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  • 可口可乐公司:老将出马

    2007-06-19

    [2007.6.14]Face value:The veteran

    Face value商界精英
    The veteran老将出马
    Jun 14th 2007
    From The Economist print edition

    Neville Isdell returned from retirement to fix Coca-Cola. His plan seems to be working
    安享退休生活的内维尔•艾斯戴尔（Neville Isdell）重返岗位，整治可口可乐公司。他的计划看似奏效。

    AFP
    WHEN it came to finding someone to turn the company around in 2004, Neville Isdell was not the first or even the second choice of Coca-Cola's directors. With the world's biggest soft-drinks firm embroiled in one of the greatest crises of its 121-year history, its directors looked for an outsider to fix things. Only after rejections from James Kilts, then boss of Gillette, a consumer-goods giant, and Carlos Gutierrez, then boss of Kellogg, a food firm, did they turn to Mr Isdell, then aged 62, who was enjoying a sunny retirement in Barbados after having spent 40 years with the company.
    2004年，当可口可乐需要能人扭转颓势时，内维尔•艾斯戴尔并非公司董事的首选，他甚至不是递补的人选。当时，这家全球最大的软饮料企业所面临的是其 121年历史里最严重的危机之一，董事局寻求体制外的人士来重整旗鼓。在日用品巨擘吉列公司的总裁James Kilts和食品企业Kellogg的主管Carlos Gutierrez回绝之后，他们才求助于时年62岁、在阳光灿烂的巴巴多斯岛畅享退休生活的艾斯戴尔先生。此前，艾斯戴尔先生为该公司服务了40年。

    He did not hesitate to swap his swimming trunks for a suit, having been passed over for Coca-Cola's top job in 1997 and again in 2000—which had prompted his early retirement. Born in Ireland, Mr Isdell was raised in Zambia, where he first began to work for Coca-Cola. Stints in South Africa, Australia, the Philippines and Germany followed; Mr Isdell then took the company into new markets in India, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union, and ended up in charge of its European operations. Always a hands-on manager, his first action on returning to the company was to investigate its troubles for himself. Like some modern-day Phileas Fogg, he criss-crossed the world in 100 days to listen to employees of all ranks in many of the more than 200 countries where Coca-Cola is present. What he found was sliding sales, demoralised staff, ineffective marketing and a lack of leadership. The most valuable brand in the world was experiencing a crisis of confidence. “We had lost our belief in our ability to win,” says Mr Isdell.
    在1997年和2000年两度与总裁职位擦身而过——这促使了他提早退休——之后，他二话不说地舍弃了游泳短裤，换上一身西装。艾斯戴尔先生出生于爱尔 兰，在赞比亚长大。他最初就是在那里加盟了可口可乐公司。随后，他被派驻过南非、澳洲、菲律宾和德国等地。艾斯戴尔先生后来开拓了印度、中东和前苏联等新 兴市场，并在离职前负责公司在欧洲的业务。他的管理风格一贯是亲力亲为，因此，在返回公司后，其首要举措便是亲自调查了解公司的困境。他仿若当代社会的 Phileas Fogg，在百日之内行遍全球，为的是倾听世界各地的公司各级员工的心声（可口可乐公司的业务覆盖全球200多个国家）。他调研的结果是销量滑落、员工士 气下挫、营销策略低效以及领导能力缺乏等。世界上最具价值的品牌正经历一场信任危机。艾斯戴尔先生说：“我们失去了必胜的信心。”

    Once back at Coca-Cola's base in Atlanta, Georgia, Mr Isdell shared his findings with the company's top executives. The result of what he calls a “cathartic process” was the Manifesto for Growth, a ten-year plan to revive the company. Its first objective was to improve the making and marketing of Coca-Cola, Sprite and Fanta, the fizzy drinks that account for about four-fifths of the firm's sales. Mr Isdell decided to pump an additional $400m into marketing as evidence grew that the power of the Coca-Cola brand was slipping. At the same time he moved to strengthen the company's portfolio of non-carbonated and “functional” drinks. Bottled water, sports and energy drinks and fruit juice are now the main sources of new business in the soft-drinks industry, with growth rates seven times higher than those for carbonated sugary drinks, sales of which have lost their vigour as a result of concerns over obesity. Mr Isdell's boldest move in this area came on May 25th when Coca-Cola said it would buy Glacéau, an American maker of vitamin-enhanced water, for $4.1 billion—its largest acquisition ever. (Last week, however, Coca-Cola lost to its rival, PepsiCo, in a battle to acquire Sandora, a Ukrainian juice company.)
    艾斯戴尔先生一回到亚特兰大的公司总部，就将调查结果交给公司高管查阅。他所说的“宣泄过程”的结果是制定了一项重振公司的十年计划——“增长宣言”。该 宣言的首要目标是改善可口可乐、雪碧和芬达的生产和营销，这三种碳酸饮料占据公司大约4/5的销量。面对着可口可乐品牌影响力不断下滑的趋势，艾斯戴尔先 生决定为营销业务额外注入4亿美元的资金。同时，他转而加强公司对非碳酸饮料和“功能性”饮料的投资。如今，瓶装水、运动和能量饮料以及果汁成了软饮料行 业内新业务的主要增长源，它们的增长率比碳酸甜味饮料高出7倍。后者的销量由于人们对肥胖心存忧虑而萎靡不振。艾斯戴尔先生在该领域最有魄力的举措是在5 月25日宣布，公司将以41亿美元收购美国一家维生素饮用水的厂商Glacéau，这是公司前所未有的最大收购案。（然而，在上一周，可口可乐在争夺乌克 兰果汁公司Sandora的收购战中败给了对手百事可乐。）

    A former bottling supremo—he once ran Coca-Cola Beverages, a European bottler—Mr Isdell has also paid close attention to the company's often-dysfunctional relations with bottling companies. Under agreements that sometimes date back more than a century, Coca-Cola supplies concentrate to local bottlers, which then make and distribute soft drinks. Mr Isdell gave the bottlers permission to team up with other firms in order to cater better to the boom in healthy drinks. Since Coca-Cola owns stakes in many bottlers, and owns some outright, this is another way for it to diversify. Coca-Cola Enterprises, for example, a big American bottler in which Coca-Cola owns a large stake, now distributes AriZona, a ready-to-drink tea  made by Ferolito, Vultaggio & Sons, an American iced-tea company. As part of this strategy Mr Isdell also increased Coca-Cola's stake in some bottlers, or bought them outright, as he did this year with the bottling firm where he used to work in the Philippines.
    作为前任的罐装业老总——他曾管理过欧洲瓶装企业Coca-Cola Beverages——艾斯戴尔先生也十分关注可口可乐公司与瓶装企业间常常出现的龃龉关系。根据双方订立的协议（其中有些协议业已一个多世纪之久），可 口可乐向当地的灌装商提供浓缩原汁，而后者负责软饮料的生产和行销。艾斯戴尔先生允许灌装企业与其它公司合作，以便更好地应对健康饮品的迅猛发展。可口可 乐在许多灌装企业中持有股份，其中有些还是全额控股，因此，这是另一种多样化发展的路径。譬如，在美国，可口可乐持有大量股权的大型瓶装商Coca- Cola Enterprises目前负责分销冰茶公司Ferolito, Vultaggio & Sons生产的茶饮料 AriZona。作为此项战略的组成部分，艾斯戴尔先生也在一些罐装企业中增持股权，或是实行完全收购。今年，他对自己在菲律宾时供职过的灌装企业采取同 样的做法。

    Mr Isdell's efforts are now starting to yield results. The company's share price rose by 20% during 2006, and in the first quarter of this year sales jumped by 17%, to $6.1 billion, and profits increased by 14% compared with a year earlier. Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus, a financial-services firm, consider these results the best evidence that Mr Isdell's plan is working and that his long-term aims are sound. Bonnie Herzog, a beverage analyst at Citigroup, recently upgraded Coca-Cola to a “buy” rating for the first time in four years, mainly because of the Glacéau takeover. It shows that the firm is “getting its act together”, she says.
    艾斯戴尔先生的努力现在开始显现成效。公司股价在2006年上涨了20%，在今年第一季度，销量同比增长17%，跃升至61亿美元，而利润同比增加 14%。金融服务企业Stifel Nicolaus的分析师认为，这样的成果最好地证明了艾斯戴尔先生的计划正在奏效，而且其长期目标也是合理的。花旗集团的饮料业分析师Bonnie Herzog最近将可口可乐调升为“购入”评级，是四年内的头一次，这主要是因为公司对Glacéau采取的收购行动。她说，这表明该企业“开始整合措 施。”

    Sparkling or still? 魅力四射抑或停滞不前

    But others remain sceptical. Robert van Brugge of Sanford Bernstein, an investment-research company, thinks the acquisitions of Glacéau and Fuze, an American juice and tea firm, are good deals, but both are relatively small companies. Lacklustre sales in the developed world need a lift, he says. Europe, America and Japan accounted for roughly 70% of profits, but hardly any growth in 2006. And many of last year's new drinks, such as Coke Blak, a coffee-infused soft drink, and Gold Peak, an iced tea, were flops. According to Euromonitor, a market-research company, Coca-Cola has been losing global market share over the past six years. Pepsi has done a better job of moving into health drinks in America. And unlike Pepsi, which makes snacks as well as soft drinks, Coca-Cola does not have another line of business  as a hedge. This is unlikely to change any time soon, as Mr Isdell wants to fix things first.
    但其他人仍疑虑未消。投资研究公司Sanford Bernstein的Robert van Brugge认为，针对Glacéau和Fuze（美国一家果汁和茶饮料公司）的收购是出色的交易行为，但这两家都是规模较小的企业。他说，（可口可乐） 在发达国家的销售业绩乏善可陈，需要加强。欧美和日本市场提供了大约70%的利润，但在2006年却几无增长。去年，许多新推出的饮品彻底失败。这些饮品 包括了混合咖啡的Blak可乐和Gold Peak冰爽茶。市场研究公司Euromonitor认为，可口可乐在过去的六年当中不断流失全球市场的份额。百事可乐转战美国的健康饮料市场，战绩卓 越。该公司的产品类型除了软饮料外，还包括快餐食品。与之不同，可口可乐缺少可供防御的另一条业务线。艾斯戴尔先生希望首先把企业整治好，因此这种现状在 短期内不可能改变。

    He points out that his firm has beaten analysts' expectations in each of the past ten quarters, though he admits that “we are not declaring victory yet.” Some analysts would have preferred more radical measures, such as bolder acquisitions and job cuts. But they knew an insider was unlikely to make drastic changes and have been surprised by how much Mr Isdell has achieved. Never underestimate the difficulty of stopping the rot at a huge firm like Coca-Cola. But for Mr Isdell to be seen as the company's saviour, he now needs faster growth, too.
    他指出，在过去的十个季度中，公司在每个季度的表现都让分析师大跌眼镜，尽管他承认：“还不到我们宣布胜利的时候。”一些分析师可能会更希望看到大刀阔斧 的收购和裁员等较为激进的改革措施。但是他们明白，一个公司体制内出身的人不可能施行根本变革，因此，对艾斯戴尔先生的改革成果已感惊讶。永远不要低估整 治可口可乐这样大企业的弊端存在的难度。艾斯戴尔先生若要被人视作企业的救星，那他现在也该加速发展了。

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