Coca-Cola Case

In 2005, college protest groups took a stand against Coca-Cola's overseas business practices in the countries of Columbia, Mexico, and India. Some of these protests even led to entire colleges boycotting Coca-Cola products which results in a significant financial blow to the corporation.

The stakeholders in this incident are very extensive, considering it spans 4 different countries including the U.S. Starting with the U.S. stakeholders include university protest groups, the universities themselves, obviously the Coca-Cola Corporation, and possibly even the rest of the Coca-Cola customers, as prices could possibly rise as a result of these developments. In Columbia, stakeholders include any employees of the bottling plants, union members and their families, the death squads allegedly hired by Coca-Cola, and possibly the Columbian government. In Mexico, stakeholders include workers of the bottling plants, competitors of Coca-Cola, the Mexican government and the Mexican FCC, and finally the customers. Indian stakeholders include citizens in the areas surrounding bottling plants and throughout the country, employees of the bottling plants, the Indian government and environmental regulators, and finally the drinkers of Coca-Cola products produced in India.

Of all these stake holders, the most obvious definitive stakeholder is the Coca-Cola Corporation. Other possible definitive stakeholders could be the governments of the different countries as well as the universities in the U.S. who have withdrawn their support of Coca-Cola.

In the short-term, profits may be greater if Coca-Cola continues these practices. However, they have started to see how these practices can harm public perception of the brand and how that perception can hurt profits in the long run. With that in mind, Coca-Cola would be wise to discontinue these overseas business practices and work in the best interest of all of their stakeholders, if for no reason more than to ensure stable long-term growth for the corporation.

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