The Enemy Within

Success can breed complacency and a sense of invincibility. Success can be its own worst enemy. In the business world there are many successful companies. Trying to sustain the success for decades on end is quite challenging. When you’re on the top you become the hunted.

Coca Cola is one of the most popular brands the world has ever known. It has been so widely successful over the years that one sometimes wonders where else it has to go. Yet it has great competitors who are also successful most notably Pepsi. There is the continuous war of who will be number one.

Muhtar Kent who is the chairman of the board and CEO realized that Coca Cola’s greatest enemy is itself. After all its successes he sees the company as having become arrogant and inward looking.  He began making changes when he took over 2008. He has set a long term target of doubling revenue by 2020.

While many have viewed the U.S. market as being mature Kent sees it as a growth market. He points to the fact that the demographics of the U.S. show it will have less of an aging population than Europe and Japan.  What he is also driving home every day to the company’s large number of employees is to be constructively discontent. 

Business executives who make it to the top are also known to have large egos. For Kent he sees that arrogance is a key weakness of the company and this inward looking culture must be changed. It’s like asking his employee to deflate their ego and pride about being Coca Cola employees; a very innovative and challenging approach to lead the company to greater heights.