Summary Of Citizen Coke: The Making Of Coka-Cola Capitalism

Does business growth and success always acquaint to community growth and success? Bartow J. Elmore explores this question in his book, Citizen Coke: The Making of Coka-Cola Capitalism. Elmore looks at the price that the environment and the public has paid to allow Coke to rise into the power it is in today. With operations in “over two hundred countries and selling more than 1.8 billion beverage servings per day”(7), you simply cannot deny the influence and power that Coke has. Coke is a widely successful business, but their growth has come at a cost. The public health, environment, and economies around the world have all paid the price for Coke with little given in return.
First, Elmore gives a brief history of the founder of Coke, John Pemberton.

Then, Elmore begins explaining the significance behind each product that goes into Coke. The ingredients explored in Citizen Coke are water, coca leaf, sweetener, and packaging. As Coke develops, they establish a one-of-a-kind business model that will be copied by many other businesses to come. Coke uses extreme marketing and outsourcing to grow, gaining exponentially from their successes and avoiding consequences from their failures. Coke’s sugar and caffeine supply is fueled, even today, by other companies’ waste. Elmore describes this as, “Staying out of the business of making stuff. The company consistently proved adept at tapping into technological systems that were built, financed and managed by others. It maintained a slender organizational structure compared to other similarly profitable multinationals and kept off its books the costs and risks associated with natural resource extraction and ingredient production. It was the ultimate outsourcer, long before the term ‘outsourcing’ became popular.(9)” For example, rather than building and managing their own sugar plantations, Coke would use sugar from other companies (Hershey’s), and whenever they wanted to use a different ingredient, they did. Coke did not have to buy new facilities and sell old ones, because they did not own any of their supply manufactures. Though some may

¬¬-Corporate ethics comes at a price- one that either businesses have to absorb or consumers have to pay for. Too often consumers complain about big business, but then shop at Walmart because the small, family owned stores are more expensive. However, people still drink it. Not only do businesses need to be held responsible, consumers do as well. If there was not a demand, Coke would discontinue the supply. Instead, consumers are addicted, they continue consuming and Coke continues producing. If people would like a better company or a better drink, they should ask what themselves what they can do to end this vicious cycle of parasite-like businesses that feed off of resources and public