XXXXXXXXXXThe Coca-Cola Company Struggles with Ethical Crises s one of the most valuable brand names worldwide, Coca-Cola has generally excelled as an susiness over its long history. However, in...

Introduction:
Corporate reputation refers to that aspect of an intangible commodity which firms earn by way of
their performance and their products. This aspect shows how a company can rally the support of
all internal and external stakeholders so as to keep intact the competitive asset.
1. The corporate reputation of Coca cola was at stake. The series of issues whim shook the
corporate giant created serious dents in the image of the company. The recu
ing reputation crisis
which coca cola was going through had to be rallied and resuscitated and hence the soft drink
giant has to reassuge its image in the stakeholder’s vision. There they were serious allegations
against the firm. There was also public outcry that the drink contained dangerous levels of
pesticide residues which cause health hazard. Another issue was that the company using too
much of water in bottling plants depriving village of drinking water. It was also affecting the
supplies of drinking water and water for i
igation, worsening water conditions around its
ottling plants, which found an alarming increase in pollution. Stakeholders were concerned
about this public outcry about the indent in reputation for the giant and wanted coco cola to
edress this grievance somehow. Coco cola was not much impressed with the residuals found as
they thought that it was instigated by people. The company had to sustain its business interest
which was solely concerned with water and so they needed the water to make the product, was
the stand of the CEO. The stakeholders wanted Coco Cola to undertake water management study
and surveying its global operations and make genuine changes in the manner in which Coca-Cola
does business in India. Their expectations differ from the company's performance because the
company would reduce the use of water by running operations and would discharge water used


to support the aquatic life where the local authorities unable to do so. Finally the conclusion
would be that Coca-Cola's should increase public relations, under the guise of Social
Responsibility, to respond to the crisis that Coca-Cola has created in India and to regain the
confidence of the people by providing proper measures. Global operations were muddled in huge
litigation suits and consumer interest groups. Corporate reputation has serious concerns about
eviving the image of the firm in the social responsibility charters of the company.
1. Corporate reputation creates the confidence that the firm delivers value for the products.
2. It is following the mission and vision statement and hence is able to deliver to the community
what it has promised in terms of strategy and alignments of organizational goals.
3. The nature vs. nurture concept of corporate responsibility helps in creating the reputation of
eing a honest citizen and a good corporate citizen.
4. Corporate reputation builds in them minds of the investors and governance that, every material
aspect of operations has been disclosed and the firm is corporate and ethical in its functioning.
This automatically builds in the good will and the
and consciousness about the working of the
company.
5. Organizational performance does not become a heap of processes on paper but actual
implemented processes signifying the stature of the company.
6. Socail responsibility charters are not just for identifying the company as a well favored one
ut as an organization that is really committed to community initiatives.
7. Corporate reputation shows how important it is to
ing in the visibility into operations so that
the interest of every stakeholder is met and the purpose for the firm coming into existence is not
for profits alone. This is the greatest strength of the firm.


Different stakeholders have different ways of assessing corporate reputation though macro
functioning of corporate reputation across all stakeholders remains the same. The firm should be
able to deliver its promises and work responsibility keep intact its vision and goal setting
exercise aligned to external and internal environment.
Corporate reputation as envisaged by government, regulators and compliance:
The stakeholders want that firms act responsibility and commitment to the environment by
engaging itself in a variety of corporate social responsibility charters and taking part in many
issues related to community development. The firm should use the highest standards of integrity
in using its material financial disclosures and not be particularly
Shareholders, creditors and vendors:
They believe that dealing with a company of the size ofg Coca cola is definitely a status symbol
and they would like to be recognized as being part of the supply chain . The shareholders are
proud to be owners of a well reputed company. Stakeholders are very importantly associated
with the reputation of the firm because it creates a sort of well being in the shareholders to own
stock of a good company. A good and well reputed company means good credit rating and good
principles of ethical behavior and great standards, everyone wants to be associated with such a
firm.( MacMillan et al. (2004))
Employees and internal relationships between franchisees and other decision makers:
These are very important stakeholders and their view that the firms is a great place to work in
and the firm continuously requires that the employees be compensated with bench mark
compensation benefits and it has taken the best care of them, will create a healthy reputation .the
firm has one of the best policies on health insurance for its employees, the best of retirement
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journal/v10/n4/full/1550057a.html#bib31


plans and of course compensation and appraisals are considered to be the best in the industry.
These keep up the reputation of the firm and help in creating standards. The workplace diversity
in Coca cola is also one of the best. Transparent hiring practices, continuous scope for enabling
promotions and work life balance create the reputation as one of the most admired employers in
the world. Franchisees and distributors of the company know that they would get their payments
on time and there is no going back on credit periods. This further strengthens the image of the
company.
Hence every stakeholder is concerned about the reputation of the company and thru firm will
have to keep up to this with great respect and regard. Coca cola has been involved in so many
issues that the corporate reputation has been slowly dented and this has resulted in steep
downslides in stock prices and the management at Coca cola is trying hard to
ing back the
eputation that the company has lost through new strategies.


2. Strategic steps to remedy the concerns of the stakeholders concerning the firm:
The steps that the firm has to take to repair the damage created to it needs a strategic overview of
past performance in almost all its functional areas especially the media reports reading
contamination. Though there was a withdrawal of all coca cola bottles from the market and
investigations cleared all doubts from customers and governments, still there is a huge damage
done to the image. Hence the product will have to be slowly
ought back to being the largest
consumer drink by introducing new products like Crispade. The firm has to take very important
damage sustaining measures to
ing up the image of the company. The strategy that coca cola
utilized to
ing back its lost reputation was applying the ethical responsibility beliefs of

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