Monday, July 07, 2008

Pesticide allegations, water depletion, unhealthy fi zz... and still he remains the king!

ATUL SINGH... President & CEO, Coke India
Pesticide allegations, water depletion, unhealthy fi zz... and still he remains the king!

First, the pesticide controversy poured in problems... Then followed the hit from a spurt in health consciouness. And finally came the assault of tumbling global profits... But then, amidst the turmoil, there stood an armour-clad general on the battle-ground, to slay or be slayed – its CEO & President Atul Singh. When Singh donned the CEO hat in September 2005, Coke’s market share was plummeting dangerously. Rival Pepsi already had diversified into the foods business & Coke had no blueprint as yet! Realising the urgency, within a year of joining, Singh did to Coke what none before had thought of – diversify into health (non-fizzy) foods & launched the energy drink, ‘Minute Maid’. From ads to CSR, Singh had to take up the tough task of cleansing Coke’s image tainted with pesticide and environmental issues & has done a great job at it as Anmol Dar, MD, Superbrands agrees, “Coke needed to improve it’s brand image & I think Atul has acted quickly to establish Coke as one of the most popular brands in Indian consumer minds...” Within two problemladen years of his joining Coke India, it is all set to reach breakeven & has also earned the tag of being the company’s best performing subsidiary, globally... He surely deserves a ‘Thums-up’, right?!

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)

No comments: