRACTICES OF COCA-COLA
• “Anandana- Coca-Cola India Foundation”, a Company registered under
Section 25 of the Companies' Act, is a wholly owned not for profit
charitable subsidiary of CCIPL.
• Anandana provides monetary grants and other assistance to civil society
organizations, cooperatives, philanthropic organizations and such others
who can be suitable partners in implementing projects of social welfare.
• The company also announced that it has harvested 5 times the water it
used using “rainwater harvesting”. However the company could not
back these claims with numbers.

8. UNETHICAL PRACTICES OF COCA-COLA
KALA-DERA CASE:
• Coca-Cola started its bottling operations in KalaDera in 2000.
• Within a year of operation, the community started to notice a
rapid decline in ground water levels.
• For farmers, loss of ground water translated directly into loss of
income.
• Many organizations and NGOs started protest against production
plant
• Two panchayat samitis – Amber and Govind garh - passed
unanimous resolutions demanding closure of the plant.

9. • The company, in usual fashion, denied any wrongdoing, blaming
"outsiders" for the increasing local community opposition.
• They claimed to have conducted an environmental study and found the
project safe to the village.

10. COCA-COLA’S RESPONSE:
UNETHICAL AND DISHONEST
• Took seven months to respond to the initial complaints.
• Coca-Cola did not respond to the concerns raised by the
protestors.
• The company conducted an unethical and dishonest campaign.
• Chose to continue operation despite the backlash.
• Continued production despite the misery of thousands of people.

11. PLACHIMADA PLANT CASE:
• Coca-Cola had set up a factory in the tribal village of “Plachimada” in
Kerala in 1999. The factory extracted huge quantities of groundwater for
its production.
• The groundwater level receded and was found to be contaminated by the
factory's operations, giving rise to health issues among the residents of
the village.
• The company sold the slurry and sludge waste as fertilizer to locals,
primarily engaged in farming, which was later found to contain
dangerous levels of toxic metals in a study conducted by University of
Exeter.

12. • Coca-Cola India executives, however, claimed that the fertilizer
was "good for crops", and they had scientific evidence proving its
safety.
• Eventually, locals mobilized under the banner 'Coca-Cola
Virudha Janakeeya Samara Samithy' and demanded that the
factory be closed and farmers be compensated.
• The company initiated legal action against the protestors, which
resulted in intimidation, arrests and false case being filed against
the protestors.
• They received support from neighbouring villages,
environmentalists, politicians, scientists, and several civil society
organizations.

13. • The plant was forced to stop production in March 2004.
• The cause of the farmers became international with a BBC investigatory
report and later in 2007 when college students in the United States ran a
nationwide campaign calling for a boycott of Coca-Cola.
• After a prolonged legal battle in Kerala High Court and then the
Supreme Court, Coca-Cola relinquished its license in July 2017 and stated
that it would not resume production in the plant.

14. SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
• Improving public relations.
• Enhanced communication with the Government.
• Focusing on Environmental Impact Assessment.
• Ethically sourcing water and other raw materials.
• Focusing more on Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR).

15. CONCLUSION
• With over 3000 products and more than 200 countries, the Coca-
Cola Company is surely a part of people's lives.
• The coca cola company owes its success to the people who do
their best to achieve the task in hand .
• Thus, the Coca- Cola company must take care of its employees to
return a creating a good working environment and working along
with union and government and agencies to make sure its
employees are safe.
• The Coca-Cola Company must understand its responsibility
towards the environment.

16. REFERENCES
• History of Coca-Cola:
https://medium.com/bc-digest/coca-cola-history-a6c55eb5dfe6
• KalaDera case:
https://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/people-semi-arid-rajasthan-
village-go-against-coke-giant
• Plachimada case :
https://web.archive.org/web/20211020030032/https://www.thehindu.c
om/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/water-wars-plachimada-vs-coca-
cola/article19284658.ece

17. THANK
YOU