That’s no exaggeration; Coca-Cola can certainly lay proud claim to being one of the best-known brands in the world.
To drive this brand forward, the company seeks people with tremendous passion. This is particularly important for the South African operation, where the company’s business revolve around marketing, and employees are therefore required to function as brand ambassadors.
Leadership is a key focus, but at Coca-Cola this has little to do with the number of years that have been invested at the organisation; rather, it’s about the individual’s ability to live the company’s brands and its values, as well as being adept at working with people.
A programme called Kusile (“awaken”) has been introduced in order to inculcate these skills among junior staff and graduates. The idea is that it will help develop a pool of talented leaders for local as well as global operations. This is part of Coca- Cola’s overall emphasis on succession planning which, like talent management, has been identified as a critical HR priority.
At the same time, the company is working to increase the representation of women within its ranks. Its concern is that many women leave the organisation to concentrate on family goals before fully establishing their careers, and it is therefore working to implement a platform that will help to encourage their advancement into executive positions.
There are many advantages helping Coca-Cola to attract top talent: a remuneration strategy pitched well above average and which includes a host of exciting benefits; the opportunity to participate in global initiatives related to marketing the brand; exposure to the world’s best practices as part of a multinational company; and of course, the chance to work with that iconic brand every day.
This article originally appeared in the Mail & Guardian newspaper as a sponsored feature